Using top file

    The top file gadget is used to visualize reads and writes by file, with container details.

    On Kubernetes

    This guide will deploy an example workload that performs some disk I/O activity to show how to use top file.

    Before starting our workload, let’s start our top file gadget to be sure it captures all the events from the beginning:

    $ kubectl gadget top file -p mypod
    NODE             NAMESPACE        POD              CONTAINER        PID     COMM             READS  WRITES R_Kb    W_Kb    T FILE
    ...
    

    The T column indicates the type of the file: R for regular files, S for sockets, and O for other (including pipes). By default only regular files are shown; use the -a option to show all file types.

    In another terminal, let’s create our pod. It’ll install git and then clone the linux source code.

    $ kubectl run -it mypod --image ubuntu -- /bin/sh -c "apt-get update && apt-get install -y git && git clone https://github.com/torvalds/linux"
    

    We can see how the top file terminal shows the files that are read and written by the pod. For instace, apt-get is reading a lot of files in when updating the packages list and installing packages.

    NODE             NAMESPACE        POD              CONTAINER        PID     COMM             READS  WRITES R_Kb    W_Kb    T FILE
    ubuntu-hirsute   default          mypod            mypod            642727  apt-get          425    0      27022   0       R archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_focal-updates_main_binary-amd64_Packages.lz4
    ubuntu-hirsute   default          mypod            mypod            642727  apt-get          278    0      17775   0       R archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_focal_main_binary-amd64_Packages.lz4
    ubuntu-hirsute   default          mypod            mypod            642727  apt-get          244    0      15594   0       R security.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_focal-security_main_binary-amd64_Packages.lz4
    ubuntu-hirsute   default          mypod            mypod            642727  apt-get          93     0      5921    0       R archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_focal_universe_binary-amd64_Packages.lz4
    ubuntu-hirsute   default          mypod            mypod            642727  apt-get          91     0      5797    0       R archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_focal-updates_universe_binary-amd64_Packages.lz4
    ubuntu-hirsute   default          mypod            mypod            642727  apt-get          82     0      5160    0       R archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_focal-updates_restricted_binary-amd64_Packages.lz4
    ubuntu-hirsute   default          mypod            mypod            642727  apt-get          73     0      4568    0       R security.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_focal-security_restricted_binary-amd64_Packages.lz4
    ubuntu-hirsute   default          mypod            mypod            642727  apt-get          70     0      4435    0       R security.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_focal-security_universe_binary-amd64_Packages.lz4
    ubuntu-hirsute   default          mypod            mypod            642727  apt-get          19     0      1172    0       R archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_focal_multiverse_binary-amd64_Packages.lz4
    

    After the initial installation is done, we can see how git uses a temporary file to store the repository being cloned.

    NODE             NAMESPACE        POD              CONTAINER        PID     COMM             READS  WRITES R_Kb    W_Kb    T FILE
    ubuntu-hirsute   default          mypod            mypod            647042  git              0      1070   0       4280    R tmp_pack_2rpZd
    

    Finally, we need to clean up our pod, press Ctrl + C on its terminal and them remove it:

    $ kubectl delete pod mypod
    

    By default the top file gadget prints a summary each second. It accepts a numeric argument to indicate the interval to use:

    $ kubectl gadget top file 5 # will print a summary each 5 seconds
    

    This gadget also supports the following flags to customize the output:

    $ kubectl gadget top file --help
    Trace reads and writes by file
    
    Usage:
      kubectl-gadget top file [interval] [flags]
    
    Flags:
      -a, --all-files              Include non-regular file types (sockets, FIFOs, etc)
    ...
      -r, --maxrows int            Maximum rows to print (default 20)
    ...
    

    With ig

    Start a container that performs some write operations to a file:

    $ docker run --rm --name test-top-file busybox /bin/sh -c 'while true; do echo foo > bar; sleep 1; done'
    

    Start the gadget and it’ll show those operations:

    $ sudo ig top file -c test-top-file
    CONTAINER                              PID        COMM             READS                WRITES               RBYTES               WBYTES               T FILE
    test-top-file                          139255     sh               0                    1                    0B                   4B                   R bar