1perf-record(1) 2============== 3 4NAME 5---- 6perf-record - Run a command and record its profile into perf.data 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10[verse] 11'perf record' [-e <EVENT> | --event=EVENT] [-a] <command> 12'perf record' [-e <EVENT> | --event=EVENT] [-a] \-- <command> [<options>] 13 14DESCRIPTION 15----------- 16This command runs a command and gathers a performance counter profile 17from it, into perf.data - without displaying anything. 18 19This file can then be inspected later on, using 'perf report'. 20 21 22OPTIONS 23------- 24<command>...:: 25 Any command you can specify in a shell. 26 27-e:: 28--event=:: 29 Select the PMU event. Selection can be: 30 31 - a symbolic event name (use 'perf list' to list all events) 32 33 - a raw PMU event in the form of rN where N is a hexadecimal value 34 that represents the raw register encoding with the layout of the 35 event control registers as described by entries in 36 /sys/bus/event_source/devices/cpu/format/*. 37 38 - a symbolic or raw PMU event followed by an optional colon 39 and a list of event modifiers, e.g., cpu-cycles:p. See the 40 linkperf:perf-list[1] man page for details on event modifiers. 41 42 - a symbolically formed PMU event like 'pmu/param1=0x3,param2/' where 43 'param1', 'param2', etc are defined as formats for the PMU in 44 /sys/bus/event_source/devices/<pmu>/format/*. 45 46 - a symbolically formed event like 'pmu/config=M,config1=N,config3=K/' 47 48 where M, N, K are numbers (in decimal, hex, octal format). Acceptable 49 values for each of 'config', 'config1' and 'config2' are defined by 50 corresponding entries in /sys/bus/event_source/devices/<pmu>/format/* 51 param1 and param2 are defined as formats for the PMU in: 52 /sys/bus/event_source/devices/<pmu>/format/* 53 54 There are also some parameters which are not defined in .../<pmu>/format/*. 55 These params can be used to overload default config values per event. 56 Here are some common parameters: 57 - 'period': Set event sampling period 58 - 'freq': Set event sampling frequency 59 - 'time': Disable/enable time stamping. Acceptable values are 1 for 60 enabling time stamping. 0 for disabling time stamping. 61 The default is 1. 62 - 'call-graph': Disable/enable callgraph. Acceptable str are "fp" for 63 FP mode, "dwarf" for DWARF mode, "lbr" for LBR mode and 64 "no" for disable callgraph. 65 - 'stack-size': user stack size for dwarf mode 66 - 'name' : User defined event name. Single quotes (') may be used to 67 escape symbols in the name from parsing by shell and tool 68 like this: name=\'CPU_CLK_UNHALTED.THREAD:cmask=0x1\'. 69 - 'aux-output': Generate AUX records instead of events. This requires 70 that an AUX area event is also provided. 71 - 'aux-sample-size': Set sample size for AUX area sampling. If the 72 '--aux-sample' option has been used, set aux-sample-size=0 to disable 73 AUX area sampling for the event. 74 75 See the linkperf:perf-list[1] man page for more parameters. 76 77 Note: If user explicitly sets options which conflict with the params, 78 the value set by the parameters will be overridden. 79 80 Also not defined in .../<pmu>/format/* are PMU driver specific 81 configuration parameters. Any configuration parameter preceded by 82 the letter '@' is not interpreted in user space and sent down directly 83 to the PMU driver. For example: 84 85 perf record -e some_event/@cfg1,@cfg2=config/ ... 86 87 will see 'cfg1' and 'cfg2=config' pushed to the PMU driver associated 88 with the event for further processing. There is no restriction on 89 what the configuration parameters are, as long as their semantic is 90 understood and supported by the PMU driver. 91 92 - a hardware breakpoint event in the form of '\mem:addr[/len][:access]' 93 where addr is the address in memory you want to break in. 94 Access is the memory access type (read, write, execute) it can 95 be passed as follows: '\mem:addr[:[r][w][x]]'. len is the range, 96 number of bytes from specified addr, which the breakpoint will cover. 