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This document is the manual for gprofng, last updated 22 February 2022.

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INFO-DIR-SECTION Software development
START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* gprofng: (gprofng). The next generation profiling tool for Linux
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY

File: gprofng.info, Node: Top, Next: Introduction, Up: (dir)

GNU Gprofng
***********

This document is the manual for gprofng, last updated 22 February 2022.

* Menu:

* Introduction:: About this manual.
* Overview:: A brief overview of gprofng.
* A Mini Tutorial:: A short tutorial covering the key features.
* Terminology:: Various concepts and some terminology explained.
* Other Document Formats:: How to create this document in other formats.
* Index:: The index.

-- The Detailed Node Listing --

Introduction

Overview

* Main Features:: A high level overview.
* Sampling versus Tracing:: The pros and cons of sampling versus tracing.
* Steps Needed to Create a Profile:: How to create a profile.

A Mini Tutorial

* Getting Started:: The basics of profiling with gprofng().
* Support for Multithreading:: Commands specific to multithreaded applications.
* Viewing Multiple Experiments:: Analyze multiple experiments.
* Profile Hardware Event Counters:: How to use hardware event counters.
* Java Profiling:: How to profile a Java application.

Terminology

* The Program Counter:: What is a Program Counter?
* Inclusive and Exclusive Metrics:: An explanation of inclusive and exclusive metrics.
* Metric Definitions:: Definitions associated with metrics.
* The Viewmode:: Select the way call stacks are presented.
* The Selection List:: How to define a selection.
* Load Objects and Functions:: The components in an application.
* The Concept of a CPU in gprofng:: The definition of a CPU.
* Hardware Event Counters Explained:: What are event counters?
* apath:: Our generic definition of a path.

File: gprofng.info, Node: Introduction, Next: Overview, Prev: Top, Up: Top

1 Introduction
**************

The gprofng tool is the next generation profiler for Linux. It consists
of various commands to generate and display profile information.

This manual starts with a tutorial how to create and interpret a
profile. This part is highly practical and has the goal to get users up
to speed as quickly as possible. As soon as possible, we would like to
show you how to get your first profile on your screen.

This is followed by more examples, covering many of the features. At
the end of this tutorial, you should feel confident enough to tackle the
more complex tasks.

In a future update a more formal reference manual will be included as
well. Since even in this tutorial we use certain terminology, we have
included a chapter with descriptions at the end. In case you encounter
unfamiliar wordings or terminology, please check this chapter.

One word of caution. In several cases we had to somewhat tweak the
screen output in order to make it fit. This is why the output may look
somewhat different when you try things yourself.

For now, we wish you a smooth profiling experience with gprofng and
good luck tackling performance bottlenecks.

File: gprofng.info, Node: Overview, Next: A Mini Tutorial, Prev: Introduction, Up: Top

2 A Brief Overview of gprofng
*****************************

* Menu:

* Main Features:: A high level overview.
* Sampling versus Tracing:: The pros and cons of sampling versus tracing.
* Steps Needed to Create a Profile:: How to create a profile.

Before we cover this tool in quite some detail, we start with a brief
overview of what it is, and the main features. Since we know that many
of you would like to get started rightaway, already in this first
chapter we explain the basics of profiling with 'gprofng'.

File: gprofng.info, Node: Main Features, Next: Sampling versus Tracing, Up: Overview

2.1 Main Features
=================

These are the main features of the gprofng tool:

* Profiling is supported for an application written in C, C++, Java,
or Scala.

* Shared libraries are supported. The information is presented at
the instruction level.

* The following multithreading programming models are supported:
Pthreads, OpenMP, and Java threads.

* This tool works with unmodified production level executables.
There is no need to recompile the code, but if the '-g' option has
been used when building the application, source line level
information is available.

* The focus is on support for code generated with the 'gcc' compiler,
but there is some limited support for the 'icc' compiler as well.
Future improvements and enhancements will focus on 'gcc' though.

* Processors from Intel, AMD, and Arm are supported, but the level of
support depends on the architectural details. In particular,
hardware event counters may not be supported.

* Several views into the data are supported. For example, a function
overview where the time is spent, but also a source line,
disassembly, call tree and a caller-callees overview are available.

* Through filters, the user can zoom in on an area of interest.

* Two or more profiles can be aggregated, or used in a comparison.
This comparison can be obtained at the function, source line, and
disassembly level.

* Through a scripting language, and customization of the metrics
shown, the generation and creation of a profile can be fully
automated and provide tailored output.

File: gprofng.info, Node: Sampling versus Tracing, Next: Steps Needed to Create a Profile, Prev: Main Features, Up: Overview

2.2 Sampling versus Tracing
===========================

A key difference with some other profiling tools is that the main data
collection command 'gprofng collect app' mostly uses Program Counter
(PC) sampling under the hood.

With _sampling_, the executable is stopped at regular intervals.
Each time it is halted, key information is gathered and stored. This
includes the Program Counter that keeps track of where the execution is.
Hence the name.

Together with operational data, this information is stored in the
experiment directory and can be viewed in the second phase.

For example, the PC information is used to derive where the program
was when it was halted. Since the sampling interval is known, it is
relatively easy to derive how much time was spent in the various parts
of the program.

The opposite technique is generally referred to as _tracing_. With
tracing, the target is instrumented with specific calls that collect the
requested information.

These are some of the pros and cons of PC sampling verus tracing:

* Since there is no need to recompile, existing executables can be
used and the profile measures the behaviour of exactly the same
executable that is used in production runs.

With sampling, one inherently profiles a different executable
because the calls to the instrumentation library may affect the
compiler optimizations and run time behaviour.

* With sampling, there are very few restrictions on what can be
profiled and even without access to the source code, a basic
profile can be made.

* A downside of sampling is that, depending on the sampling
frequency, small functions may be missed or not captured
accurately. Although this is rare, this may happen and is the
reason why the user has control over the sampling rate.

* While tracing produces precise information, sampling is statistical
in nature. As a result, small variations may occur across
seemingly identical runs. We have not observed more than a few
percent deviation though. Especially if the target job executed
for a sufficiently long time.

* With sampling, it is not possible to get an accurate count how
often functions are called.

File: gprofng.info, Node: Steps Needed to Create a Profile, Prev: Sampling versus Tracing, Up: Overview

2.3 Steps Needed to Create a Profile
====================================

Creating a profile takes two steps. First the profile data needs to be
generated. This is followed by a viewing step to create a report from
the information that has been gathered.

Every gprofng command starts with 'gprofng', the name of the driver.
This is followed by a keyword to define the high level functionality.
Depending on this keyword, a third qualifier may be needed to further
narrow down the request. This combination is then followed by options
that are specific to the functionality desired.

The command to gather, or "collect", the performance data is called
'gprofng collect app'. Aside from numerous options, this command takes
the name of the target executable as an input parameter.

Upon completion of the run, the performance data can be found in the
newly created experiment directory.

Unless explicitly specified otherwise, a default name for this
directory is chosen. The name is 'test.<n>.er' where 'n' is the first
integer number not in use yet for such a name.

For example, the first time 'gprofng collect app' is invoked, an
experiment directory with the name 'test.1.er' is created.

Upon a subsequent invocation of 'gprofng collect app' in the same
directory, an experiment directory with the name 'test.2.er' will be
created, and so forth.

Note that 'gprofng collect app' supports an option to explicitly name
the experiment directory. Outside of the restriction that the name of
this directory has to end with '.er', any valid directory name can be
used for this.

Now that we have the performance data, the next step is to display
it.

The most commonly used command to view the performance information is
'gprofng display text'. This is a very extensive and customizable tool
that produces the information in ASCII format.

Another option is to use 'gprofng display html'. This tool generates
a directory with files in html format. These can be viewed in a
browser, allowing for easy navigation through the profile data.

File: gprofng.info, Node: A Mini Tutorial, Next: Terminology, Prev: Overview, Up: Top

3 A Mini Tutorial
*****************

In this chapter we present and discuss the main functionality of
'gprofng'. This will be a practical approach, using an example code to
generate profile data and show how to get various performance reports.

* Menu:

File: gprofng.info, Node: Getting Started, Next: Support for Multithreading, Up: A Mini Tutorial

3.1 Getting Started
===================

The information presented here provides a good and common basis for many
profiling tasks, but there are more features that you may want to
leverage.

These are covered in subsequent sections in this chapter.

* Menu:

* The Example Program:: A description of the example program used.
* A First Profile:: How to get the first profile.
* The Source Code View:: Display the metrics in the source code.
* The Disassembly View:: Display the metrics at the instruction level.
* Display and Define the Metrics:: An example how to customize the metrics.
* A First Customization of the Output:: An example how to customize the output.
* Name the Experiment Directory:: Change the name of the experiment directory.
* Control the Number of Lines in the Output:: Change the number of lines in the tables.
* Sorting the Performance Data:: How to set the metric to sort by.
* Scripting:: Use a script to execute the commands.
* A More Elaborate Example:: An example of customization.
* The Call Tree:: Display the dynamic call tree.
* More Information on the Experiment:: How to get additional statistics.
* Control the Sampling Frequency:: How to control the sampling granularity.
* Information on Load Objects:: How to get more information on load objects.

File: gprofng.info, Node: The Example Program, Next: A First Profile, Up: Getting Started

3.1.1 The Example Program
-------------------------

Throughout this guide we use the same example C code that implements the
multiplication of a vector of length n by an m by n matrix. The result
is stored in a vector of length m. The algorithm has been parallelized
using Posix Threads, or Pthreads for short.

The code was built using the 'gcc' compiler and the name of the
executable is mxv-pthreads.exe.

The matrix sizes can be set through the '-m' and '-n' options. The
number of threads is set with the '-t' option. To increase the duration
of the run, the multiplication is executed repeatedly.

This is an example that multiplies a 3000 by 2000 matrix with a
vector of length 2000 using 2 threads:

$ ./mxv-pthreads.exe -m 3000 -n 2000 -t 2
mxv: error check passed - rows = 3000 columns = 2000 threads = 2
$

The program performs an internal check to verify the results are
correct. The result of this check is printed, followed by the matrix
sizes and the number of threads used.

File: gprofng.info, Node: A First Profile, Next: The Source Code View, Prev: The Example Program, Up: Getting Started

3.1.2 A First Profile
---------------------

The first step is to collect the performance data. It is important to
remember that much more information is gathered than may be shown by
default. Often a single data collection run is sufficient to get a lot
of insight.

The 'gprofng collect app' command is used for the data collection.
Nothing needs to be changed in the way the application is executed. The
only difference is that it is now run under control of the tool, as
shown below:

$ gprofng collect app ./mxv.pthreads.exe -m 3000 -n 2000 -t 1

This command produces the following output:

Creating experiment database test.1.er (Process ID: 2416504) ...
mxv: error check passed - rows = 3000 columns = 2000 threads = 1

We see the message that a directory with the name 'test.1.er' has
been created. The application then completes as usual and we have our
first experiment directory that can be analyzed.

The tool we use for this is called 'gprofng display text'. It takes
the name of the experiment directory as an argument.

If invoked this way, the tool starts in the interactive _interpreter_
mode. While in this environment, commands can be given and the tool
responds. This is illustrated below:

$ gprofng display text test.1.er
Warning: History and command editing is not supported on this system.
(gp-display-text) quit
$

While useful in certain cases, we prefer to use this tool in command
line mode, by specifying the commands to be issued when invoking the
tool. The way to do this is to prepend the command with a hyphen ('-')
if used on the command line.

For example, with the 'functions' command we request a list of the
functions that have been executed and their respective CPU times:

$ gprofng display text -functions test.1.er

$ gprofng display text -functions test.1.er
Functions sorted by metric: Exclusive Total CPU Time

Excl. Incl. Name
Total Total
CPU sec. CPU sec.
2.272 2.272 <Total>
2.160 2.160 mxv_core
0.047 0.103 init_data
0.030 0.043 erand48_r
0.013 0.013 __drand48_iterate
0.013 0.056 drand48
0.008 0.010 _int_malloc
0.001 0.001 brk
0.001 0.002 sysmalloc
0. 0.001 __default_morecore
0. 0.113 __libc_start_main
0. 0.010 allocate_data
0. 2.160 collector_root
0. 2.160 driver_mxv
0. 0.113 main
0. 0.010 malloc
0. 0.001 sbrk

As easy and simple as these steps are, we do have a first profile of
our program! There are three columns. The first two contain the _Total
CPU Time_, which is the sum of the user and system time. *Note
Inclusive and Exclusive Metrics:: for an explanation of "exclusive" and
"inclusive" times.

