gprof/gprof.1 - binutils-gdb - Git at Google

 .\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1990 The Regents of the University of California.
 .\" All rights reserved.
 .\"
 .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms are permitted provided
 .\" that: (1) source distributions retain this entire copyright notice and
 .\" comment, and (2) distributions including binaries display the following
 .\" acknowledgement:  ``This product includes software developed by the
 .\" University of California, Berkeley and its contributors'' in the
 .\" documentation or other materials provided with the distribution and in
 .\" all advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software.
 .\" Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors may
 .\" be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without
 .\" specific prior written permission.
 .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED
 .\" WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
 .\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
 .\"
 .\"     @(#)gprof.1	6.6 (Berkeley) 7/24/90
 .\"
 .TH GPROF 1 "January 29, 1993"
 .SH NAME
 gprof \- display call graph profile data
 .SH SYNOPSIS
 .B gprof [ \-abcsz ] [ \-e|\-E
 .I name
 .B ] [ \-f|\-F
 .I name
 .B ]
 .B [ \-k
 .I fromname toname
 .B ] [
 .I objfile
 .B [
 .I gmon.out
 .B ]
 .B ]
 .SH DESCRIPTION
 .B gprof
 produces an execution profile of C, Pascal, or Fortran77 programs.
 The effect of called routines is incorporated in the profile of each caller.
 The profile data is taken from the call graph profile file
 \&(`gmon.out' default) which is created by programs
 that are compiled with the
 .B \-pg
 option of
 .BR cc ( 1 ) ,
 .BR pc ( 1 ) ,
 and
 .BR f77 ( 1 ) .
 The
 .B \-pg
 option also links in versions of the library routines
 that are compiled for profiling.
 .B Gprof
 reads the given object file (the default is `a.out')
 and establishes the relation between its symbol table
 and the call graph profile from `gmon.out'.
 If more than one profile file is specified,
 the
 .B gprof
 output shows the sum of the profile information in the given profile files.
 .PP
 .B Gprof
 calculates the amount of time spent in each routine.
 Next, these times are propagated along the edges of the call graph.
 Cycles are discovered, and calls into a cycle are made to share the time
 of the cycle.
 The first listing shows the functions
 sorted according to the time they represent
 including the time of their call graph descendants.
 Below each function entry is shown its (direct) call graph children,
 and how their times are propagated to this function.
 A similar display above the function shows how this function's time and the
 time of its descendants is propagated to its (direct) call graph parents.
 .PP
 Cycles are also shown, with an entry for the cycle as a whole and
 a listing of the members of the cycle and their contributions to the
 time and call counts of the cycle.
 .PP
 Second, a flat profile is given,
 similar to that provided by
 .BR prof ( 1 )  .
 This listing gives the total execution times, the call counts,
 the time in milliseconds the call spent in the routine itself, and
 the time in milliseconds the call spent in the routine itself including
 its descendants.
 .PP
 Finally, an index of the function names is provided.
 .SH OPTIONS
 The following options are available:
 .TP
 .B \-a
 suppresses the printing of statically declared functions.
 If this option is given, all relevant information about the static function
 (e.g., time samples, calls to other functions, calls from other functions)
 belongs to the function loaded just before the static function in the
 \&`objfile' file.
 .TP
 .B \-b
 suppresses the printing of a description of each field in the profile.
 .TP
 .B \-c
 the static call graph of the program is discovered by a heuristic
 that examines the text space of the object file.
 Static-only parents or children are shown
 with call counts of 0.
 .TP
 .BI "\-e " name
 suppresses the printing of the graph profile entry for routine
 .I name
 and all its descendants
 (unless they have other ancestors that aren't suppressed).
 More than one
 .B \-e
 option may be given.
 Only one
 .I name
 may be given with each
 .B \-e
 option.
 .TP
 .BI "\-E " name
 suppresses the printing of the graph profile entry for routine
 .I name
 (and its descendants) as
 .B \-e  ,
 above, and also excludes the time spent in
 .I name
 (and its descendants) from the total and percentage time computations.
 (For example,
 .BI "\-E " mcount
 .BI "\-E " mcleanup
 is the default.)
 .TP
 .BI "\-f " name
 prints the graph profile entry of only the specified routine
 .I name
 and its descendants.
 More than one
 .B \-f
 option may be given.
 Only one
 .I name
 may be given with each
 .B \-f
 option.
 .TP
 .BI "\-F " name
 prints the graph profile entry of only the routine
 .I name
 and its descendants (as
 .B \-f ,
 above) and also uses only the times of the printed routines
 in total time and percentage computations.
 More than one
 .B \-F
 option may be given.
 Only one
 .I name
 may be given with each
 .B \-F
 option.
 The
 .B \-F
 option
 overrides
 the
 .B \-E
 option.
 .TP
 .BI "\-k " "fromname toname"
 will delete any arcs from routine
 .I fromname
 to routine
 .IR toname  .
 This can be used to break undesired cycles.
 More than one
 .B \-k
 option may be given.
