Skip to content
5 changes: 3 additions & 2 deletions docs/core/diagnostics/dotnet-gcdump.md
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
---
title: dotnet-gcdump diagnostic tool - .NET CLI
description: Learn how to install and use dotnet-gcdump CLI tool to collect GC (Garbage Collector) dumps of live .NET processes using the .NET EventPipe.
ms.date: 06/03/2025
ms.date: 08/24/2026
ms.topic: reference
ai-usage: ai-assisted
---
# Heap analysis tool (dotnet-gcdump)

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -253,7 +254,7 @@ dotnet-gcdump report [-h|--help] [-p|--process-id <pid>] [-t|--report-type <Heap

- `dotnet-gcdump` is unable to generate a `.gcdump` file due to missing information, for example, **[Error] Exception during gcdump: System.ApplicationException: ETL file shows the start of a heap dump but not its completion.**. Or, the `.gcdump` file doesn't include the entire heap.

`dotnet-gcdump` works by collecting a trace of events emitted by the garbage collector during an induced generation 2 collection. If the heap is sufficiently large, or there isn't enough memory to scale the eventing buffers, then the events required to reconstruct the heap graph from the trace may be dropped. In this case, to diagnose issues with the heap, it's recommended to collect a dump of the process.
`dotnet-gcdump` works by collecting a trace of events emitted by the garbage collector during an induced generation 2 collection. Prior to .NET 11, if the heap is sufficiently large, or there isn't enough memory to scale the eventing buffers, then the events required to reconstruct the heap graph from the trace may be dropped. In this case, to diagnose issues with the heap, it's recommended to collect a dump of the process.

- `dotnet-gcdump` appears to cause an Out Of Memory issue in a memory constrained environment.

Expand Down
26 changes: 10 additions & 16 deletions docs/core/diagnostics/dotnet-trace.md
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -1,9 +1,10 @@
---
title: dotnet-trace diagnostic tool - .NET CLI
description: Learn how to install and use the dotnet-trace CLI tool to collect .NET traces of a running process without the native profiler, by using the .NET EventPipe.
ms.date: 06/10/2026
ms.date: 08/24/2026
ms.topic: reference
ms.custom: sfi-ropc-nochange
ai-usage: ai-assisted
---
# dotnet-trace performance analysis utility

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -85,6 +86,7 @@ Collects a diagnostic trace from a running process or launches a child process a

```dotnetcli
dotnet-trace collect
[--buffering-mode <Drop|Block>]
[--buffersize <size>]
[--clreventlevel <clreventlevel>]
[--clrevents <clrevents>]
Expand All @@ -108,6 +110,13 @@ dotnet-trace collect

### Options

- **`--buffering-mode <Drop|Block>`**

Sets how the runtime buffers events. Accepts `Drop` or `Block` (case-insensitive), and defaults to `Drop`.

- `Drop` (default): Events are dropped when the buffer overflows.
- `Block`: Threads emitting events wait until there is room in the buffer to store them. Events may still be dropped under uncommon error conditions such as memory exhaustion. `Block` requires a .NET 11+ target runtime and can make the traced application slower because event-emitting threads pause while the buffer stays full.

- **`--buffersize <size>`**

Sets the size of the in-memory buffer, in megabytes. Default 256 MB.
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -290,9 +299,6 @@ dotnet-trace collect

## dotnet-trace collect-linux

> [!NOTE]
> The `collect-linux` verb is a new preview feature and relies on an updated version of the .nettrace file format. The latest PerfView release supports these trace files, but other ways of using the trace file, such as [`convert`](#dotnet-trace-convert) and [`report`](#dotnet-trace-report), might not work yet.

Collects diagnostic traces using perf_events, a Linux OS technology. `collect-linux` enables the following additional features over [`collect`](#dotnet-trace-collect).

| Feature | `collect` | `collect-linux` |
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -731,12 +737,6 @@ This example captures CPU samples for all processes on the machine. Any processe

```output
$ sudo dotnet-trace collect-linux
==========================================================================================
The collect-linux verb is a new preview feature and relies on an updated version of the
.nettrace file format. The latest PerfView release supports these trace files but other
ways of using the trace file may not work yet. For more details, see the docs at
https://learn.microsoft.com/dotnet/core/diagnostics/dotnet-trace.
==========================================================================================
No providers, profiles, ClrEvents, or PerfEvents were specified, defaulting to trace profiles 'dotnet-common' + 'cpu-sampling'.

