code: 9ferno

ref: e81c54ba2ecc673a4d5f8aed0e9b52841fe07b0d
dir: /man/3/prof/

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.TH PROF 3
.SH NAME
prof \- profiling device
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.B bind #P /prof

.BI /prof/ctl
.BI /prof/ n /name
.BI /prof/ n /path
.BI /prof/ n /histogram
.BI /prof/ n /pctl
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.B prof
device serves a two-level directory structure. The first level contains a control file
.B ctl
and zero or more numbered directories each corresponding to a module being
profiled. Inside each of these numbered directories are further files which describe
the particular module being profiled.
.PP
The write-only control file
.B ctl
provides the facilities to profile a module. Messages written to this file initiate and
control the profiling.
.TP 10n
.BI module " name"
Add the module or the module whose path is
.I name
to the list of modules to be profiled.
.TP 10n
.B start
Start profiling all modules in the above list or, if the list is empty, start profiling all
modules loaded by the kernel. The profiling is done by sampling.
.TP 10n
.B startcp
As above but do coverage profiling. All instructions executed in the wanted modules
are counted.
.TP 10n
.B startmp
As above but do memory profiling. All heap memory allocations are associated
with a line of limbo source and all deallocations with the line that did the allocation.
.TP 10n
.B stop
Stop all profiling.
.TP 10n
.B end
Stop all profiling and free all memory associated with the modules being profiled.
The profiler returns to it's initial state with no modules under profile.
.TP 10n
.BI interval " i"
Change the sampling interval to
.I i
ms. The default sampling rate is 100 ms.
.PP
The second level directories contain information about each module under profile.
.PP
The read-only file 
.B name
contains the name of the module in the form it appears in it's module source file.
.PP
The read-only file
.B path
contains the path of the dis file that implements the module.
.PP
The write-only control file
.B pctl
allows finer control of the profiling of a module. It is not used at present.
.PP
The read-only file
.B histogram
contains statistics about the profiled module. The file contains a list of pairs
of integers seperated by a space. The first number of the pair is a program counter
value representing the address of a dis instruction. Addresses start from 0 and the
list is in order of increasing address. The
second number is the frequency with which this address was sampled. Each read
of this file returns the next pair in the list. The frequency is guaranteed to be non-zero.
.PP
When coverage profiling the second number of each pair is the number of times
that dis instruction was executed, when memory profiling it's the amount of memory in bytes.
.SH SOURCE
.B /emu/port/devprof.c
.SH BUGS
The device profiles on a global basis and therefore does not distinguish between multiple profilers running at once. 
.PP
The coverage profiling can only be done on dis instructions.
.PP
The device can do only one of time, coverage or memory profiling at once.