diff --git a/src/cyclictest/cyclictest.c b/src/cyclictest/cyclictest.c
index 807041d..abf3e8b 100644
--- a/src/cyclictest/cyclictest.c
+++ b/src/cyclictest/cyclictest.c
@@ -249,6 +249,7 @@ static char functiontracer[MAX_PATH];
 static char traceroptions[MAX_PATH];
 
 static int trace_fd     = -1;
+static int tracemark_fd = -1;
 
 static int kernvar(int mode, const char *name, char *value, size_t sizeofvalue)
 {
@@ -378,6 +379,27 @@ static int trace_file_exists(char *name)
 	return stat(path, &sbuf) ? 0 : 1;
 }
 
+#define TRACEBUFSIZ 1024
+static __thread char tracebuf[TRACEBUFSIZ];
+
+static void tracemark(char *fmt, ...)
+{
+	va_list ap;
+	int len;
+
+	/* bail out if we're not tracing */
+	/* or if the kernel doesn't support trace_mark */
+	if (tracemark_fd < 0)
+		return;
+
+	va_start(ap, fmt);
+	len = vsnprintf(tracebuf, TRACEBUFSIZ, fmt, ap);
+	va_end(ap);
+	write(tracemark_fd, tracebuf, len);
+}
+
+
+
 void tracing(int on)
 {
 	if (on) {
@@ -540,6 +562,14 @@ static void setup_tracer(void)
 				fatal("unable to open %s for tracing", path);
 		}
 
+		/* open the tracemark file descriptor */
+		if (tracemark_fd == -1) {
+			char path[MAX_PATH];
+			strcat(strcpy(path, fileprefix), "trace_marker");
+			if ((tracemark_fd = open(path, O_WRONLY)) == -1)
+				warn("unable to open trace_marker file: %s\n", path);
+		}
+
 	} else {
 		setkernvar("trace_all_cpus", "1");
 		setkernvar("trace_freerunning", "1");
@@ -839,6 +869,7 @@ void *timerthread(void *param)
 
 		if (!stopped && tracelimit && (diff > tracelimit)) {
 			stopped++;
+			tracemark("hit latency threshold (%d > %d)", diff, tracelimit);
 			tracing(0);
 			shutdown++;
 			pthread_mutex_lock(&break_thread_id_lock);
@@ -1830,6 +1861,8 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 
 
 	/* close any tracer file descriptors */
+	if (tracemark_fd >= 0)
+		close(tracemark_fd);
 	if (trace_fd >= 0)
 		close(trace_fd);