OPCONTROL(1)OPCONTROL(1)NAMEopcontrol - control OProfile profiling
SYNOPSISopcontrol [ options ]
DESCRIPTIONopcontrol 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 coun‐
ters, 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 simul‐
taneously, you must specify them on the same opcontrol invoca‐
tion. 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, OPro‐
file 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. Each of the specified domains must run an instance of
oprofile. The sequence of opcontrol commands in each domain must
follow a given order which is specified in the oprofile user
manual. 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). This option can only
be specified if --start-daemon is also specified and it is only
valid for the current run of the oprofile daemon; e.g. the list
of active domains is not persistent.
--passive-domains=<list>or--domains=<list>
List of domain ids to be profiled, separated by commas. As
opposed to the --active-domains option, the domains specified
with this option do not need to run oprofile. This makes profil‐
ing multiple domains easier. However, with the passive-domains
option, samples in user level processes and kernel modules can‐
not be mapped to specific symbols and are aggregated under a
generic class. Both --active-domains and --passive-domains
options can be specified in the same command, but the same
domain cannot be specified in both options. This option can only
be specified if either --start or --start-daemon is specified on
the same command and it is only valid for the current run of the
oprofile daemon; e.g. the list of passive domains is not persis‐
tent.
--passive-images=<list>or--domains-images=<list>
List of kernel images associated with the domains specified in
the --passive-domains option, also separated by commas. The
association between the images and domains is based on the order
they are specified in both options.
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.
SEE ALSO
/usr/share/doc/oprofile/, oprofile(1)4th Berkeley Distribution Tue 06 August 2013OPCONTROL(1)