The first line echoes the metric that is used to sort the output. By
default, this is the exclusive CPU time, but the sort metric can be
changed by the user.

We then see three columns with the exclusive and inclusive CPU times,
plus the name of the function.

The function with the name '<Total>' is not a user function, but is
introduced by 'gprofng' and is used to display the accumulated metric
values. In this case, we see that the total CPU time of this job was
'2.272' seconds.

With '2.160' seconds, function 'mxv_core' is the most time consuming
function. It is also a leaf function.

The next function in the list is 'init_data'. Although the CPU time
spent in this part is negligible, this is an interesting entry because
the inclusive CPU time of '0.103' seconds is higher than the exclusive
CPU time of '0.047' seconds. Clearly it is calling another function, or
even more than one function. *Note The Call Tree:: for the details how
to get more information on this.

The function 'collector_root' does not look familiar. It is one of
the internal functions used by 'gprofng collect app' and can be ignored.
While the inclusive time is high, the exclusive time is zero. This
means it doesn't contribute to the performance.

The question is how we know where this function originates from?
There is a very useful command to get more details on a function. *Note
Information on Load Objects::.

File: gprofng.info, Node: The Source Code View, Next: The Disassembly View, Prev: A First Profile, Up: Getting Started

3.1.3 The Source Code View
--------------------------

In general, you would like to focus the tuning efforts on the most time
consuming part(s) of the program. In this case that is easy, since
2.160 seconds on a total of 2.272 seconds is spent in function
'mxv_core'. That is 95% of the total and it is time to dig deeper and
look at the time distribution at the source code level.

The 'source' command is used to accomplish this. It takes the name
of the function, not the source filename, as an argument. This is
demonstrated below, where the 'gprofng display text' command is used to
show the annotated source listing of function 'mxv_core'.

Please note that the source code has to be compiled with the '-g'
option in order for the source code feature to work. Otherwise the
location can not be determined.

$ gprofng display text -source mxv_core test.1.er

The slightly modified output is as follows:

Source file: <apath>/mxv.c
Object file: mxv-pthreads.exe (found as test.1.er/archives/...)
Load Object: mxv-pthreads.exe (found as test.1.er/archives/...)

Excl. Incl.
Total Total
CPU sec. CPU sec.

<lines deleted>
<Function: mxv_core>
0. 0. 32. void __attribute__ ((noinline))
mxv_core (
uint64_t row_index_start,
uint64_t row_index_end,
uint64_t m, uint64_t n,
double **restrict A,
double *restrict b,
double *restrict c)
0. 0. 33. {
0. 0. 34. for (uint64_t i=row_index_start;
i<=row_index_end; i++) {
0. 0. 35. double row_sum = 0.0;
## 1.687 1.687 36. for (int64_t j=0; j<n; j++)
0.473 0.473 37. row_sum += A[i][j]*b[j];
0. 0. 38. c[i] = row_sum;
39. }
0. 0. 40. }

The first three lines provide information on the location of the
source file, the object file and the load object (*Note Load Objects and
Functions::).

Function 'mxv_core' is part of a source file that has other functions
as well. These functions will be shown, but without timing information.
They have been removed in the output shown above.

This is followed by the annotated source code listing. The selected
metrics are shown first, followed by a source line number, and the
source code. The most time consuming line(s) are marked with the '##'
symbol. In this way they are easier to find.

What we see is that all of the time is spent in lines 36-37.

A related command sometimes comes handy as well. It is called
'lines' and displays a list of the source lines and their metrics,
ordered according to the current sort metric (*Note Sorting the
Performance Data::).

Below the command and the output. For lay-out reasons, only the top
10 is shown here and the last part of the text on some lines has been
replaced by dots.

$ gprofng display text -lines test.1.er

Lines sorted by metric: Exclusive Total CPU Time

Excl. Incl. Name
Total Total
CPU sec. CPU sec.
2.272 2.272 <Total>
1.687 1.687 mxv_core, line 36 in "mxv.c"
0.473 0.473 mxv_core, line 37 in "mxv.c"
0.032 0.088 init_data, line 72 in "manage_data.c"
0.030 0.043 <Function: erand48_r, instructions without line numbers>
0.013 0.013 <Function: __drand48_iterate, instructions without ...>
0.013 0.056 <Function: drand48, instructions without line numbers>
0.012 0.012 init_data, line 77 in "manage_data.c"
0.008 0.010 <Function: _int_malloc, instructions without ...>
0.003 0.003 init_data, line 71 in "manage_data.c"

What this overview immediately highlights is that the next most time
consuming source line takes 0.032 seconds only. With an inclusive time
of 0.088 seconds, it is also clear that this branch of the code does not
impact the performance.

File: gprofng.info, Node: The Disassembly View, Next: Display and Define the Metrics, Prev: The Source Code View, Up: Getting Started

3.1.4 The Disassembly View
--------------------------

The source view is very useful to obtain more insight where the time is
spent, but sometimes this is not sufficient. This is when the
disassembly view comes in. It is activated with the 'disasm' command
and as with the source view, it displays an annotated listing. In this
case it shows the instructions with the metrics, interleaved with the
source lines. The instructions have a reference in square brackets ('['
and ']') to the source line they correspond to.

This is what we get for our example:

$ gprofng display text -disasm mxv_core test.1.er

Source file: <apath>/mxv.c
Object file: mxv-pthreads.exe (found as test.1.er/archives/...)
Load Object: mxv-pthreads.exe (found as test.1.er/archives/...)

Excl. Incl.
Total Total
CPU sec. CPU sec.

<lines deleted>
32. void __attribute__ ((noinline))
mxv_core (
uint64_t row_index_start,
uint64_t row_index_end,
uint64_t m, uint64_t n,
double **restrict A,
double *restrict b,
double *restrict c)
33. {
<Function: mxv_core>
0. 0. [33] 4021ba: mov 0x8(%rsp),%r10
34. for (uint64_t i=row_index_start;
i<=row_index_end; i++) {
0. 0. [34] 4021bf: cmp %rsi,%rdi
0. 0. [34] 4021c2: jbe 0x37
0. 0. [34] 4021c4: ret
35. double row_sum = 0.0;
36. for (int64_t j=0; j<n; j++)
37. row_sum += A[i][j]*b[j];
0. 0. [37] 4021c5: mov (%r8,%rdi,8),%rdx
0. 0. [36] 4021c9: mov $0x0,%eax
0. 0. [35] 4021ce: pxor %xmm1,%xmm1
0.002 0.002 [37] 4021d2: movsd (%rdx,%rax,8),%xmm0
0.096 0.096 [37] 4021d7: mulsd (%r9,%rax,8),%xmm0
0.375 0.375 [37] 4021dd: addsd %xmm0,%xmm1
## 1.683 1.683 [36] 4021e1: add $0x1,%rax
0.004 0.004 [36] 4021e5: cmp %rax,%rcx
0. 0. [36] 4021e8: jne 0xffffffffffffffea
38. c[i] = row_sum;
0. 0. [38] 4021ea: movsd %xmm1,(%r10,%rdi,8)
0. 0. [34] 4021f0: add $0x1,%rdi
0. 0. [34] 4021f4: cmp %rdi,%rsi
0. 0. [34] 4021f7: jb 0xd
0. 0. [35] 4021f9: pxor %xmm1,%xmm1
0. 0. [36] 4021fd: test %rcx,%rcx
0. 0. [36] 402200: jne 0xffffffffffffffc5
0. 0. [36] 402202: jmp 0xffffffffffffffe8
39. }
40. }
0. 0. [40] 402204: ret

For each instruction, the timing values are given and we can exactly
which ones are the most expensive. As with the source level view, the
most expensive instructions are market with the '##' symbol.

As illustrated below and similar to the 'lines' command, we can get
an overview of the instructions executed by using the 'pcs' command.

Below the command and the output, which again has been restricted to 10
lines:

$ gprofng display text -pcs test.1.er

PCs sorted by metric: Exclusive Total CPU Time

Excl. Incl. Name
Total Total
CPU sec. CPU sec.
2.272 2.272 <Total>
1.683 1.683 mxv_core + 0x00000027, line 36 in "mxv.c"
0.375 0.375 mxv_core + 0x00000023, line 37 in "mxv.c"
0.096 0.096 mxv_core + 0x0000001D, line 37 in "mxv.c"
0.027 0.027 init_data + 0x000000BD, line 72 in "manage_data.c"
0.012 0.012 init_data + 0x00000117, line 77 in "manage_data.c"
0.008 0.008 _int_malloc + 0x00000A45
0.007 0.007 erand48_r + 0x00000062
0.006 0.006 drand48 + 0x00000000
0.005 0.005 __drand48_iterate + 0x00000005

File: gprofng.info, Node: Display and Define the Metrics, Next: A First Customization of the Output, Prev: The Disassembly View, Up: Getting Started

3.1.5 Display and Define the Metrics
------------------------------------

The default metrics shown by 'gprofng display text' are useful, but
there is more recorded than displayed. We can customize the values
shown by defining the metrics ourselves.

There are two commands related to changing the metrics shown:
'metric_list' and 'metrics'.

The first command shows the metrics in use, plus all the metrics that
have been stored as part of the experiment. The second command may be
used to define the metric list.

In our example we get the following values for the metrics:

$ gprofng display text -metric_list test.1.er

Current metrics: e.totalcpu:i.totalcpu:name
Current Sort Metric: Exclusive Total CPU Time ( e.totalcpu )
Available metrics:
Exclusive Total CPU Time: e.%totalcpu
Inclusive Total CPU Time: i.%totalcpu
Size: size
PC Address: address
Name: name

This shows the metrics currently in use, the metric that is used to
sort the data and all the metrics that have been recorded, but are not
necessarily shown.

In this case, the default metrics are set to the exclusive and
inclusive total CPU times, plus the name of the function, or load
object.

The 'metrics' command is used to define the metrics that need to be
displayed.

For example, to display the exclusive total CPU time, both as a
number and a percentage, use the following metric definition:
'e.%totalcpu'

Since the metrics can be tailored for different views, there is a way
to reset them to the default. This is done through the special keyword
'default'.

File: gprofng.info, Node: A First Customization of the Output, Next: Name the Experiment Directory, Prev: Display and Define the Metrics, Up: Getting Started

3.1.6 A First Customization of the Output
-----------------------------------------

With the information just given, we can customize the function overview.
For sake of the example, we would like to display the name of the
function first, followed by the exclusive CPU time, given as an absolute
number and a percentage.

Note that the commands are parsed in order of appearance. This is
why we need to define the metrics _before_ requesting the function
overview:

$ gprofng display text -metrics name:e.%totalcpu -functions test.1.er

Current metrics: name:e.%totalcpu
Current Sort Metric: Exclusive Total CPU Time ( e.%totalcpu )
Functions sorted by metric: Exclusive Total CPU Time

Name Excl. Total
CPU
sec. %
<Total> 2.272 100.00
mxv_core 2.160 95.04
init_data 0.047 2.06
erand48_r 0.030 1.32
__drand48_iterate 0.013 0.57
drand48 0.013 0.57
_int_malloc 0.008 0.35
brk 0.001 0.04
sysmalloc 0.001 0.04
__default_morecore 0. 0.
__libc_start_main 0. 0.
allocate_data 0. 0.
collector_root 0. 0.
driver_mxv 0. 0.
main 0. 0.
malloc 0. 0.
sbrk 0. 0.

This was a first and simple example how to customize the output.
Note that we did not rerun our profiling job and merely modified the
display settings. Below we will show other and also more advanced
examples of customization.

File: gprofng.info, Node: Name the Experiment Directory, Next: Control the Number of Lines in the Output, Prev: A First Customization of the Output, Up: Getting Started

3.1.7 Name the Experiment Directory
-----------------------------------

When using 'gprofng collect app', the default names for experiments work
fine, but they are quite generic. It is often more convenient to select
a more descriptive name. For example, one that reflects conditions for
the experiment conducted.

