Formatting trace data

The report facility provides little data reduction, but converts the raw binary event stream to a readable ASCII listing. Data can be visually extracted by a reader, or tools can be developed to further reduce the data.

The report facility displays text and data for each event according to rules provided in the trace format file. The default trace format file is /etc/trcfmt, which contains a stanza for each event ID. The stanza for the event provides the report facility with formatting rules for that event. This technique allows users to add their own events to programs and insert corresponding event stanzas in the format file to specify how the new events should be formatted.