---
name: "nodegc-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/nodegc-bpfcc"
---

# nodegc-bpfcc(8)

Trace garbage collection events in high-level languages.

## NAME

ugc, javagc, nodegc, pythongc, rubygc - Trace garbage collection events in high-level languages.

## SYNOPSIS

**javagc \[-h\] \[-v\] \[-m\] \[-M MINIMUM\] \[-F FILTER\] pid**\
 **nodegc \[-h\] \[-v\] \[-m\] \[-M MINIMUM\] \[-F FILTER\] pid**\
 **pythongc \[-h\] \[-v\] \[-m\] \[-M MINIMUM\] \[-F FILTER\] pid**\
 **rubygc \[-h\] \[-v\] \[-m\] \[-M MINIMUM\] \[-F FILTER\] pid**\
 **ugc \[-h\] \[-v\] \[-m\] \[-M MINIMUM\] \[-F FILTER\] \[-l {java,node,python,ruby}\] pid**

## DESCRIPTION

This traces garbage collection events as they occur, including their duration and any additional information (such as generation collected or type of GC) provided by the respective language's runtime.

This tool relies on USDT probes embedded in many high-level languages, such as Java, Node, Python, and Ruby. It requires a runtime instrumented with these probes, which in some cases requires building from source with a USDT-specific flag, such as "--enable-dtrace" or "--with-dtrace".

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

## REQUIREMENTS

CONFIG\_BPF and bcc.

## OPTIONS

- \-v

  Print the resulting BPF program, for debugging purposes.

- \-m

  Print times in milliseconds. The default is microseconds.

- \-M MINIMUM

  Display only collections that are longer than this threshold. The value is given in milliseconds. The default is to display all collections.

- \-F FILTER

  Display only collections whose textual description matches (contains) this string. The default is to display all collections. Note that the filtering here is performed in user-space, and not as part of the BPF program. This means that if you have thousands of collection events, specifying this filter will not reduce the amount of data that has to be transferred from the BPF program to the user-space script.

- {java,node,python,ruby}

  The language to trace.

- pid

  The process id to trace.

## EXAMPLES

- Trace garbage collections in a specific Node process:

  \# **ugc node 148**

- Trace garbage collections in a specific Java process, and print GC times in

  milliseconds: # **ugc -m java 6004**

- Trace garbage collections in a specific Java process, and display them only if

  they are longer than 10ms and have the string "Tenured" in their detailed description: # **ugc -M 10 -F Tenured java 6004**

## FIELDS

- START

  The start time of the GC, in seconds from the beginning of the trace.

- TIME

  The duration of the garbage collection event.

- DESCRIPTION

  The runtime-provided description of this garbage collection event.

## OVERHEAD

Garbage collection events, even if frequent, should not produce a considerable overhead when traced because they are still not very common. Even hundreds of  GCs per second (which is a very high rate) will still produce a fairly  negligible overhead.

## SOURCE

This is from bcc.

-

  https://github.com/iovisor/bcc

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

## OS

Linux

## STABILITY

Unstable - in development.

## AUTHOR

Sasha Goldshtein

## SEE ALSO

[trace(8)](/trace/8.md), [ustat(8)](/ustat/8.md), [uobjnew(8)](/uobjnew/8.md)