Verbatime

Quick start#

Record a run on your development machine and see where the time went. Download verbatime-agent.jar from the GitHub releases page, then choose to record with the agent alone or with JDK Mission Control.

Requirements#

Part Needs
Agent Java 25 or later for the application
JMC plugin JDK Mission Control
vbtm CLI macOS on Apple silicon or Linux, or Java 17 or later for the jar

Agent alone#

Records everything from startup until the JVM exits.

  1. Run the application with the agent. roots= names the method to record, and out= the file to write.

    java -javaagent:/path/to/verbatime-agent.jar=record=startup,roots=com.example.app.OrderService::placeOrder,out=trace.vbtm \
     -jar app.jar

  2. When the JVM exits, read trace.vbtm with vbtm, or open it in JDK Mission Control with File > Open.

    vbtm sessions trace.vbtm --sort dur

With JDK Mission Control#

Starts and stops recording at any time while the application runs.

  1. Copy verbatime-jmc-plugin.jar into the dropins directory of JDK Mission Control, and restart it. See Install.

  2. Start the application with the agent and a JMX port.

    java -javaagent:/path/to/verbatime-agent.jar \
     -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.port=7091 -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.rmi.port=7091 \
     -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.authenticate=false -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.ssl=false \
     -Djava.rmi.server.hostname=localhost \
     -jar app.jar

    Warning

    These flags turn off JMX authentication.

  3. In JDK Mission Control, choose Window > Verbatime. Connect to localhost:7091, and add the methods to record under Instrumentation roots.

  4. Press Start recording, use the application, then press Stop recording.

The recording opens as a timeline flame chart.

The timeline flame chart of a recording

Next#