The trace-cmd(1) restore command will restore a crashed trace-cmd-record(1)
file. If for some reason a trace-cmd record fails, it will leave a the
per-cpu data files and not create the final trace.dat file. The trace-cmd
restore will append the files to create a working trace.dat file that can
be read with trace-cmd-report(1).
When trace-cmd record runs, it spawns off a process per CPU and writes
to a per cpu file usually called trace.dat.cpuX, where X represents the
CPU number that it is tracing. If the -o option was used in the trace-cmd
record, then the CPU data files will have that name instead of the
trace.dat name. If a unexpected crash occurs before the tracing
is finished, then the per CPU files will still exist but there will
not be any trace.dat file to read from. trace-cmd restore will allow you
to create a trace.dat file with the existing data files.