Ubuntu Manpage: opcontrol - control OProfile profiling

Provided by: oprofile_0.9.9-0ubuntu8_amd64

NAME

       opcontrol - control OProfile profiling

SYNOPSIS

       opcontrol [ options ]

DESCRIPTION

       opcontrol  can be used to start profiling, end a profiling session, dump profile data, and
       set up the profiling parameters.

OPTIONS

--help / -?
Show help message.

--version / -v
Show version.

--list-events / -l
Shows the monitorable events.

--init Load the OProfile module if required and make the OProfile driver interface
available.

--setup
Followed by list options for profiling setup. Store setup in
~root/.oprofile/daemonrc. Optional.

--status
Show configuration information.

--start-daemon
Start the oprofile daemon without starting profiling.

--start / -s
Start data collection with either arguments provided by --setup or with information
saved in ~root/.oprofile/daemonrc.

--dump / -d
Force a flush of the collected profiling data to the daemon.

--stop / -t
Stop data collection.

--shutdown / -h
Stop data collection and kill the daemon.

--reset
Clear out data from current session, but leaves saved sessions.

--save=sessionname
Save data from current session to sessionname.

--deinit
Shut down daemon. Unload the oprofile module and oprofilefs.

--session-dir=dir_path
Use sample database out of directory dir_path instead of the default location
(/var/lib/oprofile).

--buffer-size=num
Set kernel buffer to num samples. The buffer watershed needs to be tweaked when
changing this value. Rules: A non-zero value goes into effect after a
'--shutdown/start' sequence. A value of zero sets this parameter back to default
value, but does not go into effect until after '--deinit/init' sequence.

--buffer-watershed=num
Set kernel buffer watershed to num samples. When buffer-size - buffer-watershed
free entries remain in the kernel buffer, data will be flushed to the daemon. Most
useful values are in the range [0.25 - 0.5] * buffer-size. Same rules as defined
for buffer-size.

--cpu-buffer-size=num
Set kernel per-cpu buffer to num samples. If you profile at high rate it can help
to increase this if the log file show excessive count of sample lost cpu buffer
overflow. Same rules as defined for buffer-size.

--event / -e [event|"default"]
Specify an event to measure for the hardware performance counters, or "default" for
the default event. The event is of the form "CPU_CLK_UNHALTED:30000:0:1:1" where
the numeric values are count, unit mask, kernel-space counting, user-space
counting, respectively. Note that this over-rides all previous events selected; if
you want to profile with two or more events simultaneously, you must specify them
on the same opcontrol invocation. You can specify unit mask values using either a
numerical value (hex values must begin with "0x") or a symbolic name (if the
name=<um_name> field is shown in the ophelp output). For some named unit masks, the
hex value is not unique; thus, OProfile tools enforce specifying such unit masks
value by name.

--separate / -p [none,lib,kernel,thread,cpu,all]
Separate samples based on the given separator. 'lib' separates dynamically linked
library samples per application. 'kernel' separates kernel and kernel module
samples per application; 'kernel' implies 'library'. 'thread' gives separation for
each thread and task. 'cpu' separates for each CPU. 'all' implies all of the above
options and 'none' turns off separation.

--callgraph / -c [#depth]
Enable callgraph sample collection with a maximum depth. Use 0 to disable callgraph
profiling. This option is available on x86 using a 2.6+ kernel with callgraph
support enabled. It is also available on PowerPC using a 2.6.17+ kernel.

--image / -i [name,name...|"all"]
Only profile the given absolute paths to binaries, or "all" to profile everything
(the default).

--vmlinux=file
vmlinux kernel image.

--no-vmlinux
Use this when you don't have a kernel vmlinux file, and you don't want to profile
the kernel.

--verbose / -V [options]
Be verbose in the daemon log. This has a high overhead.

--kernel-range=start,end
Set kernel range vma address in hexadecimal.

OPTIONS (specific to Xen)

       --xen=file
              Xen image

       --active-domains=<list>
              List  of domain ids participating in a multi-domain profiling session. If more than
              one domain is specified in <list> they  should  be  separated  using  commas.  This
              option  can only be used in domain 0 which is the only domain that can coordinate a
              multi-domain profiling session. Including domain 0 in the list of active domains is
              optional. (e.g. --active-domains=2,5,6 and --active-domains=0,2,5,6 are equivalent)

OPTIONS (specific to System z)

       --s390hwsampbufsize=num
              Number  of  2MB  areas used per CPU for storing sample data.  The best size for the
              sample memory depends on the particular system and the  workload  to  be  measured.
              Providing the sampler with too little memory results in lost samples. Reserving too
              much system memory for the sampler impacts the overall performance and, hence, also
              the workload to be measured.

ENVIRONMENT

       No special environment variables are recognised by opcontrol.

FILES

       /root/.oprofile/daemonrc
              Configuration file for opcontrol

       /var/lib/oprofile/samples/
              The location of the generated sample files.

VERSION

       This man page is current for oprofile-0.9.9.