Android Systrace -- Series Article Index

Word count: 1kReading time: 6 min

 2019/05/26

As Systrace becomes increasingly feature-rich, combined with Android version iterations, the previous Systrace series tutorials have become somewhat outdated. Additionally, as my own skills have improved, I’ve been able to extract more information from Systrace, which has been very helpful in solving various performance issues. I need to document these skills to enhance my summarization and organization abilities, and if it helps those who read these articles, that would be excellent.

The purpose of this series is to view the overall operation of the Android system from a different perspective using Systrace, while also providing an alternative angle for learning the Framework. Perhaps you’ve read many articles about the Framework but can never remember the code, or you’re unclear about the execution flow. Maybe from Systrace’s graphical perspective, you can gain a deeper understanding.

As Google announced the deprecation of the Systrace tool and introduced Perfetto, Perfetto has essentially replaced Systrace in my daily work. Meanwhile, major manufacturers like OPPO and Vivo have also switched from Systrace to Perfetto. Many newcomers to Android performance optimization find Perfetto’s dazzling interface and complex features overwhelming, and they’ve been hoping I could present the previous Systrace articles using Perfetto.

This series aims to examine the overall operation of the Android system from a new perspective using Perfetto. Additionally, it provides a different angle for learning key modules such as App, Framework, and Linux. Although you may have read many articles about Android Framework, App development, and performance optimization, you might still feel confused because you can’t remember the code or don’t understand the execution flow. Through Perfetto, this graphical tool, you may gain a deeper understanding.

Perfetto Series Index

Systrace Series Article Index

This article serves as an index. After subsequent articles are updated, they will be aggregated here. The content is as follows:

2023-10 update:

Starting to prepare the Perfetto series

Target Audience

This series of articles is suitable for both application developers and system developers. I will consider both perspectives when writing. As a system developer, here are roughly my advantages:

Access to system source code, making it convenient to debug and modify code, and see results on the phone at any time
Certain understanding of the system framework
Certain understanding of system tuning

Based on these points, I will leverage these advantages in my writing to bring you something different:

Learning Android Framework through Systrace
Modifying certain system configurations to show everyone the results: for example, the impact of Buffer count on applications
Introducing considerations and trade-offs that system manufacturers make when building systems
Introducing important but often overlooked points during application development

Update Log

The plan is to update one article per week, giving myself a goal and accountability.

2018-03-30 Index update: Systrace Series Article Index
2018-04-01 Article update: Systrace Basics - Why 60 fps?
2019-07-23 Article update: Systrace Basics - Systrace Prerequisites
2019-10-22 Article update: Systrace Basics - Vsync-App: Detailed Explanation of Choreographer-Based Rendering Mechanism
2019-11-04 Article update: Systrace Basics - Input Explained
2019-11-06 Article update: Systrace Basics - MainThread and RenderThread Explained
2019-12-01 Article update: Systrace Basics - Vsync Explained
2019-12-06 Article update: Systrace Basics - Binder and Lock Contention Explained
2019-12-15 Article update: Systrace Basics - Triple Buffer Explained
2019-12-21 Article update: Systrace Basics - CPU Info Explained
2020-02-04 Article update: Systrace Basics - SystemServer Explained
2020-02-14 Article update: Systrace Basics - SurfaceFlinger Explained
2021-04-24 Article update: Systrace Smoothness Practice 1: Understanding Jank Principles
2021-04-24 Article update: Systrace Smoothness Practice 2: Case Analysis - MIUI Launcher Scroll Jank Analysis
2021-04-24 Article update: Systrace Smoothness Practice 3: Questions During Jank Analysis
2021-10-28 Article update: Systrace Response Speed Practice 1: Understanding Response Speed Principles
2021-10-28 Article update: Systrace Response Speed Practice 2: Response Speed Analysis - Using App Startup as an Example
2021-10-28 Article update: Systrace Response Speed Practice 3: Extended Knowledge on Response Speed

About Me && Blog

Below is my personal introduction and related links. I look forward to exchanging ideas with fellow professionals. When three walk together, one can always be my teacher!