The two screencasts below are a preview of what’s coming next week, when I formally introduce the latest xtop and xcapture v3 to the world. On next Tuesday, 19th August at 1pm EDT, I’ll upload the latest (beta) open source code to 0x.tools repo and run a 1-hour “hacking session” style webinar. It’s gonna be all demos of how I use these tools for my troubleshooting work. Go to the end of this page for the Zoom link.
Summary
xtop is like the Linux top tool, but extended with x-ray vision and ability to view your performance data from any chosen angle (that eBPF allows to access). This enables dimensional performance analysis on Linux and tools like top for wall-clock time and much more. You can use it for system level overview and drill down into individual threads’ activity and even into kernel events like lock waits or memory stalls, with associated stack traces. eBPF is not only customizable, it’s completely programmable and I plan to take full advantage of it. I have so far implemented less than 10% of everything this method and the new tools are capable of.
Watch the 2-minute asciicast and 11-minute intro video below to see a sample of what I’ve built so far - launch and full coverage at next Tuesday’s webinar!
Asciicast (2 min)
Video (11 min)
xtop uses xcapture as its always-on, ultra-low overhead data source for continuously tracking and sampling thread activity in your system. If you want to learn how the eBPF tracking + sampling side works, check out the previous xCapture v3 announcement and 0x.tools website:
- xCapture v3: Linux Performance Analysis with Modern eBPF and DuckDB
- 0x.tools (currently hosting previous v3.0.0-alpha code from a few months ago)
Webinar
- Date & Time: Tuesday Aug 19, 2025 13:00 EDT
- Duration: 1 hour
- Registration: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rN5IJa3IRfSyMzvduGTGoA
I won’t spam you nor add you to any mailing lists. I will also upload a video recording to YouTube, in case you miss the live hacking.
That’s all - see you soon!