97 If you want to profile read-write accesses in 0x1000, just set 98 'mem:0x1000:rw'. 99 If you want to profile write accesses in [0x1000~1008), just set 100 'mem:0x1000/8:w'. 101 102 - a BPF source file (ending in .c) or a precompiled object file (ending 103 in .o) selects one or more BPF events. 104 The BPF program can attach to various perf events based on the ELF section 105 names. 106 107 When processing a '.c' file, perf searches an installed LLVM to compile it 108 into an object file first. Optional clang options can be passed via the 109 '--clang-opt' command line option, e.g.: 110 111 perf record --clang-opt "-DLINUX_VERSION_CODE=0x50000" \ 112 -e tests/bpf-script-example.c 113 114 Note: '--clang-opt' must be placed before '--event/-e'. 115 116 - a group of events surrounded by a pair of brace ("{event1,event2,...}"). 117 Each event is separated by commas and the group should be quoted to 118 prevent the shell interpretation. You also need to use --group on 119 "perf report" to view group events together. 120 121--filter=<filter>:: 122 Event filter. This option should follow an event selector (-e) which 123 selects either tracepoint event(s) or a hardware trace PMU 124 (e.g. Intel PT or CoreSight). 125 126 - tracepoint filters 127 128 In the case of tracepoints, multiple '--filter' options are combined 129 using '&&'. 130 131 - address filters 132 133 A hardware trace PMU advertises its ability to accept a number of 134 address filters by specifying a non-zero value in 135 /sys/bus/event_source/devices/<pmu>/nr_addr_filters. 136 137 Address filters have the format: 138 139 filter|start|stop|tracestop <start> [/ <size>] [@<file name>] 140 141 Where: 142 - 'filter': defines a region that will be traced. 143 - 'start': defines an address at which tracing will begin. 144 - 'stop': defines an address at which tracing will stop. 145 - 'tracestop': defines a region in which tracing will stop. 146 147 <file name> is the name of the object file, <start> is the offset to the 148 code to trace in that file, and <size> is the size of the region to 149 trace. 'start' and 'stop' filters need not specify a <size>. 150 151 If no object file is specified then the kernel is assumed, in which case 152 the start address must be a current kernel memory address. 153 154 <start> can also be specified by providing the name of a symbol. If the 155 symbol name is not unique, it can be disambiguated by inserting #n where 156 'n' selects the n'th symbol in address order. Alternately #0, #g or #G 157 select only a global symbol. <size> can also be specified by providing 158 the name of a symbol, in which case the size is calculated to the end 159 of that symbol. For 'filter' and 'tracestop' filters, if <size> is 160 omitted and <start> is a symbol, then the size is calculated to the end 161 of that symbol. 162 163 If <size> is omitted and <start> is '*', then the start and size will 164 be calculated from the first and last symbols, i.e. to trace the whole 165 file. 166 167 If symbol names (or '*') are provided, they must be surrounded by white 168 space. 169 170 The filter passed to the kernel is not necessarily the same as entered. 171 To see the filter that is passed, use the -v option. 172 173 The kernel may not be able to configure a trace region if it is not 174 within a single mapping. MMAP events (or /proc/<pid>/maps) can be 175 examined to determine if that is a possibility. 176 177 Multiple filters can be separated with space or comma. 178 179--exclude-perf:: 180 Don't record events issued by perf itself. This option should follow 181 an event selector (-e) which selects tracepoint event(s). It adds a 182 filter expression 'common_pid != $PERFPID' to filters. If other 183 '--filter' exists, the new filter expression will be combined with 184 them by '&&'. 185 186-a:: 187--all-cpus:: 188 System-wide collection from all CPUs (default if no target is specified). 189 190-p:: 191--pid=:: 192 Record events on existing process ID (comma separated list). 193 194-t:: 195--tid=:: 196 Record events on existing thread ID (comma separated list). 