For this, the mutually exclusive '-o' and '-O' options come in handy.
Both may be used to provide a name for the experiment directory, but the
behaviour of 'gprofng collect app' is different.

With the '-o' option, an existing experiment directory is not
overwritten. You either need to explicitly remove an existing directory
first, or use a name that is not in use yet.

This is in contrast with the behaviour for the '-O' option. Any
existing (experiment) directory with the same name is silently
overwritten.

Be aware that the name of the experiment directory has to end with
'.er'.

File: gprofng.info, Node: Control the Number of Lines in the Output, Next: Sorting the Performance Data, Prev: Name the Experiment Directory, Up: Getting Started

3.1.8 Control the Number of Lines in the Output
-----------------------------------------------

The 'limit <n>' command can be used to control the number of lines
printed in various overviews, including the function view, but it also
takes effect for other display commands, like 'lines'.

The argument '<n>' should be a positive integer number. It sets the
number of lines in the function view. A value of zero resets the limit
to the default.

Be aware that the pseudo-function '<Total>' counts as a regular
function. For example 'limit 10' displays nine user level functions.

File: gprofng.info, Node: Sorting the Performance Data, Next: Scripting, Prev: Control the Number of Lines in the Output, Up: Getting Started

3.1.9 Sorting the Performance Data
----------------------------------

The 'sort <key>' command sets the key to be used when sorting the
performance data.

The key is a valid metric definition, but the visibility field (*Note
Metric Definitions::) in the metric definition is ignored since this
does not affect the outcome of the sorting operation. For example if we
set the sort key to 'e.totalcpu', the values will be sorted in
descending order with respect to the exclusive total CPU time.

The data can be sorted in reverse order by prepending the metric
definition with a minus ('-') sign. For example 'sort -e.totalcpu'.

A default metric for the sort operation has been defined and since
this is a persistent command, this default can be restored with
'default' as the key.

File: gprofng.info, Node: Scripting, Next: A More Elaborate Example, Prev: Sorting the Performance Data, Up: Getting Started

3.1.10 Scripting
----------------

As is probably clear by now, the list with commands for 'gprofng display
text' can be very long. This is tedious and also error prone. Luckily,
there is an easier and more elegant way to control the behaviour of this
tool.

Through the 'script' command, the name of a file with commands can be
passed in. These commands are parsed and executed as if they appeared
on the command line in the same order as encountered in the file. The
commands in this script file can actually be mixed with commands on the
command line.

The difference between the commands in the script file and those used
on the command line is that the latter require a leading dash ('-')
symbol.

Comment lines are supported. They need to start with the '#' symbol.

File: gprofng.info, Node: A More Elaborate Example, Next: The Call Tree, Prev: Scripting, Up: Getting Started

3.1.11 A More Elaborate Example
-------------------------------

With the information presented so far, we can customize our data
gathering and display commands.

As an example, to reflect the name of the algorithm and the number of
threads that were used in the experiment, we select 'mxv.1.thr.er' as
the name of the experiment directory. All we then need to do is to add
the '-O' option followed by this name on the command line when running
'gprofng collect app':

$ exe=mxv-pthreads.exe
$ m=3000
$ n=2000
$ gprofng collect app -O mxv.1.thr.er ./$exe -m $m -n $n -t 1

The commands to generate the profile are put into a file that we
simply call 'my-script':

$ cat my-script
# This is my first gprofng script
# Set the metrics
metrics i.%totalcpu:e.%totalcpu:name
# Use the exclusive time to sort
sort e.totalcpu
# Limit the function list to 5 lines
limit 5
# Show the function list
functions

This script file is then specified as input to the 'gprofng display
text' command that is used to display the performance information stored
in 'mxv.1.thr.er':

$ gprofng display text -script my-script mxv.1.thr.er

The command above produces the following output:

# This is my first gprofng script
# Set the metrics
Current metrics: i.%totalcpu:e.%totalcpu:name
Current Sort Metric: Exclusive Total CPU Time ( e.%totalcpu )
# Use the exclusive time to sort
Current Sort Metric: Exclusive Total CPU Time ( e.%totalcpu )
# Limit the function list to 5 lines
Print limit set to 5
# Show the function list
Functions sorted by metric: Exclusive Total CPU Time

Incl. Total Excl. Total Name
CPU CPU
sec. % sec. %
2.272 100.00 2.272 100.00 <Total>
2.159 95.00 2.159 95.00 mxv_core
0.102 4.48 0.054 2.37 init_data
0.035 1.54 0.025 1.10 erand48_r
0.048 2.11 0.013 0.57 drand48

In the first part of the output, our comment lines in the script file
are shown. These are interleaved with an acknowledgement message for
the commands.

This is followed by a profile consisting of 5 lines only. For both
metrics, the percentages plus the timings are given. The numbers are
sorted with respect to the exclusive total CPU time.

It is now immediately clear that function 'mxv_core' is responsbile
for 95% of the CPU time and 'init_data' takes 4.5% only.

This is also where we see sampling in action. Although this is
exactly the same job we profiled before, the timings are somewhat
different, but the differences are very small.

File: gprofng.info, Node: The Call Tree, Next: More Information on the Experiment, Prev: A More Elaborate Example, Up: Getting Started

3.1.12 The Call Tree
--------------------

The call tree shows the dynamic hierarchy of the application by
displaying the functions executed and their parent. It helps to find
the most expensive path in the program.

This feature is enabled through the 'calltree' command. This is how
to get this tree for our current experiment:

$ gprofng display text -calltree mxv.1.thr.er

This displays the following structure:

Functions Call Tree. Metric: Attributed Total CPU Time

At first sight this may not be what you expected and some explanation
is in place.

First of all, function 'collector_root' is internal to 'gprofng' and
should be hidden to the user. This is part of a planned future
enhancement.

Recall that the 'objects' and 'fsingle' commands are very useful to
find out more about load objects in general, but also to help identify
an unknown entry in the function overview. *Note Load Objects and
Functions::.

Another thing to note is that there are two main branches. The one
under 'collector_root' and the second one under '__libc_start_main'.
This reflects the fact that we are executing a parallel program. Even
though we only used one thread for this run, this is still executed in a
separate path.

The main, sequential part of the program is displayed under 'main'
and shows the functions called and the time they took.

There are two things worth noting for the call tree feature:

* This is a dynamic tree and since sampling is used, it most likely
looks slighlty different across seemingly identical profile runs.
In case the run times are short, it is worth considering to use a
high resolution through the '-p' option. For example to use '-p
hi' to increase the sampling rate.

* In case hardware event counters have been enabled (*Note Profile
Hardware Event Counters::), these values are also displayed in the
call tree view.

File: gprofng.info, Node: More Information on the Experiment, Next: Control the Sampling Frequency, Prev: The Call Tree, Up: Getting Started

3.1.13 More Information on the Experiment
-----------------------------------------

The experiment directory not only contains performance related data.
Several system characteristics, the actually command executed, and some
global performance statistics can be displayed.

The 'header' command displays information about the experiment(s).
For example, this is the command to extract this data from for our
experiment directory:

$ gprofng display text -header mxv.1.thr.er

The above command prints the following information. Note that some
of the lay-out and the information has been modified. The textual
changes are marked with the '<' and '>' symbols.

Experiment: mxv.1.thr.er
No errors
No warnings
Archive command `gp-archive -n -a on
--outfile <exp_dir>/archive.log <exp_dir>'

Target command (64-bit): './mxv-pthreads.exe -m 3000 -n 2000 -t 1'
Process pid 30591, ppid 30589, pgrp 30551, sid 30468
Current working directory: <cwd>
Collector version: `2.36.50'; experiment version 12.4 (64-bit)
Host `<hostname>', OS `Linux <version>', page size 4096,
architecture `x86_64'
16 CPUs, clock speed 1995 MHz.
Memory: 30871514 pages @ 4096 = 120591 MB.
Data collection parameters:
Clock-profiling, interval = 997 microsecs.
Periodic sampling, 1 secs.
Follow descendant processes from: fork|exec|combo

Experiment started <date and time>

Experiment Ended: 2.293162658
Data Collection Duration: 2.293162658

The output above may assist in troubleshooting, or to verify some of
the operational conditions and we recommand to include this command when
generating a profile.

Related to this command there is a useful option to record your own
comment(s) in an experiment. To this end, use the '-C' option on the
'gprofng collect app' tool to specify a comment string. Up to ten
comment lines can be included. These comments are displayed with the
'header' command on the 'gprofng display text' tool.

The 'overview' command displays information on the experiment(s) and
also shows a summary of the values for the metric(s) used. This is an
example how to use it on our newly created experiment directory:

$ gprofng display text -overview mxv.1.thr.er

Experiment(s):

Experiment :mxv.1.thr.er
Target : './mxv-pthreads.exe -m 3000 -n 2000 -t 1'
Host : <hostname> (<ISA>, Linux <version>)
Start Time : <date and time>
Duration : 2.293 Seconds

Metrics:

Experiment Duration (Seconds): [2.293]
Clock Profiling
[X]Total CPU Time - totalcpu (Seconds): [*2.272]

Notes: '*' indicates hot metrics, '[X]' indicates currently enabled
metrics.
The metrics command can be used to change selections. The
metric_list command lists all available metrics.

This command provides a dashboard overview that helps to easily
identify where the time is spent and in case hardware event counters are
used, it shows their total values.

File: gprofng.info, Node: Control the Sampling Frequency, Next: Information on Load Objects, Prev: More Information on the Experiment, Up: Getting Started

3.1.14 Control the Sampling Frequency
-------------------------------------

So far we did not talk about the frequency of the sampling process, but
in some cases it is useful to change the default of 10 milliseconds.

The advantage of increasing the sampling frequency is that functions
that do not take much time per invocation are more accurately captured.
The downside is that more data is gathered. This has an impact on the
overhead of the collection process and more disk space is required.

In general this is not an immediate concern, but with heavily
threaded applications that run for an extended period of time,
increasing the frequency may have a more noticeable impact.

The '-p' option on the 'gprofng collect app' tool is used to enable
or disable clock based profiling, or to explicitly set the sampling
rate. This option takes one of the following keywords:

'off'
Disable clock based profiling.

'on'
Enable clock based profiling with a per thread sampling interval of
10 ms. This is the default.

'lo'
Enable clock based profiling with a per thread sampling interval of
100 ms.

'hi'
Enable clock based profiling with a per thread sampling interval of
1 ms.

'<value>'
Enable clock based profiling with a per thread sampling interval of
<value>.

One may wonder why there is an option to disable clock based
profiling. This is because by default, it is enabled when conducting
hardware event counter experiments (*Note Profile Hardware Event
Counters::). With the '-p off' option, this can be disabled.

If an explicit value is set for the sampling, the number can be an
integer or a floating-point number. A suffix of 'u' for microseconds,
or 'm' for milliseconds is supported. If no suffix is used, the value
is assumed to be in milliseconds.

If the value is smaller than the clock profiling minimum, a warning
message is issued and it is set to the minimum. In case it is not a
multiple of the clock profiling resolution, it is silently rounded down
to the nearest multiple of the clock resolution.

If the value exceeds the clock profiling maximum, is negative, or
zero, an error is reported.

Note that the 'header' command echoes the sampling rate used.

File: gprofng.info, Node: Information on Load Objects, Prev: Control the Sampling Frequency, Up: Getting Started

3.1.15 Information on Load Objects
----------------------------------

It may happen that the function list contains a function that is not
known to the user. This can easily happen with library functions for
example. Luckily there are three commands that come in handy then.

These commands are 'objects', 'fsingle', and 'fsummary'. They
provide details on load objects (*Note Load Objects and Functions::).

The 'objects' command lists all load objects that have been
referenced during the performance experiment. Below we show the command
and the result for our profile job. Like before, the (long) path names
in the output have been shortened and replaced by the '<apath>' symbol
that represents an absolute directory path.

