In some of the GC logs, timestamps of GC events are printed in relative format i.e.

[0.209s]   .....

In some of the GC logs, timestamps of the GC events are printed in absolute format i.e.

[2017-10-24T20:43:12.042-0700] .....

GCeasy paints the x-axis of the graphs in relative format if values in the GC logs are in relative timestamp format, example:

no-initialTimestamp

Fig: Graphs in relative timestamp format

If timestamps in GC logs are in absolute format then graphs are paints x-axis of graphs in absolute format, example:

initialTimestamp

Fig: GCeasy graphs in absolute timestamp format

Most engineers prefer to see graphs to be painted in absolute format. If you can pass the time at which JVM was started, GCeasy API provides a facility to paint graphs in absolute timestamp format even though timestamps are printed in relative format in GC logs.

If you can pass HTTP parameter ‘initialTimestamp‘ in the format: ‘yyyy-MM-dd’T’HH:mm:ss.SSSZ’ i.e. ‘2018-12-15T15:58:00.000+0100’ to GCeasy API, you can get the graphs painted in absolute timestamp format.

Here is how you will invoke the API:

curl -X POST --data-binary @./my-app-gc.log "https://api.gceasy.io/analyzeGC?apiKey={YOUR_API_KEY}&initialTimestamp=2018-12-15T15%3A58%3A00.000%2B0100" --header "Content-Type:text"

Then all the GCeasy graphs will be painted in reference to ‘2018-12-15T15:58:00.000+0100’ timestamp.