https://github.com/tmm1/rbtrace

like strace, but for ruby code
https://github.com/tmm1/rbtrace

Keywords from Contributors

rubygem activejob activerecord mvc feature-flag rack data-validation feature-toggle ruby-gem feature

Last synced: about 6 hours ago
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Repository metadata

like strace, but for ruby code

Host: GitHub
URL: https://github.com/tmm1/rbtrace
Owner: tmm1
License: mit
Created: 2011-02-10T06:20:11.000Z (about 15 years ago)
Default Branch: master
Last Pushed: 2025-12-03T04:19:46.000Z (3 months ago)
Last Synced: 2026-02-20T05:55:28.118Z (11 days ago)
Language: Ruby
Homepage:
Size: 1.44 MB
Stars: 1,723
Watchers: 30
Forks: 70
Open Issues: 26
Releases: 0
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- Changelog: CHANGELOG
- License: LICENSE

rbtrace: like strace, but for ruby code

rbtrace shows you method calls happening inside another ruby process in real
time.

rbtrace works on ruby 1.8 through 2.2 (and beyond), running on linux or mac
osx.

rbtrace is designed to have minimal overhead, and should be safe to run
in production.

usage

% gem install rbtrace
% rbtrace --help

supported Rubies

rbtrace supports all stable versions of Ruby MRI, as of 23-01-2018 this is
Ruby version 2.2 and later.

tracer types

rbtrace has several different tracing modes.

firehose: show everything

% rbtrace -p <PID> --firehose

slow: show any method calls that take longer than `<N>` milliseconds

% rbtrace -p <PID> --slow=<N>

methods: trace calls to specific methods

% rbtrace -p <PID> --methods "Kernel#sleep" "Proc#call"

gc: trace garbage collections

% rbtrace -p <PID> --gc

memory: produce a basic memory report regarding process (including GC.stat and ObjectSpace stats)

% rbtrace -p <PID> --memory

backtraces: return backtraces for all active threads in a process

% rbtrace -p <PID> --backtraces

notes

--firehose is not reliable on osx.

--slow, --gc and --methods can be combined.

predefined tracers

rbtrace also includes a set of predefined tracers
for popular ruby libraries and functions.

trace calls to activerecord adapters and any i/o functions

% rbtrace -p <PID> -c activerecord io

detailed example

require rbtrace into a process

% cat server.rb
require 'rbtrace'

class String
  def multiply_vowels(num)
    @test = 123
    gsub(/[aeiou]/){ |m| m*num }
  end
end

while true
  proc {
    Dir.chdir("/tmp") do
      Dir.pwd
      Process.pid
      'hello'.multiply_vowels(3)
      sleep rand*0.5
    end
  }.call
end

run the process

% ruby server.rb &
[1] 87854

trace a function using the process's pid

% rbtrace -p 87854 -m sleep
*** attached to process 87854

Kernel#sleep <0.138615>
Kernel#sleep <0.147726>
Kernel#sleep <0.318728>
Kernel#sleep <0.338173>
Kernel#sleep <0.373004>
Kernel#sleep
*** detached from process 87854

trace everything

% rbtrace -p 87854 --firehose
*** attached to process 87938

Kernel#proc <0.000082>
Proc#call
   Dir.chdir
      Dir.pwd <0.000060>
      Process.pid <0.000021>
      String#multiply_vowels
         String#gsub
            String#* <0.000023>
            String#* <0.000022>
         String#gsub <0.000127>
      String#multiply_vowels <0.000175>
      Kernel#rand <0.000018>
      Float#* <0.000022>
      Kernel#sleep <0.344281>
   Dir.chdir <0.344858>
Proc#call <0.344908>
*** detached from process 87938

trace specific functions

% rbtrace -p 87854 -m sleep Dir.chdir Dir.pwd Process.pid "String#gsub" "String#*"
*** attached to process 87854

Dir.chdir
   Dir.pwd <0.000023>
   Process.pid <0.000008>
   String#gsub
      String#* <0.000008>
      String#* <0.000007>
   String#gsub <0.000050>
   Kernel#sleep <0.498809>
Dir.chdir <0.499025>

Dir.chdir
   Dir.pwd <0.000024>
   Process.pid <0.000008>
   String#gsub
      String#* <0.000008>
      String#* <0.000007>
   String#gsub <0.000050>
   Kernel#sleep
*** detached from process 87854

trace all functions in a class/module

% rbtrace -p 87854 -m "Kernel#"
*** attached to process 87854

Kernel#proc <0.000062>
Kernel#rand <0.000010>
Kernel#sleep <0.218677>
Kernel#proc <0.000016>
Kernel#rand <0.000010>
Kernel#sleep <0.195914>
Kernel#proc <0.000016>
Kernel#rand <0.000009>
Kernel#sleep
*** detached from process 87854

get values of variables and other expressions

% rbtrace -p 87854 -m "String#gsub(self, @test)" "String#*(self, __source__)" "String#multiply_vowels(self, self.length, num)"
*** attached to process 87854

String#multiply_vowels(self="hello", self.length=5, num=3)
   String#gsub(self="hello", @test=123)
      String#*(self="e", __source__="server.rb:6") <0.000020>
      String#*(self="o", __source__="server.rb:6") <0.000018>
   String#gsub <0.000085>
String#multiply_vowels <0.000198>

