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READPROFILE(8)               System Administration              READPROFILE(8)

NAME
       readprofile - read kernel profiling information
SYNOPSIS
       readprofile [options]
VERSION
       This manpage documents version 2.0 of the program.
DESCRIPTION
       The  readprofile  command  uses  the /proc/profile information to print
       ascii data on standard output.  The output is organized in  three  col-
       umns: the first is the number of clock ticks, the second is the name of
       the C function in the kernel where those many ticks occurred,  and  the
       third  is the normalized `load' of the procedure, calculated as a ratio
       between the number of ticks and the length of the procedure.  The  out-
       put is filled with blanks to ease readability.
OPTIONS
       -a, --all
              Print  all  symbols  in  the mapfile.  By default the procedures
              with reported ticks are not printed.
       -b, --histbin
              Print individual histogram-bin counts.
       -i, --info
              Info.  This makes readprofile only print the profiling step used
              by the kernel.  The profiling step is the resolution of the pro-
              filing  buffer,  and  is  chosen  during  kernel   configuration
              (through  `make  config'),  or in the kernel's command line.  If
              the -t (terse) switch is used together with -i only the  decimal
              number is printed.
       -m, --mapfile mapfile
              Specify  a  mapfile,  which  by  default  is /usr/src/linux/Sys-
              tem.map.  You should specify the map file  on  cmdline  if  your
              current  kernel  isn't the last one you compiled, or if you keep
              System.map elsewhere.  If the name of the  map  file  ends  with
              `.gz' it is decompressed on the fly.
       -M, --multiplier multiplier
              On  some  architectures it is possible to alter the frequency at
              which the kernel delivers  profiling  interrupts  to  each  CPU.
              This  option allows you to set the frequency, as a multiplier of
              the system clock frequency, HZ.  This is supported  on  i386-SMP
              (2.2  and 2.4 kernel) and also on sparc-SMP and sparc64-SMP (2.4
              kernel).  This option also  resets  the  profiling  buffer,  and
              requires superuser privileges.
       -p, --profile pro-file
              Specify  a  different  profiling  buffer,  which  by  default is
              /proc/profile.  Using a different pro-file is useful if you want
              to `freeze' the kernel profiling at some time and read it later.
              The /proc/profile file can be copied using `cat' or `cp'.  There
              is no more support for compressed profile buffers, like in read-
              profile-1.1, because the program needs to know the size  of  the
              buffer in advance.
       -r, --reset
              Reset  the  profiling buffer.  This can only be invoked by root,
              because /proc/profile is readable by everybody but writable only
              by  the  superuser.  However, you can make readprofile setuid 0,
              in order to reset the buffer without gaining privileges.
       -s, --counters
              Print individual counters within functions.
       -v, --verbose
              Verbose.  The output is organized in  four  columns  and  filled
              with  blanks.   The  first column is the RAM address of a kernel
              function, the second is the name of the function, the  third  is
              the number of clock ticks and the last is the normalized load.
       -V, --version
              This makes readprofile print its version number and exit.
       -h, --help
              Display help and exit.
EXAMPLES
       Browse the profiling buffer ordering by clock ticks:
          readprofile | sort -nr | less
       Print the 20 most loaded procedures:
          readprofile | sort -nr +2 | head -20
       Print only filesystem profile:
          readprofile | grep _ext2
       Look at all the kernel information, with ram addresses:
          readprofile -av | less
       Browse a `freezed' profile buffer for a non current kernel:
          readprofile -p ~/profile.freeze -m /zImage.map.gz
       Request profiling at 2kHz per CPU, and reset the profiling buffer:
          sudo readprofile -M 20
BUGS
       readprofile   only  works  with  an  1.3.x  or  newer  kernel,  because
       /proc/profile changed in the step from 1.2 to 1.3
       This program only works with ELF kernels.  The change for a.out kernels
       is trivial, and left as an exercise to the a.out user.
       To  enable profiling, the kernel must be rebooted, because no profiling
       module is available, and it wouldn't be easy to build.  To enable  pro-
       filing,  you  can specify "profile=2" (or another number) on the kernel
       commandline.  The number you specify is the two-exponent used  as  pro-
       filing step.
       Profiling  is  disabled when interrupts are inhibited.  This means that
       many profiling ticks happen when interrupts are re-enabled.  Watch  out
       for misleading information.
FILES
       /proc/profile              A binary snapshot of the profiling buffer.
       /usr/src/linux/System.map  The symbol table for the kernel.
       /usr/src/linux/*           The program being profiled :-)
AVAILABILITY
       The readprofile command is part of the util-linux package and is avail-
       able from Linux  Kernel  Archive  <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils
       /util-linux/>.

util-linux                       October 2011                   READPROFILE(8)