Provider Name Keywords Level Enabled By
Expand All @@ -760,12 +760,6 @@ For environments with multiple .NET versions installed, running `collect-linux`

```output
$ dotnet-trace collect-linux --probe
==========================================================================================
The collect-linux verb is a new preview feature and relies on an updated version of the
.nettrace file format. The latest PerfView release supports these trace files but other
ways of using the trace file may not work yet. For more details, see the docs at
https://learn.microsoft.com/dotnet/core/diagnostics/dotnet-trace.
==========================================================================================
Probing .NET processes for support of the EventPipe UserEvents IPC command used by collect-linux. Requires runtime '10.0.0' or later.
.NET processes that support the command:
3802935 MyApp
Expand Down
9 changes: 7 additions & 2 deletions docs/core/diagnostics/eventpipe.md
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
---
title: EventPipe Overview
description: Learn about EventPipe and how to use it for tracing your .NET applications to diagnose performance issues.
ms.date: 03/19/2026
ms.date: 08/24/2026
ms.topic: overview
ai-usage: ai-assisted
---

# EventPipe
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -80,7 +81,11 @@ However, you can use the following environment variables to set up an EventPipe
* `DOTNET_EventPipeCircularMB`: A hexadecimal value that represents the size of EventPipe's internal buffer in megabytes. This configuration value is only used when EventPipe is configured to run via `DOTNET_EnableEventPipe`. The default buffer size is 1024MB which translates to this environment variable being set to `400`, since `0x400` == `1024`.

> [!NOTE]
> If the target process writes events too frequently, it can overflow this buffer and some events might be dropped. If too many events are getting dropped, increase the buffer size to see if the number of dropped events reduces. If the number of dropped events does not decrease with a larger buffer size, it may be due to a slow reader preventing the target process' buffers from being flushed.
> If the target process writes events too frequently, it can overflow this buffer, and some events might be dropped. If the runtime drops too many events, set `DOTNET_EventPipeBufferingMode=1` or increase the buffer size to see if the number of dropped events decreases. If the number of dropped events does not decrease with a larger buffer size, a slow reader might prevent the target process's buffers from being flushed.

* `DOTNET_EventPipeBufferingMode`: Available in .NET 11 and later. This setting controls how the startup EventPipe session handles recording an event when the in-memory buffer is full. Set it to `0` (default) to drop events that would overflow the buffer, or `1` to pause event-writing threads until buffer space becomes available. `1` requires a streaming session (see `DOTNET_EventPipeOutputStreaming`).

* `DOTNET_EventPipeOutputStreaming`: Set this to `1` to stream the startup EventPipe session's events to disk as quickly as possible after they occur. By default, events are stored in memory and not written to disk until the application is exiting. A streaming session is required for `DOTNET_EventPipeBufferingMode=1` to take effect.

* `DOTNET_EventPipeProcNumbers`: Set this to `1` to enable capturing processor numbers in EventPipe event headers. The default value is `0`.

Expand Down
126 changes: 116 additions & 10 deletions docs/core/diagnostics/microsoft-diagnostics-netcore-client.md
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -1,10 +1,11 @@
---
title: Microsoft.Diagnostics.NETCore.Client API
description: In this article, you'll learn about the Microsoft.Diagnostics.NETCore.Client APIs.
ms.date: 12/08/2025
ms.date: 08/24/2026
author: tommcdon
ms.author: tommcdon
ms.topic: reference
ai-usage: ai-assisted
---

# Microsoft.Diagnostics.NETCore.Client API
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -343,6 +344,13 @@ public sealed class EventPipeSessionConfiguration
long rundownKeyword,
bool requestStackwalk = true);

public EventPipeSessionConfiguration(
IEnumerable<EventPipeProvider> providers,
int circularBufferSizeMB,
long rundownKeyword,
bool requestStackwalk,
EventPipeBufferingMode bufferingMode);

public bool RequestRundown { get; }

public int CircularBufferSizeInMB { get; }
Expand All @@ -351,6 +359,8 @@ public sealed class EventPipeSessionConfiguration

public long RundownKeyword { get; }

public EventPipeBufferingMode BufferingMode { get; }

public IReadOnlyCollection<EventPipeProvider> Providers { get; }
}
```
Expand All @@ -362,6 +372,9 @@ Represents the configuration for an `EventPipeSession`.
* `requestRundown` : If `true`, request rundown events from the runtime.
* `requestStackwalk` : If `true`, record a stack trace for every emitted event.
* `rundownKeyword` : The keyword mask used for rundown events.
* `bufferingMode` : The [`EventPipeBufferingMode`](#eventpipebufferingmode-enum) for the session. Use `Block` to request non-lossy collection. Passing `Block` requires a .NET 11+ target runtime; on an older runtime, `StartEventPipeSession` throws [`UnsupportedCommandException`](#unsupportedcommandexception).

The `BufferingMode` property returns the buffering mode for the session. The default value, `Drop`, keeps the runtime's lossy buffer.

## EventPipeProvider class

Expand All @@ -374,6 +387,13 @@ public class EventPipeProvider
long keywords = 0,
IDictionary<string, string> arguments = null)

public EventPipeProvider(
string name,
EventLevel eventLevel,
long keywords,
IDictionary<string, string> arguments,
EventPipeProviderEventFilter eventFilter)
Comment thread
mdh1418 marked this conversation as resolved.