$ gprofng display text -objects mxv.1.thr.er

The output includes the name and path of the target executable:

<Unknown> (<Unknown>)
<mxv-pthreads.exe> (<apath>/mxv-pthreads.exe)
<librt-2.17.so> (/usr/lib64/librt-2.17.so)
<libdl-2.17.so> (/usr/lib64/libdl-2.17.so)
<libbfd-2.36.50.20210505.so> (<apath>/libbfd-2.36.50 <etc>)
<libopcodes-2.36.50.20210505.so> (<apath>/libopcodes-2. <etc>)
<libc-2.17.so> (/usr/lib64/libc-2.17.so)
<libpthread-2.17.so> (/usr/lib64/libpthread-2.17.so)
<libm-2.17.so> (/usr/lib64/libm-2.17.so)
<libgp-collector.so> (<apath>/libgp-collector.so)
<ld-2.17.so> (/usr/lib64/ld-2.17.so)
<DYNAMIC_FUNCTIONS> (DYNAMIC_FUNCTIONS)

The 'fsingle' command may be used to get more details on a specific
entry in the function view, say. For example, the command below
provides additional information on the 'collector_root' function shown
in the function overview.

$ gprofng display text -fsingle collector_root mxv.1.thr.er

Below the output from this command. It has been somewhat modified to
match the display requirements.

collector_root
Exclusive Total CPU Time: 0. ( 0. %)
Inclusive Total CPU Time: 2.159 ( 95.0%)
Size: 401
PC Address: 10:0x0001db60
Source File: <apath>/dispatcher.c
Object File: mxv.1.thr.er/archives/libgp-collector.so_HpzZ6wMR-3b
Load Object: <apath>/libgp-collector.so
Mangled Name:
Aliases:

In this table we not only see how much time was spent in this
function, we also see where it originates from. In addition to this,
the size and start address are given as well. If the source code
location is known it is also shown here.

The related 'fsummary' command displays the same information as
'fsingle', but for all functions in the function overview, including
'<Total>':

$ gprofng display text -fsummary mxv.1.thr.er

Functions sorted by metric: Exclusive Total CPU Time

<Total>
Exclusive Total CPU Time: 2.272 (100.0%)
Inclusive Total CPU Time: 2.272 (100.0%)
Size: 0
PC Address: 1:0x00000000
Source File: (unknown)
Object File: (unknown)
Load Object: <Total>
Mangled Name:
Aliases:

mxv_core
Exclusive Total CPU Time: 2.159 ( 95.0%)
Inclusive Total CPU Time: 2.159 ( 95.0%)
Size: 75
PC Address: 2:0x000021ba
Source File: <apath>/mxv.c
Object File: mxv.1.thr.er/archives/mxv-pthreads.exe_hRxWdccbJPc
Load Object: <apath>/mxv-pthreads.exe
Mangled Name:
Aliases:

... etc ...

File: gprofng.info, Node: Support for Multithreading, Next: Viewing Multiple Experiments, Prev: Getting Started, Up: A Mini Tutorial

3.2 Support for Multithreading
==============================

In this chapter we introduce and discuss the support for multithreading.
As is shown below, nothing needs to be changed when collecting the
performance data.

The difference is that additional commands are available to get more
information on the parallel environment, plus that several filters allow
the user to zoom in on specific threads.

* Menu:

* Creating a Multithreading Experiment::
* Commands Specific to Multithreading::

File: gprofng.info, Node: Creating a Multithreading Experiment, Next: Commands Specific to Multithreading, Up: Support for Multithreading

3.2.1 Creating a Multithreading Experiment
------------------------------------------

We demonstrate the support for multithreading using the same code and
settings as before, but this time we use 2 threads:

$ exe=mxv-pthreads.exe
$ m=3000
$ n=2000
$ gprofng collect app -O mxv.2.thr.er ./$exe -m $m -n $n -t 2

First of all, note that we did not change anything, other than
setting the number of threads to 2. Nothing special is needed to
profile a multithreaded job when using 'gprofng'.

The same is true when displaying the performance results. The same
commands that we used before work unmodified. For example, this is all
that is needed to get a function overview:

$ gpprofng display text -limit 10 -functions mxv.2.thr.er

This produces the following familiar looking output:

Print limit set to 10
Functions sorted by metric: Exclusive Total CPU Time

Excl. Incl. Name
Total Total
CPU sec. CPU sec.
2.268 2.268 <Total>
2.155 2.155 mxv_core
0.044 0.103 init_data
0.030 0.046 erand48_r
0.016 0.016 __drand48_iterate
0.013 0.059 drand48
0.008 0.011 _int_malloc
0.003 0.003 brk
0. 0.003 __default_morecore
0. 0.114 __libc_start_main

File: gprofng.info, Node: Commands Specific to Multithreading, Prev: Creating a Multithreading Experiment, Up: Support for Multithreading

3.2.2 Commands Specific to Multithreading
-----------------------------------------

The function overview shown above shows the results aggregated over all
the threads. The interesting new element is that we can also look at
the performance data for the individual threads.

The 'thread_list' command displays how many threads have been used:

$ gprofng display text -thread_list mxv.2.thr.er

This produces the following output, showing that three threads have
been used:

Exp Sel Total
=== === =====
1 all 3

The output confirms there is one experiment and that by default all
threads are selected.

It may seem surprising to see three threads here, since we used the
'-t 2' option, but it is common for a Pthreads program to use one
additional thread. This is typically the thread that runs from start to
finish and handles the sequential portions of the code, as well as takes
care of managing the threads.

It is no different in our example code. At some point, the main
thread creates and activates the two threads that perform the
multiplication of the matrix with the vector. Upon completion of this
computation, the main thread continues.

The 'threads' command is simple, yet very powerful. It shows the
total value of the metrics for each thread. To make it easier to
interpret the data, we modify the metrics to include percentages:

$ gprofng display text -metrics e.%totalcpu -threads mxv.2.thr.er

The command above produces the following overview:

Current metrics: e.%totalcpu:name
Current Sort Metric: Exclusive Total CPU Time ( e.%totalcpu )
Objects sorted by metric: Exclusive Total CPU Time

Excl. Total Name
CPU
sec. %
2.258 100.00 <Total>
1.075 47.59 Process 1, Thread 3
1.070 47.37 Process 1, Thread 2
0.114 5.03 Process 1, Thread 1

The first line gives the total CPU time accumulated over the threads
selected. This is followed by the metric value(s) for each thread.

From this it is clear that the main thread is responsible for 5% of
the total CPU time, while the other two threads take 47% each.

This view is ideally suited to verify if there any load balancing
issues and also to find the most time consuming thread(s).

While useful, often more information than this is needed. This is
where the thread selection filter comes in. Through the 'thread_select'
command, one or more threads may be selected (*Note The Selection List::
how to define the selection list).

Since it is most common to use this command in a script, we do so as
well here. Below the script we are using:

# Define the metrics
metrics e.%totalcpu
# Limit the output to 10 lines
limit 10
# Get the function overview for thread 1
thread_select 1
functions
# Get the function overview for thread 2
thread_select 2
functions
# Get the function overview for thread 3
thread_select 3
functions

The definition of the metrics and the output limiter has been shown
and explained before and will be ignored. The new command we focus on
is 'thread_select'.

This command takes a list (*Note The Selection List::) to select
specific threads. In this case we simply use the individual thread
numbers that we obtained with the 'thread_list' command earlier.

This restricts the output of the 'functions' command to the thread
number(s) specified. This means that the script above shows which
function(s) each thread executes and how much CPU time they consumed.
Both the timings and their percentages are given.

This is the relevant part of the output for the first thread:

# Get the function overview for thread 1
Exp Sel Total
=== === =====
1 1 3
Functions sorted by metric: Exclusive Total CPU Time

Excl. Total Name
CPU
sec. %
0.114 100.00 <Total>
0.051 44.74 init_data
0.028 24.56 erand48_r
0.017 14.91 __drand48_iterate
0.010 8.77 _int_malloc
0.008 7.02 drand48
0. 0. __libc_start_main
0. 0. allocate_data
0. 0. main
0. 0. malloc

As usual, the comment lines are echoed. This is followed by a
confirmation of our selection. We see that indeed thread 1 has been
selected. What is displayed next is the function overview for this
particular thread. Due to the 'limit 10' command, there are ten entries
in this list.

Below are the overviews for threads 2 and 3 respectively. We see
that all of the CPU time is spent in function 'mxv_core' and that this
time is approximately the same for both threads.

# Get the function overview for thread 2
Exp Sel Total
=== === =====
1 2 3
Functions sorted by metric: Exclusive Total CPU Time

Excl. Total Name
CPU
sec. %
1.072 100.00 <Total>
1.072 100.00 mxv_core
0. 0. collector_root
0. 0. driver_mxv

# Get the function overview for thread 3
Exp Sel Total
=== === =====
1 3 3
Functions sorted by metric: Exclusive Total CPU Time

Excl. Total Name
CPU
sec. %
1.076 100.00 <Total>
1.076 100.00 mxv_core
0. 0. collector_root
0. 0. driver_mxv

When analyzing the performance of a multithreaded application, it is
sometimes useful to know whether threads have mostly executed on the
same core, say, or if they have wandered across multiple cores. This
sort of stickiness is usually referred to as _thread affinity_.

Similar to the commands for the threads, there are several commands
related to the usage of the cores, or _CPUs_ as they are called in
'gprofng' (*Note The Concept of a CPU in gprofng::).

In order to have some more interesting data to look at, we created a
new experiment, this time using 8 threads:

$ exe=mxv-pthreads.exe
$ m=3000
$ n=2000
$ gprofng collect app -O mxv.8.thr.er ./$exe -m $m -n $n -t 8

Similar to the 'thread_list' command, the 'cpu_list' command displays
how many CPUs have been used. The equivalent of the 'threads' threads
command, is the 'cpus' command, which shows the CPU numbers that were
used and how much time was spent on each of them. Both are demonstrated
below.

$ gprofng display text -metrics e.%totalcpu -cpu_list -cpus mxv.8.thr.er

This command produces the following output:

Current metrics: e.%totalcpu:name
Current Sort Metric: Exclusive Total CPU Time ( e.%totalcpu )
Exp Sel Total
=== === =====
1 all 10
Objects sorted by metric: Exclusive Total CPU Time

Excl. Total Name
CPU
sec. %
2.310 100.00 <Total>
0.286 12.39 CPU 7
0.284 12.30 CPU 13
0.282 12.21 CPU 5
0.280 12.13 CPU 14
0.266 11.52 CPU 9
0.265 11.48 CPU 2
0.264 11.44 CPU 11
0.194 8.42 CPU 0
0.114 4.92 CPU 1
0.074 3.19 CPU 15

What we see in this table is that a total of 10 CPUs have been used.
This is followed by a list with all the CPU numbers that have been used
during the run. For each CPU it is shown how much time was spent on it.

While the table with thread times shown earlier may point at a load
imbalance in the application, this overview has a different purpose.

For example, we see that 10 CPUs have been used, but we know that the
application uses 9 threads only. This means that at least one thread
has executed on more than one CPU. In itself this is not something to
worry about, but warrants a deeper investigation.

Honesty dictates that next we performed a pre-analysis to find out
which thread(s) have been running on more than one CPU. We found this to
be thread 7. It has executed on CPUs 0 and 15.

With this knowledge, we wrote the script shown below. It zooms in on
the behaviour of thread 7.

# Define the metrics
metrics e.%totalcpu
# Limit the output to 10 lines
limit 10
functions
# Get the function overview for CPU 0
cpu_select 0
functions
# Get the function overview for CPU 15
cpu_select 15
functions

From the earlier shown threads overview, we know that thread 7 has
used '0.268' seconds of CPU time..

By selecting CPUs 0 and 15, respectively, we get the following
function overviews:

# Get the function overview for CPU 0
Exp Sel Total
=== === =====
1 0 10
Functions sorted by metric: Exclusive Total CPU Time

Excl. Total Name
CPU
sec. %
0.194 100.00 <Total>
0.194 100.00 mxv_core
0. 0. collector_root
0. 0. driver_mxv

# Get the function overview for CPU 15
Exp Sel Total
=== === =====
1 15 10
Functions sorted by metric: Exclusive Total CPU Time

Excl. Total Name
CPU
sec. %
0.074 100.00 <Total>
0.074 100.00 mxv_core
0. 0. collector_root
0. 0. driver_mxv

This shows that thread 7 spent '0.194' seconds on CPU 0 and '0.074'
seconds on CPU 15.

File: gprofng.info, Node: Viewing Multiple Experiments, Next: Profile Hardware Event Counters, Prev: Support for Multithreading, Up: A Mini Tutorial

3.3 Viewing Multiple Experiments
================================

One thing we did not cover sofar is that 'gprofng' fully supports the
analysis of multiple experiments. The 'gprofng display text' tool
accepts a list of experiments. The data can either be aggregated across
the experiments, or used in a comparison.