 Only one pair of routine names may be given with each
 .B \-k
 option.
 .TP
 .B \-s
 a profile file `gmon.sum' is produced that represents
 the sum of the profile information in all the specified profile files.
 This summary profile file may be given to later
 executions of gprof (probably also with a
 .BR \-s  )
 to accumulate profile data across several runs of an `objfile' file.
 .TP
 .B -v
 prints the version number for gprof, and then exits.
 .TP
 .B -z
 displays routines that have zero usage (as shown by call counts
 and accumulated time).
 This is useful with the
 .B \-c
 option for discovering which routines were never called.
 .PP
 .SH FILES
 .ta \w'gmon.sum 'u
 a.out	the namelist and text space.
 .br
 gmon.out	dynamic call graph and profile.
 .br
 gmon.sum summarized dynamic call graph and profile.
 .SH SEE ALSO
 .BR monitor ( 3 ) ,
 .BR profil ( 2 ) ,
 .BR cc ( 1 ) ,
 .BR prof ( 1 )
 .sp
 ``An Execution Profiler for Modular Programs'',
 by S. Graham, P. Kessler, M. McKusick;
 .I
 Software \- Practice and Experience,
 Vol. 13, pp. 671-685, 1983.
 .sp
 ``gprof: A Call Graph Execution Profiler'',
 by S. Graham, P. Kessler, M. McKusick;
 .I
 Proceedings of the SIGPLAN '82 Symposium on Compiler Construction,
 SIGPLAN Notices, Vol. 17, No  6, pp. 120-126, June 1982.
 .SH HISTORY
 .B Gprof
 appeared in 4.2 BSD.
 .SH BUGS
 The granularity of the sampling is shown, but remains
 statistical at best.
 We assume that the time for each execution of a function
 can be expressed by the total time for the function divided
 by the number of times the function is called.
 Thus the time propagated along the call graph arcs to the function's
 parents is directly proportional to the number of times that
 arc is traversed.
 .PP
 Parents that are not themselves profiled will have the time of
 their profiled children propagated to them, but they will appear
 to be spontaneously invoked in the call graph listing, and will
 not have their time propagated further.
 Similarly, signal catchers, even though profiled, will appear
 to be spontaneous (although for more obscure reasons).
 Any profiled children of signal catchers should have their times
 propagated properly, unless the signal catcher was invoked during
 the execution of the profiling routine, in which case all is lost.
 .PP
 The profiled program must call
 .BR exit ( 2 )
 or return normally for the profiling information to be saved
 in the `gmon.out' file.
	.\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1990 The Regents of the University of California.
	.\" All rights reserved.
	.\"
	.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms are permitted provided
	.\" that: (1) source distributions retain this entire copyright notice and
	.\" comment, and (2) distributions including binaries display the following
	.\" acknowledgement: ``This product includes software developed by the
	.\" University of California, Berkeley and its contributors'' in the
	.\" documentation or other materials provided with the distribution and in
	.\" all advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software.
	.\" Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors may
	.\" be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without
	.\" specific prior written permission.
	.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED
	.\" WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
	.\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
	.\"
	.\" @(#)gprof.1 6.6 (Berkeley) 7/24/90
	.\"
	.TH GPROF 1 "January 29, 1993"
	.SH NAME
	gprof \- display call graph profile data
	.SH SYNOPSIS
	.B gprof [ \-abcsz ] [ \-e\|\-E
	.I name
	.B ] [ \-f\|\-F
	.I name
	.B ]
	.B [ \-k
	.I fromname toname
	.B ] [
	.I objfile
	.B [
	.I gmon.out
	.B ]
	.B ]
	.SH DESCRIPTION
	.B gprof
	produces an execution profile of C, Pascal, or Fortran77 programs.
	The effect of called routines is incorporated in the profile of each caller.
	The profile data is taken from the call graph profile file
	\&(`gmon.out' default) which is created by programs
	that are compiled with the
	.B \-pg
	option of
	.BR cc ( 1 ) ,
	.BR pc ( 1 ) ,
	and
	.BR f77 ( 1 ) .
	The
	.B \-pg
	option also links in versions of the library routines
	that are compiled for profiling.
	.B Gprof
	reads the given object file (the default is `a.out')
	and establishes the relation between its symbol table
	and the call graph profile from `gmon.out'.
	If more than one profile file is specified,
	the
	.B gprof
	output shows the sum of the profile information in the given profile files.
	.PP
	.B Gprof
	calculates the amount of time spent in each routine.
	Next, these times are propagated along the edges of the call graph.
	Cycles are discovered, and calls into a cycle are made to share the time
	of the cycle.
	The first listing shows the functions
	sorted according to the time they represent
	including the time of their call graph descendants.
	Below each function entry is shown its (direct) call graph children,
	and how their times are propagated to this function.
	A similar display above the function shows how this function's time and the
	time of its descendants is propagated to its (direct) call graph parents.
