---
name: "biopattern-bpfcc"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "bpfcc-tools"
version: "0.31.0+ds-7"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/biopattern-bpfcc"
---

# biopattern-bpfcc(8)

Identify random/sequential disk access patterns.

## NAME

biopattern - Identify random/sequential disk access patterns.

## SYNOPSIS

**biopattern \[-h\] \[-d DISK\] \[interval\] \[count\]**

## DESCRIPTION

This traces block device I/O (disk I/O), and prints ratio of random/sequential I/O for each disk or the specified disk either on Ctrl-C, or after a given interval in seconds.

This works by tracing kernel tracepoint block:block\_rq\_complete.

Since this uses BPF, only the root user can use this tool.

## REQUIREMENTS

CONFIG\_BPF and bcc.

## OPTIONS

- \-h

  Show help message and exit.

- \-d

  Trace this disk only.

- interval

  Print output every interval seconds, if any.

- count

  Number of interval summaries.

## EXAMPLES

- Trace access patterns of all disks, and print a summary on Ctrl-C:

  \# **biopattern**

- Trace disk sdb only:

  \# **biopattern -d sdb**

- Print 1 second summaries, 10 times:

  \# **biopattern 1 10**

## FIELDS

- TIME

  Time of the output, in HH:MM:SS format.

- DISK

  Disk device name.

- %RND

  Ratio of random I/O.

- %SEQ

  Ratio of sequential I/O.

- COUNT

  Number of I/O during the interval.

- KBYTES

  Total Kbytes for these I/O, during the interval.

## OVERHEAD

Since block device I/O usually has a relatively low frequency (\< 10,000/s), the overhead for this tool is expected to be low or negligible. For high IOPS storage systems, test and quantify before use.

## SOURCE

This is from bcc.

-

  https://github.com/iovisor/bcc

Also look in the bcc distribution for a companion \_examples.txt file containing example usage, output, and commentary for this tool.

## OS

Linux

## STABILITY

Unstable - in development.

## AUTHOR

Rocky Xing

## SEE ALSO

biosnoop(8), biolatency(8), [iostat(1)](/iostat/1.md)