Mention 'experiment_list'

* Menu:

* Aggregation of Experiments::
* Comparison of Experiments::

File: gprofng.info, Node: Aggregation of Experiments, Next: Comparison of Experiments, Up: Viewing Multiple Experiments

3.3.1 Aggregation of Experiments
--------------------------------

By default, the data for multiple experiments is aggregrated and the
display commands shows these combined results.

For example, we can aggregate the data for our single and dual thread
experiments. Below is the script we used for this:

# Define the metrics
metrics e.%totalcpu
# Limit the output to 10 lines
limit 10
# Get the list with experiments
experiment_list
# Get the function overview
functions

With the exception of the 'experiment_list' command, all commands
used have been discussed earlier.

The 'experiment_list' command provides a list of the experiments that
have been loaded. This is is used to verify we are looking at the
experiments we intend to aggregate.

$ gprofng display text -script my-script-agg mxv.1.thr.er mxv.2.thr.er

With the command above, we get the following output:

# Define the metrics
Current metrics: e.%totalcpu:name
Current Sort Metric: Exclusive Total CPU Time ( e.%totalcpu )
# Limit the output to 10 lines
Print limit set to 10
# Get the list with experiments
ID Sel PID Experiment
== === ===== ============
1 yes 30591 mxv.1.thr.er
2 yes 11629 mxv.2.thr.er
# Get the function overview
Functions sorted by metric: Exclusive Total CPU Time

Excl. Total Name
CPU
sec. %
4.533 100.00 <Total>
4.306 94.99 mxv_core
0.105 2.31 init_data
0.053 1.17 erand48_r
0.027 0.59 __drand48_iterate
0.021 0.46 _int_malloc
0.021 0.46 drand48
0.001 0.02 sysmalloc
0. 0. __libc_start_main
0. 0. allocate_data

The first five lines should look familiar. The five lines following,
echo the comment line in the script and show the overview of the
experiments. This confirms two experiments have been loaded and that
both are active.

This is followed by the function overview. The timings have been
summed up and the percentages are adjusted accordingly. For example,
the total accumulated time is indeed 2.272 + 2.261 = 4.533 seconds.

File: gprofng.info, Node: Comparison of Experiments, Prev: Aggregation of Experiments, Up: Viewing Multiple Experiments

3.3.2 Comparison of Experiments
-------------------------------

The support for multiple experiments really shines in comparison mode.
This feature is enabled through the command 'compare on' and is disabled
by setting 'compare off'.

In comparison mode, the data for the various experiments is shown
side by side, as illustrated below where we compare the results for the
multithreaded experiments using one and two threads respectively:

$ gprofng display text -compare on -functions mxv.1.thr.er mxv.2.thr.er

This produces the following output:

Functions sorted by metric: Exclusive Total CPU Time

mxv.1.thr.er mxv.2.thr.er mxv.1.thr.er mxv.2.thr.er
Excl. Total Excl. Total Incl. Total Incl. Total Name
CPU CPU CPU CPU
sec. sec. sec. sec.
2.272 2.261 2.272 2.261 <Total>
2.159 2.148 2.159 2.148 mxv_core
0.054 0.051 0.102 0.104 init_data
0.025 0.028 0.035 0.045 erand48_r
0.013 0.008 0.048 0.053 drand48
0.011 0.010 0.012 0.010 _int_malloc
0.010 0.017 0.010 0.017 __drand48_iterate
0.001 0. 0.001 0. sysmalloc
0. 0. 0.114 0.114 __libc_start_main
0. 0. 0.011 0.010 allocate_data
0. 0. 0.001 0. check_results
0. 0. 2.159 2.148 collector_root
0. 0. 2.159 2.148 driver_mxv
0. 0. 0.114 0.114 main
0. 0. 0.012 0.010 malloc

This table is already helpful to more easily compare (two) profiles,
but there is more that we can do here.

By default, in comparison mode, all measured values are shown. Often
profiling is about comparing performance data. It is therefore more
useful to look at differences, or ratios, using one experiment as a
reference.

The values shown are relative to this difference. For example if a
ratio is below one, it means the reference value was higher.

This feature is supported on the 'compare' command. In addition to
'on', or 'off', this command also supports 'delta', or 'ratio'.

Usage of one of these two keywords enables the comparison feature and
shows either the difference, or the ratio, relative to the reference
data.

In the example below, we use the same two experiments used in the
comparison above, but as before, the number of lines is restricted to 10
and we focus on the exclusive timings plus percentages. For the
comparison part we are interested in the differences.

This is the script that produces such an overview:

# Define the metrics
metrics e.%totalcpu
# Limit the output to 10 lines
limit 10
# Set the comparison mode to differences
compare delta
# Get the function overview
functions

Assuming this script file is called 'my-script-comp', this is how we
get the table displayed on our screen:

$ gprofng display text -script my-script-comp mxv.1.thr.er mxv.2.thr.er

Leaving out some of the lines printed, but we have seen before, we
get the following table:

mxv.1.thr.er mxv.2.thr.er
Excl. Total Excl. Total Name
CPU CPU
sec. % delta %
2.272 100.00 -0.011 100.00 <Total>
2.159 95.00 -0.011 94.97 mxv_core
0.054 2.37 -0.003 2.25 init_data
0.025 1.10 +0.003 1.23 erand48_r
0.013 0.57 -0.005 0.35 drand48
0.011 0.48 -0.001 0.44 _int_malloc
0.010 0.44 +0.007 0.75 __drand48_iterate
0.001 0.04 -0.001 0. sysmalloc
0. 0. +0. 0. __libc_start_main
0. 0. +0. 0. allocate_data

It is now easy to see that the CPU times for the most time consuming
functions in this code are practically the same.

While in this case we used the delta as a comparison,

Note that the comparison feature is supported at the function,
source, and disassembly level. There is no practical limit on the
number of experiments that can be used in a comparison.

File: gprofng.info, Node: Profile Hardware Event Counters, Next: Java Profiling, Prev: Viewing Multiple Experiments, Up: A Mini Tutorial

3.4 Profile Hardware Event Counters
===================================

Many processors provide a set of hardware event counters and 'gprofng'
provides support for this feature. *Note Hardware Event Counters
Explained:: for those readers that are not familiar with such counters
and like to learn more.

In this section we explain how to get the details on the event
counter support for the processor used in the experiment(s), and show
several examples.

* Menu:

* Getting Information on the Counters Supported::
* Examples Using Hardware Event Counters::

File: gprofng.info, Node: Getting Information on the Counters Supported, Next: Examples Using Hardware Event Counters, Up: Profile Hardware Event Counters

3.4.1 Getting Information on the Counters Supported
---------------------------------------------------

The first step is to check if the processor used for the experiments is
supported by 'gprofng'.

The '-h' option on 'gprofng collect app' will show the event counter
information:

$ gprofng collect app -h

In case the counters are supported, a list with the events is
printed. Otherwise, a warning message will be issued.

For example, below we show this command and the output on an Intel
Xeon Platinum 8167M (aka "Skylake") processor. The output has been
split into several sections and each section is commented upon
separately.

Run "gprofng collect app --help" for a usage message.

Specifying HW counters on `Intel Arch PerfMon v2 on Family 6 Model 85'
(cpuver=2499):

-h {auto|lo|on|hi}
turn on default set of HW counters at the specified rate
-h <ctr_def> [-h <ctr_def>]...
-h <ctr_def>[,<ctr_def>]...
specify HW counter profiling for up to 4 HW counters

The first line shows how to get a usage overview. This is followed
by some information on the target processor.

The next five lines explain in what ways the '-h' option can be used
to define the events to be monitored.

The first version shown above enables a default set of counters.
This default depends on the processor this command is executed on. The
keyword following the '-h' option defines the sampling rate:

'auto'
Match the sample rate of used by clock profiling. If the latter is
disabled, Use a per thread sampling rate of approximately 100
samples per second. This setting is the default and preferred.

'on'
Use a per thread sampling rate of approximately 100 samples per
second.

'lo'
Use a per thread sampling rate of approximately 10 samples per
second.

'hi'
Use a per thread sampling rate of approximately 1000 samples per
second.

The second and third variant define the events to be monitored. Note
that the number of simultaneous events supported is printed. In this
case we can monitor four events in a single profiling job.

It is a matter of preference whether you like to use the '-h' option
for each event, or use it once, followed by a comma separated list.

There is one slight catch though. The counter definition below has
mandatory comma (',') between the event and the rate. While a default
can be used for the rate, the comma cannot be omitted. This may result
in a somewhat awkward counter definition in case the default sampling
rate is used.

For example, the following two commands are equivalent. Note the
double comma in the second command. This is not a typo.

$ gprofng collect app -h cycles -h insts ...
$ gprofng collect app -h cycles,,insts ...

In the first command this comma is not needed, because a comma
("','") immediately followed by white space may be omitted.

This is why we prefer the this syntax and in the remainder will use
the first version of this command.

The counter definition takes an event name, plus optionally one or
more attributes, followed by a comma, and optionally the sampling rate.
The output section below shows the formal definition.

<ctr_def> == <ctr>[[~<attr>=<val>]...],[<rate>]

The printed help then explains this syntax. Below we have summarized
and expanded this output:

'<ctr>'
The counter name must be selected from the available counters
listed as part of the output printed with the '-h' option. On most
systems, if a counter is not listed, it may still be specified by
its numeric value.

'~<attr>=<val>'
This is an optional attribute that depends on the processor. The
list of supported attributes is printed in the output. Examples of
attributes are "user", or "system". The value can given in decimal
or hexadecimal format. Multiple attributes may be specified, and
each must be preceded by a ~.

'<rate>'

The sampling rate is one of the following:

'auto'
This is the default and matches the rate used by clock
profiling. If clock profiling is disabled, use 'on'.

'on'
Set the per thread maximum sampling rate to ~100
samples/second

'lo'
Set the per thread maximum sampling rate to ~10 samples/second

'hi'
Set the per thread maximum sampling rate to ~1000
samples/second

'<interval>'
Define the sampling interval. *Note Control the Sampling
Frequency:: how to define this.

After the section with the formal definition of events and counters,
a processor specific list is displayed. This part starts with an
overview of the default set of counters and the aliased names supported
_on this specific processor_.

Default set of HW counters:

-h cycles,,insts,,llm

Aliases for most useful HW counters:

alias raw name type units regs description

cycles unhalted-core-cycles CPU-cycles 0123 CPU Cycles
insts instruction-retired events 0123 Instructions Executed
llm llc-misses events 0123 Last-Level Cache Misses
br_msp branch-misses-retired events 0123 Branch Mispredict
br_ins branch-instruction-retired events 0123 Branch Instructions

The definitions given above may or may not be available on other
processors, but we try to maximize the overlap across alias sets.

The table above shows the default set of counters defined for this
processor, and the aliases. For each alias the full "raw" name is
given, plus the unit of the number returned by the counter (CPU cycles,
or a raw count), the hardware counter the event is allowed to be mapped
onto, and a short description.

The last part of the output contains all the events that can be
monitored:

Raw HW counters:

name type units regs description

unhalted-core-cycles CPU-cycles 0123
unhalted-reference-cycles events 0123
instruction-retired events 0123
llc-reference events 0123
llc-misses events 0123
branch-instruction-retired events 0123
branch-misses-retired events 0123
ld_blocks.store_forward events 0123
ld_blocks.no_sr events 0123
ld_blocks_partial.address_alias events 0123
dtlb_load_misses.miss_causes_a_walk events 0123
dtlb_load_misses.walk_completed_4k events 0123

l2_lines_out.silent events 0123
l2_lines_out.non_silent events 0123
l2_lines_out.useless_hwpf events 0123
sq_misc.split_lock events 0123

See Chapter 19 of the "Intel 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software
Developer's Manual Volume 3B: System Programming Guide"

As can be seen, these names are not always easy to correlate to a
specific event of interest. The processor manual should provide more
clarity on this.

File: gprofng.info, Node: Examples Using Hardware Event Counters, Prev: Getting Information on the Counters Supported, Up: Profile Hardware Event Counters

3.4.2 Examples Using Hardware Event Counters
--------------------------------------------

The previous section may give the impression that these counters are
hard to use, but as we will show now, in practice it is quite simple.