197 This option also disables inheritance by default. Enable it by adding 198 --inherit. 199 200-u:: 201--uid=:: 202 Record events in threads owned by uid. Name or number. 203 204-r:: 205--realtime=:: 206 Collect data with this RT SCHED_FIFO priority. 207 208--no-buffering:: 209 Collect data without buffering. 210 211-c:: 212--count=:: 213 Event period to sample. 214 215-o:: 216--output=:: 217 Output file name. 218 219-i:: 220--no-inherit:: 221 Child tasks do not inherit counters. 222 223-F:: 224--freq=:: 225 Profile at this frequency. Use 'max' to use the currently maximum 226 allowed frequency, i.e. the value in the kernel.perf_event_max_sample_rate 227 sysctl. Will throttle down to the currently maximum allowed frequency. 228 See --strict-freq. 229 230--strict-freq:: 231 Fail if the specified frequency can't be used. 232 233-m:: 234--mmap-pages=:: 235 Number of mmap data pages (must be a power of two) or size 236 specification with appended unit character - B/K/M/G. The 237 size is rounded up to have nearest pages power of two value. 238 Also, by adding a comma, the number of mmap pages for AUX 239 area tracing can be specified. 240 241-g:: 242 Enables call-graph (stack chain/backtrace) recording for both 243 kernel space and user space. 244 245--call-graph:: 246 Setup and enable call-graph (stack chain/backtrace) recording, 247 implies -g. Default is "fp" (for user space). 248 249 The unwinding method used for kernel space is dependent on the 250 unwinder used by the active kernel configuration, i.e 251 CONFIG_UNWINDER_FRAME_POINTER (fp) or CONFIG_UNWINDER_ORC (orc) 252 253 Any option specified here controls the method used for user space. 254 255 Valid options are "fp" (frame pointer), "dwarf" (DWARF's CFI - 256 Call Frame Information) or "lbr" (Hardware Last Branch Record 257 facility). 258 259 In some systems, where binaries are build with gcc 260 --fomit-frame-pointer, using the "fp" method will produce bogus 261 call graphs, using "dwarf", if available (perf tools linked to 262 the libunwind or libdw library) should be used instead. 263 Using the "lbr" method doesn't require any compiler options. It 264 will produce call graphs from the hardware LBR registers. The 265 main limitation is that it is only available on new Intel 266 platforms, such as Haswell. It can only get user call chain. It 267 doesn't work with branch stack sampling at the same time. 268 269 When "dwarf" recording is used, perf also records (user) stack dump 270 when sampled. Default size of the stack dump is 8192 (bytes). 271 User can change the size by passing the size after comma like 272 "--call-graph dwarf,4096". 273 274 When "fp" recording is used, perf tries to save stack enties 275 up to the number specified in sysctl.kernel.perf_event_max_stack 276 by default. User can change the number by passing it after comma 277 like "--call-graph fp,32". 278 279-q:: 280--quiet:: 281 Don't print any warnings or messages, useful for scripting. 282 283-v:: 284--verbose:: 285 Be more verbose (show counter open errors, etc). 286 287-s:: 288--stat:: 289 Record per-thread event counts. Use it with 'perf report -T' to see 290 the values. 291 292-d:: 293--data:: 294 Record the sample virtual addresses. 295 296--phys-data:: 297 Record the sample physical addresses. 298 299--data-page-size:: 300 Record the sampled data address data page size. 301 302--code-page-size:: 303 Record the sampled code address (ip) page size 304 305-T:: 306--timestamp:: 307 Record the sample timestamps. Use it with 'perf report -D' to see the 308 timestamps, for instance. 309 310-P:: 311--period:: 312 Record the sample period. 313 314--sample-cpu:: 315 Record the sample cpu. 316 317--sample-identifier:: 318 Record the sample identifier i.e. PERF_SAMPLE_IDENTIFIER bit set in 319 the sample_type member of the struct perf_event_attr argument to the 320 perf_event_open system call. 321 322-n:: 323--no-samples:: 324 Don't sample. 325 326-R:: 327--raw-samples:: 328Collect raw sample records from all opened counters (default for tracepoint counters). 