NAME
prof — display profile data
SYNOPSIS
prof
[-tcan]
[-ox]
[-g]
[-z]
[-h]
[-s]
[-m
mdata]
[prog]
DESCRIPTION
prof
interprets a profile file produced by
monitor()
(see
monitor(3C)).
The symbol table in the object file
prog
(a.out
by default) is read and correlated with a profile file
(mon.out
by default).
For each external text symbol,
the percentage of time spent executing between the address of that symbol
and the address of the next is printed,
together with the number of times that function
was called and the average number of milliseconds per call.
The mutually exclusive options
t,
c,
a,
and
n
determine the type of sorting of the output lines:
- -t
Sort by decreasing percentage of total time (default).
- -c
Sort by decreasing number of calls.
- -a
Sort by increasing symbol address.
- -n
Sort by symbol name in ascending collation order
(see Environment Variables below).
The mutually exclusive options
o
and
x
specify the printing of the address of each symbol monitored:
- -o
Print each symbol address (in octal) along with the symbol name.
- -x
Print each symbol address (in hexadecimal) along with the symbol name.
The following options can be used in any combination:
- -g
Include non-global symbols (static functions).
- -z
Include all symbols in the profile range (see
monitor(3C)),
even if associated with zero number of calls and zero time.
- -h
Suppress the heading normally printed on the report.
(This is useful if the report is to be processed further.)
- -s
Print a summary of several of the monitoring parameters and statistics
on the standard error output.
- -m mdata
Use file
mdata
instead of
mon.out
as the input profile file.
A program creates a profile file if it has been loaded using the
cc -p
option (see
cc_bundled(1)).
This option to the
cc
command arranges for calls to
monitor()
at the beginning and end of execution (see
monitor(3C)).
It is the call to the
monitor
command at the end of execution that causes a profile file to be written.
The number of calls to a function is tallied if the
-p
option was used when the file containing the function was compiled.
The name of the file created by a profiled program
is controlled by the environment variable
PROFDIR.
If
PROFDIR
is not set,
mon.out
is produced in the directory current when the program terminates.
If
PROFDIR=string,
string/pid.progname
is produced, where
progname
consists of argv[0] with any path prefix removed, and
pid
is the program's process
ID.
If
PROFDIR
is set to a null string,
no profiling output is produced.
EXTERNAL INFLUENCES
Environment Variables
LC_COLLATE
determines the collating order output by the
-n
option.
If
LC_COLLATE
is not specified in the environment or is set to the empty string,
the value of
LANG
is used as a default.
If
LANG
is not specified or is set to the empty string, a default of ``C'' (see
lang(5))
is used instead of
LANG.
If any internationalization variable contains an invalid setting,
prof
behaves as if all internationalization variables are set to ``C''
(see
environ(5)).
WARNINGS
The times reported in successive identical runs
may show variances of 20% or more,
because of varying cache-hit ratios
due to sharing of the cache with other processes.
Even if a program seems to be the only one using the machine,
hidden background or asynchronous processes may blur the data.
In rare cases, the clock ticks initiating recording
of the program counter may ``beat'' with loops in a
program, grossly distorting measurements.
Call counts are always recorded precisely, however.
Only programs that call
exit()
(see
exit(2))
or return from
main
cause a profile file to be produced, unless a final call to
monitor()
is explicitly coded.
The use of the
cc -p
option to invoke profiling imposes a limit of 600 functions
that can have call counters established during program execution.
For more counters, call
monitor()
directly.
If this limit is exceeded, other data is overwritten and the
mon.out
file is corrupted.
The number of call counters used is reported automatically by the
prof
command whenever the number exceeds 5/6 of the maximum.
FILES
- mon.out
for profile
- a.out
for namelist
STANDARDS CONFORMANCE
prof: SVID2, SVID3, XPG2
Printable version
