'\" te
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.TH profile 7D "4 Sep 2003" "SunOS 5.11" "Devices"
.SH NAME
profile \- DTrace profile interrupt provider
.SH DESCRIPTION
.sp
.LP
The \fBprofile\fR driver is a DTrace dynamic tracing provider that adds
time-based interrupt event sources that can be used as DTrace probes.
.sp
.LP
Each profile event source is a time-based interrupt firing every fixed,
specified time interval. You can use these probes to sample some aspect of
system state every unit time and the samples can then be used to infer system
behavior. If the sampling rate is high, or the sampling time is long, an
accurate inference is possible. By using the DTrace facility to bind arbitrary
actions to probes, you can use the \fBprofile\fR provider to sample practically
anything in the system. For example, you could sample the state of the current
thread, the CPU state, or the current machine instruction each time a probe
fires.
.sp
.LP
The \fBprofile\fR driver is not a public interface and you access the
instrumentation offered by this provider through DTrace. Refer to the
\fISolaris Dynamic Tracing Guide\fR for a description of the public documented
interfaces available for the DTrace facility and the probes offered by the
profile provider.
.SH ATTRIBUTES
.sp
.LP
See \fBattributes\fR(5) for a description of the following attributes:
.sp

.sp
.TS
tab() box;
cw(2.75i) |cw(2.75i) 
lw(2.75i) |lw(2.75i) 
.
ATTRIBUTE TYPEATTRIBUTE VALUE
_
Interface StabilityPrivate
.TE

.SH SEE ALSO
.sp
.LP
\fBdtrace\fR(1M), \fBattributes\fR(5), \fBdtrace\fR(7D)
.sp
.LP
\fISolaris Dynamic Tracing Guide\fR