329 330-C:: 331--cpu:: 332Collect samples only on the list of CPUs provided. Multiple CPUs can be provided as a 333comma-separated list with no space: 0,1. Ranges of CPUs are specified with -: 0-2. 334In per-thread mode with inheritance mode on (default), samples are captured only when 335the thread executes on the designated CPUs. Default is to monitor all CPUs. 336 337-B:: 338--no-buildid:: 339Do not save the build ids of binaries in the perf.data files. This skips 340post processing after recording, which sometimes makes the final step in 341the recording process to take a long time, as it needs to process all 342events looking for mmap records. The downside is that it can misresolve 343symbols if the workload binaries used when recording get locally rebuilt 344or upgraded, because the only key available in this case is the 345pathname. You can also set the "record.build-id" config variable to 346'skip to have this behaviour permanently. 347 348-N:: 349--no-buildid-cache:: 350Do not update the buildid cache. This saves some overhead in situations 351where the information in the perf.data file (which includes buildids) 352is sufficient. You can also set the "record.build-id" config variable to 353'no-cache' to have the same effect. 354 355-G name,...:: 356--cgroup name,...:: 357monitor only in the container (cgroup) called "name". This option is available only 358in per-cpu mode. The cgroup filesystem must be mounted. All threads belonging to 359container "name" are monitored when they run on the monitored CPUs. Multiple cgroups 360can be provided. Each cgroup is applied to the corresponding event, i.e., first cgroup 361to first event, second cgroup to second event and so on. It is possible to provide 362an empty cgroup (monitor all the time) using, e.g., -G foo,,bar. Cgroups must have 363corresponding events, i.e., they always refer to events defined earlier on the command 364line. If the user wants to track multiple events for a specific cgroup, the user can 365use '-e e1 -e e2 -G foo,foo' or just use '-e e1 -e e2 -G foo'. 366 367If wanting to monitor, say, 'cycles' for a cgroup and also for system wide, this 368command line can be used: 'perf stat -e cycles -G cgroup_name -a -e cycles'. 369 370-b:: 371--branch-any:: 372Enable taken branch stack sampling. Any type of taken branch may be sampled. 373This is a shortcut for --branch-filter any. See --branch-filter for more infos. 374 375-j:: 376--branch-filter:: 377Enable taken branch stack sampling. Each sample captures a series of consecutive 378taken branches. The number of branches captured with each sample depends on the 379underlying hardware, the type of branches of interest, and the executed code. 380It is possible to select the types of branches captured by enabling filters. The 381following filters are defined: 382 383 - any: any type of branches 384 - any_call: any function call or system call 385 - any_ret: any function return or system call return 386 - ind_call: any indirect branch 387 - ind_jmp: any indirect jump 388 - call: direct calls, including far (to/from kernel) calls 389 - u: only when the branch target is at the user level 390 - k: only when the branch target is in the kernel 391 - hv: only when the target is at the hypervisor level 392 - in_tx: only when the target is in a hardware transaction 393 - no_tx: only when the target is not in a hardware transaction 394 - abort_tx: only when the target is a hardware transaction abort 395 - cond: conditional branches 396 - call_stack: save call stack 397 - no_flags: don't save branch flags e.g prediction, misprediction etc 398 - no_cycles: don't save branch cycles 399 - hw_index: save branch hardware index 400 - save_type: save branch type during sampling in case binary is not available later 401 For the platforms with Intel Arch LBR support (12th-Gen+ client or 402 4th-Gen Xeon+ server), the save branch type is unconditionally enabled 403 when the taken branch stack sampling is enabled. 