DTVS: a distributed trace visualization system

We present a straightforward and sample method of visualizing the execution of a distributed system as it is recorded in a collection of per-process traces. The technique is based directly on Lamport´s space-time diagrams and the notion of causal precedence as embodied in vector time. Timestamping trace events with vector time provides the leverage required for the rapid display of the space-time diagram. It also allows us to define and display concurrent regions of the trace and to implement a fast algorithm for the evaluation of global state predicates over those regions. We describe an implementation of DTVS for distributed systems in which synchronous communication is used