With the information from the '-h' option, we can easily set up our
first event counter experiment.

We start by using the default set of counters defined for our
processor and we use 2 threads:

$ exe=mxv-pthreads.exe
$ m=3000
$ n=2000
$ exp=mxv.hwc.def.2.thr.er
$ gprofng collect app -O $exp -h auto ./$exe -m $m -n $n -t 2

The new option here is '-h auto'. The 'auto' keyword enables
hardware event counter profiling and selects the default set of counters
defined for this processor.

As before, we can display the information, but there is one practical
hurdle to take. Unless we like to view all metrics recorded, we would
need to know the names of the events that have been enabled. This is
tedious and also not portable in case we would like to repeat this
experiment on another processor.

This is where the special 'hwc' metric comes very handy. It
automatically expands to the active set of events used.

With this, it is very easy to display the event counter values. Note
that although the regular clock based profiling was enabled, we only
want to see the counter values. We also request to see the percentages
and limit the output to the first 5 lines:

$ exp=mxv.hwc.def.2.thr.er
$ gprofng display text -metrics e.%hwc -limit 5 -functions $exp

Current metrics: e.%cycles:e+%insts:e+%llm:name
Current Sort Metric: Exclusive CPU Cycles ( e.%cycles )
Print limit set to 5
Functions sorted by metric: Exclusive CPU Cycles

Excl. CPU Excl. Instructions Excl. Last-Level Name
Cycles Executed Cache Misses
sec. % % %
2.691 100.00 7906475309 100.00 122658983 100.00 <Total>
2.598 96.54 7432724378 94.01 121745696 99.26 mxv_core
0.035 1.31 188860269 2.39 70084 0.06 erand48_r
0.026 0.95 73623396 0.93 763116 0.62 init_data
0.018 0.66 76824434 0.97 40040 0.03 drand48

As we have seen before, the first few lines echo the settings. This
includes a list with the hardware event counters used by default.

The table that follows makes it very easy to get an overview where
the time is spent and how many of the target events have occurred.

As before, we can drill down deeper and see the same metrics at the
source line and instruction level. Other than using 'hwc' in the
metrics definitions, nothing has changed compared to the previous
examples:

$ exp=mxv.hwc.def.2.thr.er
$ gprofng display text -metrics e.hwc -source mxv_core $exp

This is the relevant part of the output. Since the lines get very
long, we have somewhat modified the lay-out:

Excl. CPU Excl. Excl.
Cycles Instructions Last-Level
sec. Executed Cache Misses
<Function: mxv_core>
0. 0 0 32. void __attribute__ ((noinline))
mxv_core(...)
0. 0 0 33. {
0. 0 0 34. for (uint64_t i=...) {
0. 0 0 35. double row_sum = 0.0;
## 1.872 7291879319 88150571 36. for (int64_t j=0; j<n; j++)
0.725 140845059 33595125 37. row_sum += A[i][j]*b[j];
0. 0 0 38. c[i] = row_sum;
39. }
0. 0 0 40. }

In a smiliar way we can display the event counter values at the
instruction level. Again we have modified the lay-out due to page width
limitations:

$ exp=mxv.hwc.def.2.thr.er
$ gprofng display text -metrics e.hwc -disasm mxv_core $exp

Excl. CPU Excl. Excl.
Cycles Instructions Last-Level
sec. Executed Cache Misses
<Function: mxv_core>
0. 0 0 [33] 4021ba: mov 0x8(%rsp),%r10
34. for (uint64_t i=...) {
0. 0 0 [34] 4021bf: cmp %rsi,%rdi
0. 0 0 [34] 4021c2: jbe 0x37
0. 0 0 [34] 4021c4: ret
35. double row_sum = 0.0;
36. for (int64_t j=0; j<n; j++)
37. row_sum += A[i][j]*b[j];
0. 0 0 [37] 4021c5: mov (%r8,%rdi,8),%rdx
0. 0 0 [36] 4021c9: mov $0x0,%eax
0. 0 0 [35] 4021ce: pxor %xmm1,%xmm1
0.002 12804230 321394 [37] 4021d2: movsd (%rdx,%rax,8),%xmm0
0.141 60819025 3866677 [37] 4021d7: mulsd (%r9,%rax,8),%xmm0
0.582 67221804 29407054 [37] 4021dd: addsd %xmm0,%xmm1
## 1.871 7279075109 87989870 [36] 4021e1: add $0x1,%rax
0.002 12804210 80351 [36] 4021e5: cmp %rax,%rcx
0. 0 0 [36] 4021e8: jne 0xffffffffffffffea
38. c[i] = row_sum;
0. 0 0 [38] 4021ea: movsd %xmm1,(%r10,%rdi,8)
0. 0 0 [34] 4021f0: add $0x1,%rdi
0. 0 0 [34] 4021f4: cmp %rdi,%rsi
0. 0 0 [34] 4021f7: jb 0xd
0. 0 0 [35] 4021f9: pxor %xmm1,%xmm1
0. 0 0 [36] 4021fd: test %rcx,%rcx
0. 0 80350 [36] 402200: jne 0xffffffffffffffc5
0. 0 0 [36] 402202: jmp 0xffffffffffffffe8
39. }
40. }
0. 0 0 [40] 402204: ret

So far we have used the default settings for the event counters. It
is quite straightforward to select specific counters. For sake of the
example, let's assume we would like to count how many branch
instructions and retired memory load instructions that missed in the L1
cache have been executed. We also want to count these events with a
high resolution.

This is the command to do so:

$ exe=mxv-pthreads.exe
$ m=3000
$ n=2000
$ exp=mxv.hwc.sel.2.thr.er
$ hwc1=br_ins,hi
$ hwc2=mem_load_retired.l1_miss,hi
$ gprofng collect app -O $exp -h $hwc1 -h $hwc2 $exe -m $m -n $n -t 2

As before, we get a table with the event counts. Due to the very
long name for the second counter, we have somewhat modified the output.

$ gprofng display text -limit 10 -functions mxv.hwc.sel.2.thr.er

Functions sorted by metric: Exclusive Total CPU Time
Excl. Incl. Excl. Branch Excl. Name
Total Total Instructions mem_load_retired.l1_miss
CPU sec. CPU sec. Events
2.597 2.597 1305305319 4021340 <Total>
2.481 2.481 1233233242 3982327 mxv_core
0.040 0.107 19019012 9003 init_data
0.028 0.052 23023048 15006 erand48_r
0.024 0.024 19019008 9004 __drand48_iterate
0.015 0.067 11011009 2998 drand48
0.008 0.010 0 3002 _int_malloc
0.001 0.001 0 0 brk
0.001 0.002 0 0 sysmalloc
0. 0.001 0 0 __default_morecore

When using event counters, the values could be very large and it is
not easy to compare the numbers. As we will show next, the 'ratio'
feature is very useful when comparing such profiles.

To demonstrate this, we have set up another event counter experiment
where we would like to compare the number of last level cache miss and
the number of branch instructions executed when using a single thread,
or two threads.

These are the commands used to generate the experiment directories:

$ exe=./mxv-pthreads.exe
$ m=3000
$ n=2000
$ exp1=mxv.hwc.comp.1.thr.er
$ exp2=mxv.hwc.comp.2.thr.er
$ gprofng collect app -O $exp1 -h llm -h br_ins $exe -m $m -n $n -t 1
$ gprofng collect app -O $exp2 -h llm -h br_ins $exe -m $m -n $n -t 2

The following script has been used to get the tables. Due to lay-out
restrictions, we have to create two tables, one for each counter.

# Limit the output to 5 lines
limit 5
# Define the metrics
metrics name:e.llm
# Set the comparison to ratio
compare ratio
functions
# Define the metrics
metrics name:e.br_ins
# Set the comparison to ratio
compare ratio
functions

Note that we print the name of the function first, followed by the
counter data. The new element is that we set the comparison mode to
'ratio'. This divides the data in a column by its counterpart in the
reference experiment.

This is the command using this script and the two experiment
directories as input:

$ gprofng display text -script my-script-comp-counters \
mxv.hwc.comp.1.thr.er \
mxv.hwc.comp.2.thr.er

By design, we get two tables, one for each counter:

Functions sorted by metric: Exclusive Last-Level Cache Misses

mxv.hwc.comp.1.thr.er mxv.hwc.comp.2.thr.er
Name Excl. Last-Level Excl. Last-Level
Cache Misses Cache Misses
ratio
<Total> 122709276 x 0.788
mxv_core 121796001 x 0.787
init_data 723064 x 1.055
erand48_r 100111 x 0.500
drand48 60065 x 1.167

Functions sorted by metric: Exclusive Branch Instructions

mxv.hwc.comp.1.thr.er mxv.hwc.comp.2.thr.er
Name Excl. Branch Excl. Branch
Instructions Instructions
ratio
<Total> 1307307316 x 0.997
mxv_core 1235235239 x 0.997
erand48_r 23023033 x 0.957
drand48 20020009 x 0.600
__drand48_iterate 17017028 x 0.882

A ratio less than one in the second column, means that this counter
value was smaller than the value from the reference experiment shown in
the first column.

This kind of presentation of the results makes it much easier to
quickly interpret the data.

We conclude this section with thread-level event counter overviews,
but before we go into this, there is an important metric we need to
mention.

In case it is known how many instructions and CPU cycles have been
executed, the value for the IPC ("Instructions Per Clockycle") can be
computed. *Note Hardware Event Counters Explained::. This is a derived
metric that gives an indication how well the processor is utilized. The
inverse of the IPC is called CPI.

The 'gprofng display text' command automatically computes the IPC and
CPI values if an experiment contains the event counter values for the
instructions and CPU cycles executed. These are part of the metric list
and can be displayed, just like any other metric.

This can be verified through the 'metric_list' command. If we go
back to our earlier experiment with the default event counters, we get
the following result.

$ gprofng display text -metric_list mxv.hwc.def.2.thr.er

Current metrics: e.totalcpu:i.totalcpu:e.cycles:e+insts:e+llm:name
Current Sort Metric: Exclusive Total CPU Time ( e.totalcpu )
Available metrics:
Exclusive Total CPU Time: e.%totalcpu
Inclusive Total CPU Time: i.%totalcpu
Exclusive CPU Cycles: e.+%cycles
Inclusive CPU Cycles: i.+%cycles
Exclusive Instructions Executed: e+%insts
Inclusive Instructions Executed: i+%insts
Exclusive Last-Level Cache Misses: e+%llm
Inclusive Last-Level Cache Misses: i+%llm
Exclusive Instructions Per Cycle: e+IPC
Inclusive Instructions Per Cycle: i+IPC
Exclusive Cycles Per Instruction: e+CPI
Inclusive Cycles Per Instruction: i+CPI
Size: size
PC Address: address
Name: name

Among the other metrics, we see the new metrics for the IPC and CPI
listed.

In the script below, we use this information and add the IPC and CPI
to the metrics to be displayed. We also use a the thread filter to
display these values for the individual threads.

This is the complete script we have used. Other than a different
selection of the metrics, there are no new features.

# Define the metrics
metrics e.insts:e.%cycles:e.IPC:e.CPI
# Sort with respect to cycles
sort e.cycles
# Limit the output to 5 lines
limit 5
# Get the function overview for all threads
functions
# Get the function overview for thread 1
thread_select 1
functions
# Get the function overview for thread 2
thread_select 2
functions
# Get the function overview for thread 3
thread_select 3
functions

In the metrics definition on the second line, we explicitly request
the counter values for the instructions ('e.insts') and CPU cycles
('e.cycles') executed. These names can be found in output from the
'metric_list' commad above. In addition to these metrics, we also
request the IPC and CPI to be shown.

As before, we used the 'limit' command to control the number of
functions displayed. We then request an overview for all the threads,
followed by three sets of two commands to select a thread and display
the function overview.

The script above is used as follows:

$ gprofng display text -script my-script-ipc mxv.hwc.def.2.thr.er

This script produces four tables. We list them separately below, and
have left out the additional output.

The first table shows the accumulated values across the three threads
that have been active.