404 - priv: save privilege state during sampling in case binary is not available later 405 406+ 407The option requires at least one branch type among any, any_call, any_ret, ind_call, cond. 408The privilege levels may be omitted, in which case, the privilege levels of the associated 409event are applied to the branch filter. Both kernel (k) and hypervisor (hv) privilege 410levels are subject to permissions. When sampling on multiple events, branch stack sampling 411is enabled for all the sampling events. The sampled branch type is the same for all events. 412The various filters must be specified as a comma separated list: --branch-filter any_ret,u,k 413Note that this feature may not be available on all processors. 414 415-W:: 416--weight:: 417Enable weightened sampling. An additional weight is recorded per sample and can be 418displayed with the weight and local_weight sort keys. This currently works for TSX 419abort events and some memory events in precise mode on modern Intel CPUs. 420 421--namespaces:: 422Record events of type PERF_RECORD_NAMESPACES. This enables 'cgroup_id' sort key. 423 424--all-cgroups:: 425Record events of type PERF_RECORD_CGROUP. This enables 'cgroup' sort key. 426 427--transaction:: 428Record transaction flags for transaction related events. 429 430--per-thread:: 431Use per-thread mmaps. By default per-cpu mmaps are created. This option 432overrides that and uses per-thread mmaps. A side-effect of that is that 433inheritance is automatically disabled. --per-thread is ignored with a warning 434if combined with -a or -C options. 435 436-D:: 437--delay=:: 438After starting the program, wait msecs before measuring (-1: start with events 439disabled), or enable events only for specified ranges of msecs (e.g. 440-D 10-20,30-40 means wait 10 msecs, enable for 10 msecs, wait 10 msecs, enable 441for 10 msecs, then stop). Note, delaying enabling of events is useful to filter 442out the startup phase of the program, which is often very different. 443 444-I:: 445--intr-regs:: 446Capture machine state (registers) at interrupt, i.e., on counter overflows for 447each sample. List of captured registers depends on the architecture. This option 448is off by default. It is possible to select the registers to sample using their 449symbolic names, e.g. on x86, ax, si. To list the available registers use 450--intr-regs=\?. To name registers, pass a comma separated list such as 451--intr-regs=ax,bx. The list of register is architecture dependent. 452 453--user-regs:: 454Similar to -I, but capture user registers at sample time. To list the available 455user registers use --user-regs=\?. 456 457--running-time:: 458Record running and enabled time for read events (:S) 459 460-k:: 461--clockid:: 462Sets the clock id to use for the various time fields in the perf_event_type 463records. See clock_gettime(). In particular CLOCK_MONOTONIC and 464CLOCK_MONOTONIC_RAW are supported, some events might also allow 465CLOCK_BOOTTIME, CLOCK_REALTIME and CLOCK_TAI. 466 467-S:: 468--snapshot:: 469Select AUX area tracing Snapshot Mode. This option is valid only with an 470AUX area tracing event. Optionally, certain snapshot capturing parameters 471can be specified in a string that follows this option: 472 'e': take one last snapshot on exit; guarantees that there is at least one 473 snapshot in the output file; 474 <size>: if the PMU supports this, specify the desired snapshot size. 475 476In Snapshot Mode trace data is captured only when signal SIGUSR2 is received 477and on exit if the above 'e' option is given. 478 479--aux-sample[=OPTIONS]:: 480Select AUX area sampling. At least one of the events selected by the -e option 481must be an AUX area event. Samples on other events will be created containing 482data from the AUX area. Optionally sample size may be specified, otherwise it 483defaults to 4KiB. 484 485--proc-map-timeout:: 486When processing pre-existing threads /proc/XXX/mmap, it may take a long time, 487because the file may be huge. A time out is needed in such cases. 