public string Name { get; }

public EventLevel EventLevel { get; }
Expand All @@ -382,6 +402,8 @@ public class EventPipeProvider

public IDictionary<string, string> Arguments { get; }

public EventPipeProviderEventFilter EventFilter { get; }

public override string ToString();

public override bool Equals(object obj);
Expand All @@ -402,9 +424,16 @@ public EventPipeProvider(
EventLevel eventLevel,
long keywords = 0,
IDictionary<string, string> arguments = null)

public EventPipeProvider(
string name,
EventLevel eventLevel,
long keywords,
IDictionary<string, string> arguments,
EventPipeProviderEventFilter eventFilter)
```

Creates a new instance of `EventPipeProvider` with the given provider name, <xref:System.Diagnostics.Tracing.EventLevel>, keywords, and arguments.
Creates a new instance of `EventPipeProvider` with the given provider name, <xref:System.Diagnostics.Tracing.EventLevel>, keywords, and arguments. The second overload also takes an [`EventPipeProviderEventFilter`](#eventpipeprovidereventfilter-class) that filters which Event IDs the runtime enables for the provider. When you set an event filter, the session requires a .NET 10+ target runtime.

### Name property

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -438,10 +467,64 @@ public IDictionary<string, string> Arguments { get; }

Gets an `IDictionary` of key-value pair strings representing optional arguments to be passed to `EventSource` representing the given `EventPipeProvider`.

### EventFilter property

```csharp
public EventPipeProviderEventFilter EventFilter { get; }
```

Gets the optional [`EventPipeProviderEventFilter`](#eventpipeprovidereventfilter-class) that the runtime applies to this provider's Event IDs after the keyword and level filter. When the value is `null`, the runtime enables every Event ID that the keyword and level filter allows.

### Remarks

This class is immutable, because EventPipe does not allow a provider's configuration to be modified during an EventPipe session as of .NET Core 3.1.

## EventPipeProviderEventFilter class

```csharp
public sealed class EventPipeProviderEventFilter
{
public EventPipeProviderEventFilter(
bool enable,
IReadOnlyList<uint> eventIds);

public bool Enable { get; }

public IReadOnlyList<uint> EventIds { get; }
}
```

Represents an optional per-provider filter on Event IDs. The runtime applies the filter after the keyword and level filter of the associated [`EventPipeProvider`](#eventpipeprovider-class). Event filters require a .NET 10+ target runtime.

### Constructor

```csharp
public EventPipeProviderEventFilter(
bool enable,
IReadOnlyList<uint> eventIds);
```

Creates a new instance of `EventPipeProviderEventFilter`.

* `enable` : If `true`, `eventIds` is an allow-list and the runtime enables only those Event IDs. If `false`, `eventIds` is a deny-list and the runtime enables every Event ID except those listed. An empty deny-list therefore enables all events.
* `eventIds` : The Event IDs to enable or disable, as determined by `enable`.

### Enable property

```csharp
public bool Enable { get; }
```

Gets a value that indicates whether [`EventIds`](#eventids-property) is an allow-list (`true`) or a deny-list (`false`).

### EventIds property

```csharp
public IReadOnlyList<uint> EventIds { get; }
```

Gets the list of Event IDs that the filter enables or disables.

## EventPipeSession class

```csharp
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -576,22 +659,29 @@ Represents the type of perf map behavior that can be enabled.
* `JitDump` : Enable JIT dump perf map output.
* `PerfMap` : Enable traditional perf map output.

## Exceptions

Exceptions that are thrown from the library are of type `DiagnosticsClientException` or a derived type.
## EventPipeBufferingMode enum

```csharp
public class DiagnosticsClientException : Exception
public enum EventPipeBufferingMode
{
Drop = 0,
Block = 1
}
```

### UnsupportedCommandException
Controls how the runtime's per-session event buffer behaves when it fills faster than the session drains it.

* `Drop` : The runtime default. The session uses a buffer that drops events when it overflows, so collection is lossy.
* `Block` : Non-lossy collection. The runtime blocks event producers when the buffer is full instead of dropping events. Use it for collections that must be complete, such as a heap snapshot on a large heap. `Block` is non-lossy only up to the buffer's capacity, not against host memory exhaustion: if the runtime can't allocate the memory it needs to reserve buffer space, or during session shutdown, it drops the event instead of blocking. `Block` requires a .NET 11+ target runtime; on an older runtime, starting the session throws [`UnsupportedCommandException`](#unsupportedcommandexception).

## Exceptions

Exceptions that are thrown from the library are of type `DiagnosticsClientException` or a derived type.

```csharp
public class UnsupportedCommandException : DiagnosticsClientException
public class DiagnosticsClientException : Exception
```

This may be thrown when the command is not supported by either the library or the target process's runtime.

### UnsupportedProtocolException

```csharp
Expand All @@ -616,10 +706,26 @@ public class ServerErrorException : DiagnosticsClientException

This may be thrown when the runtime responds with an error to a given command.

### UnsupportedCommandException

```csharp
public class UnsupportedCommandException : ServerErrorException
```

This exception is thrown when the command is not supported by either the library or the target process's runtime.

### ProfilerAlreadyActiveException

```csharp
public class ProfilerAlreadyActiveException : ServerErrorException
```

This exception is thrown when a profiler is already loaded into the target runtime and another attach is attempted.

### BadEncodingException

```csharp
public class BadEncodingException : ServerErrorException
```

This exception is thrown when the target runtime can't decode the command payload and rejects it. From a well-formed client, it usually means the runtime is too old to understand a newer configured option value, so it rejects the request while parsing.
Loading