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The profile command allows you to list and inspect available profiles on your system. Profiles are predefined sets of CLI arguments that provide comprehensive configurations for specific tracing scenarios.

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Usage

retis profile [SUBCOMMAND]

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Subcommands

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list

List all available profiles on the system. 
retis profile list
This command searches for profiles in:
  • /usr/share/retis/profiles/ - System-wide profiles
  • $HOME/.config/retis/profiles/ - User profiles
  • Custom directories specified with -P/--extra-profiles-dir
Example output: 
/usr/share/retis/profiles/generic.yaml:
  generic              General purpose profile for investigating packets in the networking stack
/usr/share/retis/profiles/drop.yaml:
  dropmon             Drop monitor profile, reporting dropped packets with stack traces
  nft-dropmon         Drop monitor for Netfilter/nftables only
/usr/share/retis/profiles/ifdump.yaml:
  ifdump              Collect packets at device driver level (ingress/egress)

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Options

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--extra-profiles-dir, -P
path
Path to an additional directory with custom profiles.This directory takes precedence over built-in profile directories. Useful for organization-specific or project-specific profiles.

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Examples

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List All Profiles

See what profiles are available: 
retis profile list

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List Profiles Including Custom Directory

Search for profiles in a custom location: 
retis profile list -P /path/to/custom/profiles

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Using Profiles with Collect

After listing profiles, use them with the collect command: 
# Use the generic profile
retis -p generic collect

# Use multiple profiles
retis -p dropmon,generic collect

# Use a custom profile by path
retis -p /path/to/my-profile.yaml collect

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Profile Structure

Profiles are YAML files that define:
  • Profile name and description
  • Collectors to enable
  • Probes to install
  • Command-line arguments to apply
Example profile structure: 
profiles:
  - name: my-profile
    about: Custom profile for HTTP tracing
    collect:
      collectors:
        - skb
        - skb-tracking
        - ct
      probes:
        - kprobe:tcp_sendmsg
        - kprobe:tcp_recvmsg
      filter-packet: "tcp port 80 or tcp port 443"

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Creating Custom Profiles

  1. Create a YAML file in $HOME/.config/retis/profiles/
  2. Define your profile following the structure above
  3. Use retis profile list to verify it’s detected
  4. Use it with retis -p <profile-name> collect
Profile files can contain multiple profiles. Each profile in the file will be listed separately.

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Profile Priority

When profiles are loaded from multiple locations:
  1. Custom directory specified with -P (highest priority)
  2. User profiles in $HOME/.config/retis/profiles/
  3. System profiles in /usr/share/retis/profiles/
If a profile with the same name exists in multiple locations, the higher-priority location wins.

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See Also

Profile Concept

Learn about profiles and how they work

Built-in Profiles

Documentation for each built-in profile

collect command

Use profiles with the collect command

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