488This option sets the time out limit. The default value is 500 ms. 489 490--switch-events:: 491Record context switch events i.e. events of type PERF_RECORD_SWITCH or 492PERF_RECORD_SWITCH_CPU_WIDE. In some cases (e.g. Intel PT, CoreSight or Arm SPE) 493switch events will be enabled automatically, which can be suppressed by 494by the option --no-switch-events. 495 496--clang-path=PATH:: 497Path to clang binary to use for compiling BPF scriptlets. 498(enabled when BPF support is on) 499 500--clang-opt=OPTIONS:: 501Options passed to clang when compiling BPF scriptlets. 502(enabled when BPF support is on) 503 504--vmlinux=PATH:: 505Specify vmlinux path which has debuginfo. 506(enabled when BPF prologue is on) 507 508--buildid-all:: 509Record build-id of all DSOs regardless whether it's actually hit or not. 510 511--buildid-mmap:: 512Record build ids in mmap2 events, disables build id cache (implies --no-buildid). 513 514--aio[=n]:: 515Use <n> control blocks in asynchronous (Posix AIO) trace writing mode (default: 1, max: 4). 516Asynchronous mode is supported only when linking Perf tool with libc library 517providing implementation for Posix AIO API. 518 519--affinity=mode:: 520Set affinity mask of trace reading thread according to the policy defined by 'mode' value: 521 node - thread affinity mask is set to NUMA node cpu mask of the processed mmap buffer 522 cpu - thread affinity mask is set to cpu of the processed mmap buffer 523 524--mmap-flush=number:: 525 526Specify minimal number of bytes that is extracted from mmap data pages and 527processed for output. One can specify the number using B/K/M/G suffixes. 528 529The maximal allowed value is a quarter of the size of mmaped data pages. 530 531The default option value is 1 byte which means that every time that the output 532writing thread finds some new data in the mmaped buffer the data is extracted, 533possibly compressed (-z) and written to the output, perf.data or pipe. 534 535Larger data chunks are compressed more effectively in comparison to smaller 536chunks so extraction of larger chunks from the mmap data pages is preferable 537from the perspective of output size reduction. 538 539Also at some cases executing less output write syscalls with bigger data size 540can take less time than executing more output write syscalls with smaller data 541size thus lowering runtime profiling overhead. 542 543-z:: 544--compression-level[=n]:: 545Produce compressed trace using specified level n (default: 1 - fastest compression, 54622 - smallest trace) 547 548--all-kernel:: 549Configure all used events to run in kernel space. 550 551--all-user:: 552Configure all used events to run in user space. 553 554--kernel-callchains:: 555Collect callchains only from kernel space. I.e. this option sets 556perf_event_attr.exclude_callchain_user to 1. 557 558--user-callchains:: 559Collect callchains only from user space. I.e. this option sets 560perf_event_attr.exclude_callchain_kernel to 1. 561 562Don't use both --kernel-callchains and --user-callchains at the same time or no 563callchains will be collected. 564 565--timestamp-filename 566Append timestamp to output file name. 567 568--timestamp-boundary:: 569Record timestamp boundary (time of first/last samples). 570 571--switch-output[=mode]:: 572Generate multiple perf.data files, timestamp prefixed, switching to a new one 573based on 'mode' value: 574 "signal" - when receiving a SIGUSR2 (default value) or 575 <size> - when reaching the size threshold, size is expected to 576 be a number with appended unit character - B/K/M/G 577 <time> - when reaching the time threshold, size is expected to 578 be a number with appended unit character - s/m/h/d 579 580 Note: the precision of the size threshold hugely depends 581 on your configuration - the number and size of your ring 582 buffers (-m). It is generally more precise for higher sizes 583 (like >5M), for lower values expect different sizes. 584 585A possible use case is to, given an external event, slice the perf.data file 586that gets then processed, possibly via a perf script, to decide if that 587particular perf.data snapshot should be kept or not. 588 589Implies --timestamp-filename, --no-buildid and --no-buildid-cache. 