Functions sorted by metric: Exclusive CPU Cycles

Excl. Excl. CPU Excl. Excl. Name
Instructions Cycles IPC CPI
Executed sec. %
7906475309 2.691 100.00 1.473 0.679 <Total>
7432724378 2.598 96.54 1.434 0.697 mxv_core
188860269 0.035 1.31 2.682 0.373 erand48_r
73623396 0.026 0.95 1.438 0.696 init_data
76824434 0.018 0.66 2.182 0.458 drand48

This shows that IPC of this program is completely dominated by
function 'mxv_core'. It has a fairly low IPC value of 1.43.

The next table is for thread 1 and shows the values for the main
thread.

Exp Sel Total
=== === =====
1 1 3
Functions sorted by metric: Exclusive CPU Cycles

Excl. Excl. CPU Excl. Excl. Name
Instructions Cycles IPC CPI
Executed sec. %
473750931 0.093 100.00 2.552 0.392 <Total>
188860269 0.035 37.93 2.682 0.373 erand48_r
73623396 0.026 27.59 1.438 0.696 init_data
76824434 0.018 18.97 2.182 0.458 drand48
134442832 0.013 13.79 5.250 0.190 __drand48_iterate

Although this thread hardly uses any CPU cycles, the overall IPC of
2.55 is not all that bad.

Last, we show the tables for threads 2 and 3:

Exp Sel Total
=== === =====
1 2 3
Functions sorted by metric: Exclusive CPU Cycles

Excl. Excl. CPU Excl. Excl. Name
Instructions Cycles IPC CPI
Executed sec. %
3716362189 1.298 100.00 1.435 0.697 <Total>
3716362189 1.298 100.00 1.435 0.697 mxv_core
0 0. 0. 0. 0. collector_root
0 0. 0. 0. 0. driver_mxv

Exp Sel Total
=== === =====
1 3 3
Functions sorted by metric: Exclusive CPU Cycles

Excl. Excl. CPU Excl. Excl. Name
Instructions Cycles IPC CPI
Executed sec. %
3716362189 1.300 100.00 1.433 0.698 <Total>
3716362189 1.300 100.00 1.433 0.698 mxv_core
0 0. 0. 0. 0. collector_root
0 0. 0. 0. 0. driver_mxv

It is seen that both execute the same number of instructions and take
about the same number of CPU cycles. As a result, the IPC is the same
for both threads.

File: gprofng.info, Node: Java Profiling, Prev: Profile Hardware Event Counters, Up: A Mini Tutorial

3.5 Java Profiling
==================

The 'gprofng collect app' command supports Java profiling. The '-j on'
option can be used for this, but since this feature is enabled by
default, there is no need to set this explicitly. Java profiling may be
disabled through the '-j off' option.

The program is compiled as usual and the experiment directory is
created similar to what we have seen before. The only difference with a
C/C++ application is that the program has to be explicitly executed by
java.

For example, this is how to generate the experiment data for a Java
program that has the source code stored in file 'Pi.java':

$ javac Pi.java
$ gprofng collect app -j on -O pi.demo.er java Pi < pi.in

Regarding which java is selected to generate the data, 'gprofng'
first looks for the JDK in the path set in either the 'JDK_HOME'
environment variable, or in the 'JAVA_PATH' environment variable. If
neither of these variables is set, it checks for a JDK in the search
path (set in the PATH environment variable). If there is no JDK in this
path, it checks for the java executable in '/usr/java/bin/java'.

In case additional options need to be passed on to the JVM, the '-J
<string>' option can be used. The string with the option(s) has to be
delimited by quotation marks in case there is more than one argument.

The 'gprofng display text' command may be used to view the
performance data. There is no need for any special options and the same
commands as previously discussed are supported.

The 'viewmode' command *Note The Viewmode:: is very useful to examine
the call stacks.

For example, this is how one can see the native call stacks. For
lay-out purposes we have restricted the list to the first five entries:

$ gprofng display text -limit 5 -viewmode machine -calltree pi.demo.er

Print limit set to 5
Viewmode set to machine
Functions Call Tree. Metric: Attributed Total CPU Time

Attr. Name
Total
CPU sec.
1.381 +-<Total>
1.171 +-Pi.calculatePi(double)
0.110 +-collector_root
0.110 | +-JavaMain
0.070 | +-jni_CallStaticVoidMethod

Note that the selection of the viewmode is echoed in the output.

File: gprofng.info, Node: Terminology, Next: Other Document Formats, Prev: A Mini Tutorial, Up: Top

4 Terminology
*************

Throughout this manual, certain terminology specific to profiling tools,
or 'gprofng', or even to this document only, is used. In this chapter
we explain this terminology in detail.

* Menu:

File: gprofng.info, Node: The Program Counter, Next: Inclusive and Exclusive Metrics, Up: Terminology

4.1 The Program Counter
=======================

The _Program Counter_, or PC for short, keeps track where program
execution is. The address of the next instruction to be executed is
stored in a special purpose register in the processor, or core.

The PC is sometimes also referred to as the _instruction pointer_,
but we will use Program Counter or PC throughout this document.

File: gprofng.info, Node: Inclusive and Exclusive Metrics, Next: Metric Definitions, Prev: The Program Counter, Up: Terminology

4.2 Inclusive and Exclusive Metrics
===================================

In the remainder, these two concepts occur quite often and for lack of a
better place, they are explained here.

The _inclusive_ value for a metric includes all values that are part
of the dynamic extent of the target function. For example if function
'A' calls functions 'B' and 'C', the inclusive CPU time for 'A' includes
the CPU time spent in 'B' and 'C'.

In contrast with this, the _exclusive_ value for a metric is computed
by excluding the metric values used by other functions called. In our
imaginary example, the exclusive CPU time for function 'A' is the time
spent outside calling functions 'B' and 'C'.

In case of a _leaf function_, the inclusive and exclusive values for
the metric are the same since by definition, it is not calling any other
function(s).

Why do we use these two different values? The inclusive metric shows
the most expensive path, in terms of this metric, in the application.
For example, if the metric is cache misses, the function with the
highest inclusive metric tells you where most of the cache misses come
from.

Within this branch of the application, the exclusive metric points to
the functions that contribute and help to identify which part(s) to
consider for further analysis.

File: gprofng.info, Node: Metric Definitions, Next: The Viewmode, Prev: Inclusive and Exclusive Metrics, Up: Terminology

4.3 Metric Definitions
======================

The metrics to be shown are highly customizable. In this section we
explain the definitions associated with metrics.

The 'metrics' command takes a colon (:) separated list with special
keywords. This keyword consists of the following three fields:
'<flavor>''<visibility>''<metric_name>'.

The _<flavor>_ field is either an 'e' for "exclusive", or 'i' for
"inclusive". The '<metric_name>' field is the name of the metric
request. The _<visibility>_ field consists of one ore more characters
from the following table:

'.'
Show the metric as time. This applies to timing metrics and
hardware event counters that measure cycles. Interpret as '+' for
other metrics.

'%'
Show the metric as a percentage of the total value for this metric.

'+'
Show the metric as an absolute value. For hardware event counters
this is the event count. Interpret as '.' for timing metrics.

'|'
Do not show any metric value. Cannot be used with other visibility
characters.

File: gprofng.info, Node: The Viewmode, Next: The Selection List, Prev: Metric Definitions, Up: Terminology

4.4 The Viewmode
================

There are different ways to view a call stack in Java. In 'gprofng',
this is called the _viewmode_ and the setting is controlled through a
command with the same name.

The 'viewmode' command takes one of the following keywords:

'user'
This is the default and shows the Java call stacks for Java
threads. No call stacks for any housekeeping threads are shown.
The function list contains a function '<JVM-System>' that
represents the aggregated time from non-Java threads. When the JVM
software does not report a Java call stack, time is reported
against the function '<no Java callstack recorded>'.

'expert'
Show the Java call stacks for Java threads when the Java code from
the user is executed and machine call stacks when JVM code is
executed, or when the JVM software does not report a Java call
stack. Show the machine call stacks for housekeeping threads.

'machine'
Show the actual native call stacks for all threads.

File: gprofng.info, Node: The Selection List, Next: Load Objects and Functions, Prev: The Viewmode, Up: Terminology

4.5 The Selection List
======================

Several commands allow the user to specify a subset of a list. For
example, to select specific threads from all the threads that have been
used when conducting the experiment(s).

Such a selection list (or "list" in the remainder of this section)
can be a single number, a contiguous range of numbers with the start and
end numbers separated by a hyphen ('-'), a comma-separated list of
numbers and ranges, or the 'all' keyword. Lists must not contain
spaces.

Each list can optionally be preceded by an experiment list with a
similar format, separated from the list by a colon (:). If no
experiment list is included, the list applies to all experiments.

Multiple lists can be concatenated by separating the individual lists
by a plus sign.

These are some examples of various filters using a list:

'thread_select 1'
Select thread 1 from all experiments.

'thread_select all:1'
Select thread 1 from all experiments.

'thread_select 1:1+2:2'
Select thread 1 from experiment 1 and thread 2 from experiment 2.

'cpu_select all:1,3,5'
Selects cores 1, 3, and 5 from all experiments.

'cpu_select 1,2:all'
Select all cores from experiments 1 and 2, as listed by the 'by
exp_list' command.

File: gprofng.info, Node: Load Objects and Functions, Next: The Concept of a CPU in gprofng, Prev: The Selection List, Up: Terminology

4.6 Load Objects and Functions
==============================

An application consists of various components. The source code files
are compiled into object files. These are then glued together at link
time to form the executable. During execution, the program may also
dynamically load objects.

A _load object_ is defined to be an executable, or shared object. A
shared library is an example of a load object in 'gprofng'.

Each load object, contains a text section with the instructions
generated by the compiler, a data section for data, and various symbol
tables. All load objects must contain an ELF symbol table, which gives
the names and addresses of all the globally known functions in that
object.

Load objects compiled with the -g option contain additional symbolic
information that can augment the ELF symbol table and provide
information about functions that are not global, additional information
about object modules from which the functions came, and line number
information relating addresses to source lines.

The term _function_ is used to describe a set of instructions that
represent a high-level operation described in the source code. The term
also covers methods as used in C++ and in the Java programming language.

In the 'gprofng' context, functions are provided in source code
format. Normally their names appear in the symbol table representing a
set of addresses. If the Program Counter (PC) is within that set, the
program is executing within that function.

In principle, any address within the text segment of a load object
can be mapped to a function. Exactly the same mapping is used for the
leaf PC and all the other PCs on the call stack.

Most of the functions correspond directly to the source model of the
program, but there are exceptions. This topic is however outside of the
scope of this guide.

File: gprofng.info, Node: The Concept of a CPU in gprofng, Next: Hardware Event Counters Explained, Prev: Load Objects and Functions, Up: Terminology

4.7 The Concept of a CPU in gprofng
===================================

In gprofng, there is the concept of a CPU. Admittedly, this is not the
best word to describe what is meant here and may be replaced in the
future.

The word CPU is used in many of the displays. In the context of
gprofng, it is meant to denote a part of the processor that is capable
of executing instructions and with its own state, like the program
counter.

For example, on a contemporary processor, a CPU could be a core. In
case hardware threads are supported within a core, it could be one of
those hardware threads.

File: gprofng.info, Node: Hardware Event Counters Explained, Next: apath, Prev: The Concept of a CPU in gprofng, Up: Terminology

4.8 Hardware Event Counters Explained
=====================================

For quite a number of years now, many microprocessors have supported
hardware event counters.

On the hardware side, this means that in the processor there are one
or more registers dedicated to count certain activities, or "events".
Examples of such events are the number of instructions executed, or the
number of cache misses at level 2 in the memory hierarchy.

While there is a limited set of such registers, the user can map
events onto them. In case more than one register is available, this
allows for the simultaenous measurement of various events.

A simple, yet powerful, example is to simultaneously count the number
of CPU cycles and the number of instructions excuted. These two numbers
can then be used to compute the _IPC_ value. IPC stands for
"Instructions Per Clockcycle" and each processor has a maximum. For
example, if this maximum number is 2, it means the processor is capable
of executing two instructions every clock cycle.

Whether this is actually achieved, depends on several factors,
including the instruction characteristics. However, in case the IPC
value is well below this maximum in a time critical part of the
application and this cannot be easily explained, further investigation
is probably warranted.