	.PP
	Cycles are also shown, with an entry for the cycle as a whole and
	a listing of the members of the cycle and their contributions to the
	time and call counts of the cycle.
	.PP
	Second, a flat profile is given,
	similar to that provided by
	.BR prof ( 1 ) .
	This listing gives the total execution times, the call counts,
	the time in milliseconds the call spent in the routine itself, and
	the time in milliseconds the call spent in the routine itself including
	its descendants.
	.PP
	Finally, an index of the function names is provided.
	.SH OPTIONS
	The following options are available:
	.TP
	.B \-a
	suppresses the printing of statically declared functions.
	If this option is given, all relevant information about the static function
	(e.g., time samples, calls to other functions, calls from other functions)
	belongs to the function loaded just before the static function in the
	\&`objfile' file.
	.TP
	.B \-b
	suppresses the printing of a description of each field in the profile.
	.TP
	.B \-c
	the static call graph of the program is discovered by a heuristic
	that examines the text space of the object file.
	Static-only parents or children are shown
	with call counts of 0.
	.TP
	.BI "\-e " name
	suppresses the printing of the graph profile entry for routine
	.I name
	and all its descendants
	(unless they have other ancestors that aren't suppressed).
	More than one
	.B \-e
	option may be given.
	Only one
	.I name
	may be given with each
	.B \-e
	option.
	.TP
	.BI "\-E " name
	suppresses the printing of the graph profile entry for routine
	.I name
	(and its descendants) as
	.B \-e ,
	above, and also excludes the time spent in
	.I name
	(and its descendants) from the total and percentage time computations.
	(For example,
	.BI "\-E " mcount
	.BI "\-E " mcleanup
	is the default.)
	.TP
	.BI "\-f " name
	prints the graph profile entry of only the specified routine
	.I name
	and its descendants.
	More than one
	.B \-f
	option may be given.
	Only one
	.I name
	may be given with each
	.B \-f
	option.
	.TP
	.BI "\-F " name
	prints the graph profile entry of only the routine
	.I name
	and its descendants (as
	.B \-f ,
	above) and also uses only the times of the printed routines
	in total time and percentage computations.
	More than one
	.B \-F
	option may be given.
	Only one
	.I name
	may be given with each
	.B \-F
	option.
	The
	.B \-F
	option
	overrides
	the
	.B \-E
	option.
	.TP
	.BI "\-k " "fromname toname"
	will delete any arcs from routine
	.I fromname
	to routine
	.IR toname .
	This can be used to break undesired cycles.
	More than one
	.B \-k
	option may be given.
	Only one pair of routine names may be given with each
	.B \-k
	option.
	.TP
	.B \-s
	a profile file `gmon.sum' is produced that represents
	the sum of the profile information in all the specified profile files.
	This summary profile file may be given to later
	executions of gprof (probably also with a
	.BR \-s )
	to accumulate profile data across several runs of an `objfile' file.
	.TP
	.B -v
	prints the version number for gprof, and then exits.
	.TP
	.B -z
	displays routines that have zero usage (as shown by call counts
	and accumulated time).
	This is useful with the
	.B \-c
	option for discovering which routines were never called.
	.PP
	.SH FILES
	.ta \w'gmon.sum 'u
	a.out the namelist and text space.
	.br
	gmon.out dynamic call graph and profile.
	.br
	gmon.sum summarized dynamic call graph and profile.
	.SH SEE ALSO
	.BR monitor ( 3 ) ,
	.BR profil ( 2 ) ,
	.BR cc ( 1 ) ,
	.BR prof ( 1 )
	.sp
	``An Execution Profiler for Modular Programs'',
	by S. Graham, P. Kessler, M. McKusick;
	.I
	Software \- Practice and Experience,
	Vol. 13, pp. 671-685, 1983.
	.sp
	``gprof: A Call Graph Execution Profiler'',
	by S. Graham, P. Kessler, M. McKusick;
	.I
	Proceedings of the SIGPLAN '82 Symposium on Compiler Construction,
	SIGPLAN Notices, Vol. 17, No 6, pp. 120-126, June 1982.
	.SH HISTORY
	.B Gprof
	appeared in 4.2 BSD.
	.SH BUGS
	The granularity of the sampling is shown, but remains
	statistical at best.
	We assume that the time for each execution of a function
	can be expressed by the total time for the function divided
	by the number of times the function is called.
	Thus the time propagated along the call graph arcs to the function's
	parents is directly proportional to the number of times that
	arc is traversed.
	.PP
	Parents that are not themselves profiled will have the time of
	their profiled children propagated to them, but they will appear
	to be spontaneously invoked in the call graph listing, and will
	not have their time propagated further.
	Similarly, signal catchers, even though profiled, will appear
	to be spontaneous (although for more obscure reasons).
	Any profiled children of signal catchers should have their times
	propagated properly, unless the signal catcher was invoked during
	the execution of the profiling routine, in which case all is lost.
	.PP
	The profiled program must call
	.BR exit ( 2 )
	or return normally for the profiling information to be saved
	in the `gmon.out' file.