590The reason for the latter two is to reduce the data file switching 591overhead. You can still switch them on with: 592 593 --switch-output --no-no-buildid --no-no-buildid-cache 594 595--switch-output-event:: 596Events that will cause the switch of the perf.data file, auto-selecting 597--switch-output=signal, the results are similar as internally the side band 598thread will also send a SIGUSR2 to the main one. 599 600Uses the same syntax as --event, it will just not be recorded, serving only to 601switch the perf.data file as soon as the --switch-output event is processed by 602a separate sideband thread. 603 604This sideband thread is also used to other purposes, like processing the 605PERF_RECORD_BPF_EVENT records as they happen, asking the kernel for extra BPF 606information, etc. 607 608--switch-max-files=N:: 609 610When rotating perf.data with --switch-output, only keep N files. 611 612--dry-run:: 613Parse options then exit. --dry-run can be used to detect errors in cmdline 614options. 615 616'perf record --dry-run -e' can act as a BPF script compiler if llvm.dump-obj 617in config file is set to true. 618 619--synth=TYPE:: 620Collect and synthesize given type of events (comma separated). Note that 621this option controls the synthesis from the /proc filesystem which represent 622task status for pre-existing threads. 623 624Kernel (and some other) events are recorded regardless of the 625choice in this option. For example, --synth=no would have MMAP events for 626kernel and modules. 627 628Available types are: 629 'task' - synthesize FORK and COMM events for each task 630 'mmap' - synthesize MMAP events for each process (implies 'task') 631 'cgroup' - synthesize CGROUP events for each cgroup 632 'all' - synthesize all events (default) 633 'no' - do not synthesize any of the above events 634 635--tail-synthesize:: 636Instead of collecting non-sample events (for example, fork, comm, mmap) at 637the beginning of record, collect them during finalizing an output file. 638The collected non-sample events reflects the status of the system when 639record is finished. 640 641--overwrite:: 642Makes all events use an overwritable ring buffer. An overwritable ring 643buffer works like a flight recorder: when it gets full, the kernel will 644overwrite the oldest records, that thus will never make it to the 645perf.data file. 646 647When '--overwrite' and '--switch-output' are used perf records and drops 648events until it receives a signal, meaning that something unusual was 649detected that warrants taking a snapshot of the most current events, 650those fitting in the ring buffer at that moment. 651 652'overwrite' attribute can also be set or canceled for an event using 653config terms. For example: 'cycles/overwrite/' and 'instructions/no-overwrite/'. 654 655Implies --tail-synthesize. 656 657--kcore:: 658Make a copy of /proc/kcore and place it into a directory with the perf data file. 659 660--max-size=<size>:: 661Limit the sample data max size, <size> is expected to be a number with 662appended unit character - B/K/M/G 663 664--num-thread-synthesize:: 665 The number of threads to run when synthesizing events for existing processes. 666 By default, the number of threads equals 1. 667 668ifdef::HAVE_LIBPFM[] 669--pfm-events events:: 670Select a PMU event using libpfm4 syntax (see http://perfmon2.sf.net) 671including support for event filters. For example '--pfm-events 672inst_retired:any_p:u:c=1:i'. More than one event can be passed to the 673option using the comma separator. Hardware events and generic hardware 674events cannot be mixed together. The latter must be used with the -e 675option. The -e option and this one can be mixed and matched. Events 676can be grouped using the {} notation. 677endif::HAVE_LIBPFM[] 678 679--control=fifo:ctl-fifo[,ack-fifo]:: 680--control=fd:ctl-fd[,ack-fd]:: 681ctl-fifo / ack-fifo are opened and used as ctl-fd / ack-fd as follows. 