A related metric is called _CPI_, or "Clockcycles Per Instruction".
It is the inverse of the CPI and can be compared against the theoretical
value(s) of the target instruction(s). A significant difference may
point at a bottleneck.

One thing to keep in mind is that the value returned by a counter can
either be the number of times the event occured, or a CPU cycle count.
In case of the latter it is possible to convert this number to time.

This is often easier to interpret than a simple count, but there is
one caveat to keep in mind. The CPU frequency may not have been
constant while the experimen was recorded and this impacts the time
reported.

These event counters, or "counters" for short, provide great insight
into what happens deep inside the processor. In case higher level
information does not provide the insight needed, the counters provide
the information to get to the bottom of a performance problem.

There are some things to consider though.

* The event definitions and names vary across processors and it may
even happen that some events change with an update. Unfortunately
and this is luckily rare, there are sometimes bugs causing the
wrong count to be returned.

In 'gprofng', some of the processor specific event names have an
alias name. For example 'insts' measures the instructions
executed. These aliases not only makes it easier to identify the
functionality, but also provide portability of certain events
across processors.

* Another complexity is that there are typically many events one can
monitor. There may up to hundreds of events available and it could
require several experiments to zoom in on the root cause of a
performance problem.

* There may be restrictions regarding the mapping of event(s) onto
the counters. For example, certain events may be restricted to
specific counters only. As a result, one may have to conduct
additional experiments to cover all the events of interest.

* The names of the events may also not be easy to interpret. In such
cases, the description can be found in the architecture manual for
the processor.

Despite these drawbacks, hardware event counters are extremely useful
and may even turn out to be indispensable.

File: gprofng.info, Node: apath, Prev: Hardware Event Counters Explained, Up: Terminology

4.9 What is <apath>?
====================

In most cases, 'gprofng' shows the absolute pathnames of directories.
These tend to be rather long, causing display issues in this document.

Instead of wrapping these long pathnames over multiple lines, we
decided to represent them by the '<apath>' symbol, which stands for "an
absolute pathname".

Note that different occurrences of '<apath>' may represent different
absolute pathnames.

File: gprofng.info, Node: Other Document Formats, Next: Index, Prev: Terminology, Up: Top

5 Other Document Formats
************************

This document is written in Texinfo and the source text is made
available as part of the binutils distribution. The file name is
'gprofng.texi' and can be found in subdirectory 'doc' under directory
'gprofng' in the top level directory.

This file can be used to generate the document in the 'info', 'html',
and 'pdf' formats. The default installation procedure creates a file in
the 'info' format and stores it in the documentation section of
binutils.

The probably easiest way to generate a different format from this
Texinfo document is to go to the distribution directory that was created
when the tools were built. This is either the default distribution
directory, or the one that has been set with the '--prefix' option as
part of the 'configure' command. In this example we symbolize this
location with '<dist>'.

The make file called 'Makefile' in directory '<dist>/gprofng/doc'
supports several commands to generate this document in different
formats. We recommend to use these commands.

They create the file(s) and install it in the documentation directory
of binutils, which is '<dist>/share/doc' in case 'html' or 'pdf' is
selected and '<dist>/share/info' for the file in the 'info' format.

To generate this document in the requested format and install it in
the documentation directory, the commands below should be executed. In
this notation, '<format>' is one of 'info', 'html', or 'pdf':

$ cd <dist>/gprofng/doc
$ make install-<format>

Some things to note:

* For the 'pdf' file to be generated, the TeX document formatting
software is required and the relevant commmands need to be included
in the search path. An example of a popular TeX implementation is
_TexLive_. It is beyond the scope of this document to go into the
details of installing and using TeX, but it is well documented
elsewhere.

* Instead of generating a single file in the 'html' format, it is
also possible to create a directory with individual files for the
various chapters. To do so, remove the use of '--no-split' in
variable 'MAKEINFOHTML' in the make file in the 'doc' directory.

* The make file also supports commands to only generate the file in
the desired format and not move them to the documentation
directory. This is accomplished through the 'make <format>'
command.

File: gprofng.info, Node: Index, Prev: Other Document Formats, Up: Top

Index
*****

[index]
* Menu:

* Command line mode: A First Profile. (line 39)
* Commands, calltree: The Call Tree. (line 10)
* Commands, compare delta: Comparison of Experiments.
(line 52)
* Commands, compare on/off: Comparison of Experiments.
(line 7)
* Commands, compare on/off <1>: Comparison of Experiments.
(line 51)
* Commands, compare ratio: Comparison of Experiments.
(line 52)
* Commands, compare ratio <1>: Examples Using Hardware Event Counters.
(line 166)
* Commands, cpus: Commands Specific to Multithreading.
(line 177)
* Commands, cpu_list: Commands Specific to Multithreading.
(line 176)
* Commands, disasm: The Disassembly View.
(line 8)
* Commands, experiment_list: Aggregation of Experiments.
(line 21)
* Commands, fsingle: Information on Load Objects.
(line 10)
* Commands, fsingle <1>: Information on Load Objects.
(line 36)
* Commands, fsummary: Information on Load Objects.
(line 10)
* Commands, fsummary <1>: Information on Load Objects.
(line 62)
* Commands, functions: A First Profile. (line 44)
* Commands, header: More Information on the Experiment.
(line 10)
* Commands, header <1>: Control the Sampling Frequency.
(line 59)
* Commands, limit: Control the Number of Lines in the Output.
(line 6)
* Commands, lines: The Source Code View.
(line 68)
* Commands, metrics: Display and Define the Metrics.
(line 11)
* Commands, metrics <1>: Display and Define the Metrics.
(line 38)
* Commands, metrics <2>: Metric Definitions. (line 9)
* Commands, metric_list: Display and Define the Metrics.
(line 10)
* Commands, metric_list <1>: Display and Define the Metrics.
(line 19)
* Commands, metric_list <2>: Examples Using Hardware Event Counters.
(line 261)
* Commands, objects: Information on Load Objects.
(line 10)
* Commands, overview: More Information on the Experiment.
(line 54)
* Commands, pcs: The Disassembly View.
(line 73)
* Commands, script: Scripting. (line 11)
* Commands, sort: Sorting the Performance Data.
(line 6)
* Commands, source: The Source Code View.
(line 12)
* Commands, threads: Commands Specific to Multithreading.
(line 35)
* Commands, thread_list: Commands Specific to Multithreading.
(line 10)
* Commands, thread_select: Commands Specific to Multithreading.
(line 64)
* Commands, thread_select <1>: Commands Specific to Multithreading.
(line 88)
* Commands, viewmode: Java Profiling. (line 37)
* Commands, viewmode <1>: The Viewmode. (line 6)
* Compare experiments: Comparison of Experiments.
(line 10)
* CPI: Hardware Event Counters Explained.
(line 31)
* CPU: The Concept of a CPU in gprofng.
(line 6)
* Default metrics: Display and Define the Metrics.
(line 34)
* ELF: Load Objects and Functions.
(line 16)
* Exclusive metric: Inclusive and Exclusive Metrics.
(line 14)
* Experiment directory: Steps Needed to Create a Profile.
(line 21)
* Filters, Thread selection: Commands Specific to Multithreading.
(line 64)
* Flavor field: Metric Definitions. (line 13)
* Function: Load Objects and Functions.
(line 26)
* gprofng display html: Steps Needed to Create a Profile.
(line 46)
* gprofng display text: Steps Needed to Create a Profile.
(line 42)
* Hardware event counters, alias name: Hardware Event Counters Explained.
(line 57)
* Hardware event counters, auto option: Examples Using Hardware Event Counters.
(line 21)
* Hardware event counters, counter definition: Getting Information on the Counters Supported.
(line 85)
* Hardware event counters, description: Hardware Event Counters Explained.
(line 6)
* Hardware event counters, hwc metric: Examples Using Hardware Event Counters.
(line 31)
* Hardware event counters, IPC: Examples Using Hardware Event Counters.
(line 250)
* Hardware event counters, variable CPU frequency: Hardware Event Counters Explained.
(line 40)
* Inclusive metric: Inclusive and Exclusive Metrics.
(line 9)
* Instruction level timings: The Disassembly View.
(line 9)
* Instruction pointer: The Program Counter. (line 10)
* Interpreter mode: A First Profile. (line 30)
* IPC: Hardware Event Counters Explained.
(line 20)
* Java profiling, -J <string>: Java Profiling. (line 29)
* Java profiling, -j on/off: Java Profiling. (line 6)
* Java profiling, <JVM-System>: The Viewmode. (line 15)
* Java profiling, <no Java callstack recorded>: The Viewmode. (line 18)
* Java profiling, different view modes: Java Profiling. (line 37)
* Java profiling, JAVA_PATH: Java Profiling. (line 24)
* Java profiling, JDK_HOME: Java Profiling. (line 23)
* Leaf function: Inclusive and Exclusive Metrics.
(line 19)
* List specification: The Selection List. (line 6)
* Load object: Load Objects and Functions.
(line 11)
* Load objects: Information on Load Objects.
(line 11)
* Metric name field: Metric Definitions. (line 13)
* Miscellaneous , ##: The Source Code View.
(line 63)
* Miscellaneous, <apath>: Information on Load Objects.
(line 16)
* Miscellaneous, <Total>: A First Profile. (line 86)
* mxv-pthreads.exe: The Example Program. (line 12)
* Options, -C: More Information on the Experiment.
(line 48)
* Options, -h: Getting Information on the Counters Supported.
(line 9)
* Options, -h <1>: Examples Using Hardware Event Counters.
(line 21)
* Options, -o: Name the Experiment Directory.
(line 15)
* Options, -O: Name the Experiment Directory.
(line 19)
* Options, -O <1>: A More Elaborate Example.
(line 12)
* Options, -p: The Call Tree. (line 66)
* Options, -p <1>: Control the Sampling Frequency.
(line 18)
* PC: The Program Counter. (line 6)
* PC <1>: Load Objects and Functions.
(line 32)
* PC sampling: Sampling versus Tracing.
(line 7)
* Posix Threads: The Example Program. (line 8)
* Program Counter: The Program Counter. (line 6)
* Program Counter <1>: Load Objects and Functions.
(line 32)
* Program Counter sampling: Sampling versus Tracing.
(line 7)
* Pthreads: The Example Program. (line 8)
* Sampling interval: Control the Sampling Frequency.
(line 20)
* Selection list: The Selection List. (line 6)
* Source level timings: The Source Code View.
(line 10)
* TeX: Other Document Formats.
(line 40)
* Thread affinity: Commands Specific to Multithreading.
(line 162)
* Total CPU time: A First Profile. (line 74)
* Viewmode: The Viewmode. (line 6)
* Visibility field: Sorting the Performance Data.
(line 9)
* Visibility field <1>: Metric Definitions. (line 13)

Tag Table:
Node: Top750
Node: Introduction3075
Node: Overview4352
Node: Main Features4993
Node: Sampling versus Tracing6733
Node: Steps Needed to Create a Profile9124
Node: A Mini Tutorial11311
Node: Getting Started12030
Node: The Example Program13680
Node: A First Profile14800
Node: The Source Code View19305
Node: The Disassembly View23801
Node: Display and Define the Metrics28490
Node: A First Customization of the Output30326
Node: Name the Experiment Directory32175
Node: Control the Number of Lines in the Output33272
Node: Sorting the Performance Data34031
Node: Scripting34973
Node: A More Elaborate Example35892
Node: The Call Tree38682
Node: More Information on the Experiment41423
Node: Control the Sampling Frequency44722
Node: Information on Load Objects47143
Node: Support for Multithreading50782
Node: Creating a Multithreading Experiment51422
Node: Commands Specific to Multithreading52935
Node: Viewing Multiple Experiments62341
Node: Aggregation of Experiments62918
Node: Comparison of Experiments65232
Node: Profile Hardware Event Counters69848
Node: Getting Information on the Counters Supported70556
Node: Examples Using Hardware Event Counters78156
Node: Java Profiling95853
Node: Terminology98222
Node: The Program Counter99234
Node: Inclusive and Exclusive Metrics99726
Node: Metric Definitions101179
Node: The Viewmode102364
Node: The Selection List103503
Node: Load Objects and Functions104905
Node: The Concept of a CPU in gprofng106919
Node: Hardware Event Counters Explained107680
Node: apath111472
Node: Other Document Formats112007
Node: Index114531

End Tag Table

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