String#multiply_vowels(self="hello", self.length=5, num=3)
   String#gsub(self="hello", @test=123)
      String#*(self="e", __source__="server.rb:6") <0.000020>
      String#*(self="o", __source__="server.rb:6") <0.000020>
   String#gsub <0.000102>
String#multiply_vowels <0.000218>

*** detached from process 87854

watch for method calls slower than 250ms

% rbtrace -p 87854 --slow=250
*** attached to process 87854
      Kernel#sleep <0.459628>
   Dir.chdir <0.459828>
Proc#call <0.459849>

      Kernel#sleep <0.484666>
   Dir.chdir <0.484804>
Proc#call <0.484818>

*** detached from process 87854

todo

correct irb implementation so it establishes a dedicated channel
add triggers to start tracing slow methods only inside another method
add watch expressions to fire tracers only when an expression is true
add special expressions for method args (arg0, arguments)
optimize local variable lookup to avoid instance_eval
investigate mach_msg on osx since msgget(2) has hard kernel limits

Owner metadata

Name: Aman Karmani
Login: tmm1
Email:
Kind: user
Description: building Cursor @anysphere. formerly @github, creator of the merge button. founder @fancybits contributor to golang and ffmpeg.
Website:
Location: California
Twitter: tmm1
Company:
Icon url: https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/2567?u=2d06deeb46222b8e0f6218598f806ecad70367a4&v=4
Repositories: 438
Last ynced at: 2025-09-29T16:40:46.179Z
Profile URL: https://github.com/tmm1

GitHub Events

Total

Pull request event: 5
Fork event: 3
Issues event: 3
Watch event: 12
Issue comment event: 4
Push event: 2
Pull request review event: 2
Pull request review comment event: 3

Last Year

Pull request event: 5
Fork event: 2
Issues event: 3
Watch event: 9
Issue comment event: 4
Push event: 2
Pull request review event: 2
Pull request review comment event: 3

Committers metadata

Last synced: 1 day ago

Total Commits: 306
Total Committers: 32
Avg Commits per committer: 9.563
Development Distribution Score (DDS): 0.203

Commits in past year: 4
Committers in past year: 3
Avg Commits per committer in past year: 1.333
Development Distribution Score (DDS) in past year: 0.5

Name	Email	Commits
Aman Gupta	a**n@t**t	244
Sam	s**n@g**m	16
Jean Boussier	j**r@g**m	7
Aaron Quint	a**n@q**m	5
Daniel Waterworth	me@d****m	4
Lin Jen-Shin	g**t@g**g	3
OsamaSayegh	a**0@g**m	2
Attila Horváth	a**h@f**m	1
Camilo Lopez	c**o@s**m	1
Charlie Somerville	c**e@c**m	1
Colin Shea	c**a@e**m	1
Steve Dierker	s**r@f**m	1
brunofranco	b**o@r**m	1
Adam Daniels	a**m@m**a	1
Adam Roben	a**m@r**g	1
Brandon Keepers	b**s@g**m	1
Brendan Weibrecht	b**n@w**u	1
Chris Alberti	c**o@d**g	1
Danny Fallon	d**y@i**o	1
Gabriel Gironda	g**a@g**m	1
George Claghorn	g**e@b**m	1
Guilherme Campos	g**a@g**m	1
Jens Maier	j**s@e**e	1
Jon Forums	j**s@g**m	1
Marko Anastasov	m**o@r**m	1
Rick Hull	r**l@g**m	1
Ted Nyman	t**d@t**o	1
Vivien Barousse	v**n@s**m	1
abicky	t**i@g**m	1
joshua stein	j**s@j**g	1
and 2 more...

Committer domains:

Issue and Pull Request metadata

Last synced: 29 days ago

Total issues: 53
Total pull requests: 53
Average time to close issues: 6 months
Average time to close pull requests: 3 months
Total issue authors: 49
Total pull request authors: 36
Average comments per issue: 3.15
Average comments per pull request: 1.15
Merged pull request: 42
Bot issues: 0
Bot pull requests: 0

Past year issues: 3
Past year pull requests: 6
Past year average time to close issues: about 2 hours
Past year average time to close pull requests: 38 minutes
Past year issue authors: 3
Past year pull request authors: 3
Past year average comments per issue: 0.33
Past year average comments per pull request: 0.17
Past year merged pull request: 2
Past year bot issues: 0
Past year bot pull requests: 0

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Package metadata

Total packages: 13
Total downloads:
- rubygems: 138,270,019 total
Total docker downloads: 886,911,900
Total dependent packages: 12 (may contain duplicates)
Total dependent repositories: 3,019 (may contain duplicates)
Total versions: 138
Total maintainers: 2

gem.coop: rbtrace

rbtrace shows you method calls happening inside another ruby process in real time.

Homepage: http://github.com/tmm1/rbtrace
Documentation: http://www.rubydoc.info/gems/rbtrace/
Licenses: MIT
Latest release: 0.5.3 (published 3 months ago)
Last Synced: 2026-03-03T11:31:53.160Z (about 6 hours ago)
Versions: 50
Dependent Packages: 0
Dependent Repositories: 0
Downloads: 69,150,029 Total
Docker Downloads: 443,455,950
Rankings:
- Dependent repos count: 0.0%
- Dependent packages count: 0.0%
- Average: 0.136%
- Downloads: 0.409%
Maintainers (2)
- 690
- samsaffron

rubygems.org: rbtrace