682Listen on ctl-fd descriptor for command to control measurement. 683 684Available commands: 685 'enable' : enable events 686 'disable' : disable events 687 'enable name' : enable event 'name' 688 'disable name' : disable event 'name' 689 'snapshot' : AUX area tracing snapshot). 690 'stop' : stop perf record 691 'ping' : ping 692 693 'evlist [-v|-g|-F] : display all events 694 -F Show just the sample frequency used for each event. 695 -v Show all fields. 696 -g Show event group information. 697 698Measurements can be started with events disabled using --delay=-1 option. Optionally 699send control command completion ('ack\n') to ack-fd descriptor to synchronize with the 700controlling process. Example of bash shell script to enable and disable events during 701measurements: 702 703 #!/bin/bash 704 705 ctl_dir=/tmp/ 706 707 ctl_fifo=${ctl_dir}perf_ctl.fifo 708 test -p ${ctl_fifo} && unlink ${ctl_fifo} 709 mkfifo ${ctl_fifo} 710 exec {ctl_fd}<>${ctl_fifo} 711 712 ctl_ack_fifo=${ctl_dir}perf_ctl_ack.fifo 713 test -p ${ctl_ack_fifo} && unlink ${ctl_ack_fifo} 714 mkfifo ${ctl_ack_fifo} 715 exec {ctl_fd_ack}<>${ctl_ack_fifo} 716 717 perf record -D -1 -e cpu-cycles -a \ 718 --control fd:${ctl_fd},${ctl_fd_ack} \ 719 -- sleep 30 & 720 perf_pid=$! 721 722 sleep 5 && echo 'enable' >&${ctl_fd} && read -u ${ctl_fd_ack} e1 && echo "enabled(${e1})" 723 sleep 10 && echo 'disable' >&${ctl_fd} && read -u ${ctl_fd_ack} d1 && echo "disabled(${d1})" 724 725 exec {ctl_fd_ack}>&- 726 unlink ${ctl_ack_fifo} 727 728 exec {ctl_fd}>&- 729 unlink ${ctl_fifo} 730 731 wait -n ${perf_pid} 732 exit $? 733 734--threads=<spec>:: 735Write collected trace data into several data files using parallel threads. 736<spec> value can be user defined list of masks. Masks separated by colon 737define CPUs to be monitored by a thread and affinity mask of that thread 738is separated by slash: 739 740 <cpus mask 1>/<affinity mask 1>:<cpus mask 2>/<affinity mask 2>:... 741 742CPUs or affinity masks must not overlap with other corresponding masks. 743Invalid CPUs are ignored, but masks containing only invalid CPUs are not 744allowed. 745 746For example user specification like the following: 747 748 0,2-4/2-4:1,5-7/5-7 749 750specifies parallel threads layout that consists of two threads, 751the first thread monitors CPUs 0 and 2-4 with the affinity mask 2-4, 752the second monitors CPUs 1 and 5-7 with the affinity mask 5-7. 753 754<spec> value can also be a string meaning predefined parallel threads 755layout: 756 757 cpu - create new data streaming thread for every monitored cpu 758 core - create new thread to monitor CPUs grouped by a core 759 package - create new thread to monitor CPUs grouped by a package 760 numa - create new threed to monitor CPUs grouped by a NUMA domain 761 762Predefined layouts can be used on systems with large number of CPUs in 763order not to spawn multiple per-cpu streaming threads but still avoid LOST 764events in data directory files. Option specified with no or empty value 765defaults to CPU layout. Masks defined or provided by the option value are 766filtered through the mask provided by -C option. 767 768--debuginfod[=URLs]:: 769 Specify debuginfod URL to be used when cacheing perf.data binaries, 770 it follows the same syntax as the DEBUGINFOD_URLS variable, like: 771 772 http://192.168.122.174:8002 773 774 If the URLs is not specified, the value of DEBUGINFOD_URLS 775 system environment variable is used. 776 777--off-cpu:: 778 Enable off-cpu profiling with BPF. The BPF program will collect 779 task scheduling information with (user) stacktrace and save them 780 as sample data of a software event named "offcpu-time". The 781 sample period will have the time the task slept in nanoseconds. 782 783 Note that BPF can collect stack traces using frame pointer ("fp") 784 only, as of now. So the applications built without the frame 785 pointer might see bogus addresses. 786 787include::intel-hybrid.txt[] 788 789SEE ALSO 790-------- 791linkperf:perf-stat[1], linkperf:perf-list[1], linkperf:perf-intel-pt[1] 792