1perf-config(1) 2============== 3 4NAME 5---- 6perf-config - Get and set variables in a configuration file. 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10[verse] 11'perf config' [<file-option>] -l | --list 12 13DESCRIPTION 14----------- 15You can manage variables in a configuration file with this command. 16 17OPTIONS 18------- 19 20-l:: 21--list:: 22 Show current config variables, name and value, for all sections. 23 24--user:: 25 For writing and reading options: write to user 26 '$HOME/.perfconfig' file or read it. 27 28--system:: 29 For writing and reading options: write to system-wide 30 '$(sysconfdir)/perfconfig' or read it. 31 32CONFIGURATION FILE 33------------------ 34 35The perf configuration file contains many variables to change various 36aspects of each of its tools, including output, disk usage, etc. 37The '$HOME/.perfconfig' file is used to store a per-user configuration. 38The file '$(sysconfdir)/perfconfig' can be used to 39store a system-wide default configuration. 40 41When reading or writing, the values are read from the system and user 42configuration files by default, and options '--system' and '--user' 43can be used to tell the command to read from or write to only that location. 44 45Syntax 46~~~~~~ 47 48The file consist of sections. A section starts with its name 49surrounded by square brackets and continues till the next section 50begins. Each variable must be in a section, and have the form 51'name = value', for example: 52 53 [section] 54 name1 = value1 55 name2 = value2 56 57Section names are case sensitive and can contain any characters except 58newline (double quote `"` and backslash have to be escaped as `\"` and `\\`, 59respectively). Section headers can't span multiple lines. 60 61Example 62~~~~~~~ 63 64Given a $HOME/.perfconfig like this: 65 66# 67# This is the config file, and 68# a '#' and ';' character indicates a comment 69# 70 71 [colors] 72 # Color variables 73 top = red, default 74 medium = green, default 75 normal = lightgray, default 76 selected = white, lightgray 77 jump_arrows = blue, default 78 addr = magenta, default 79 root = white, blue 80 81 [tui] 82 # Defaults if linked with libslang 83 report = on 84 annotate = on 85 top = on 86 87 [buildid] 88 # Default, disable using /dev/null 89 dir = ~/.debug 90 91 [annotate] 92 # Defaults 93 hide_src_code = false 94 use_offset = true 95 jump_arrows = true 96 show_nr_jumps = false 97 98 [help] 99 # Format can be man, info, web or html 100 format = man 101 autocorrect = 0 102 103 [ui] 104 show-headers = true 105 106 [call-graph] 107 # fp (framepointer), dwarf 108 record-mode = fp 109 print-type = graph 110 order = caller 111 sort-key = function 112 113Variables 114~~~~~~~~~ 115 116colors.*:: 117 The variables for customizing the colors used in the output for the 118 'report', 'top' and 'annotate' in the TUI. They should specify the 119 foreground and background colors, separated by a comma, for example: 120 121 medium = green, lightgray 122 123 If you want to use the color configured for you terminal, just leave it 124 as 'default', for example: 125 126 medium = default, lightgray 127 128 Available colors: 129 red, yellow, green, cyan, gray, black, blue, 130 white, default, magenta, lightgray 131 132 colors.top:: 133 'top' means a overhead percentage which is more than 5%. 134 And values of this variable specify percentage colors. 135 Basic key values are foreground-color 'red' and 136 background-color 'default'. 137 colors.medium:: 138 'medium' means a overhead percentage which has more than 0.5%. 139 Default values are 'green' and 'default'. 140 colors.normal:: 141 'normal' means the rest of overhead percentages 142 except 'top', 'medium', 'selected'. 143 Default values are 'lightgray' and 'default'. 144 colors.selected:: 145 This selects the colors for the current entry in a list of entries 146 from sub-commands (top, report, annotate). 147 Default values are 'black' and 'lightgray'. 148 colors.jump_arrows:: 149 Colors for jump arrows on assembly code listings 150 such as 'jns', 'jmp', 'jane', etc. 151 Default values are 'blue', 'default'. 152 colors.addr:: 153 This selects colors for addresses from 'annotate'. 154 Default values are 'magenta', 'default'. 155 colors.root:: 156 Colors for headers in the output of a sub-commands (top, report). 157 Default values are 'white', 'blue'. 158 159tui.*, gtk.*:: 160 Subcommands that can be configured here are 'top', 'report' and 'annotate'. 161 These values are booleans, for example: 162 163 [tui] 164 top = true 165 166 will make the TUI be the default for the 'top' subcommand. Those will be 167 available if the required libs were detected at tool build time. 168 169buildid.*:: 170 buildid.dir:: 171 Each executable and shared library in modern distributions comes with a 172 content based identifier that, if available, will be inserted in a 173 'perf.data' file header to, at analysis time find what is needed to do 174 symbol resolution, code annotation, etc. 175 176 The recording tools also stores a hard link or copy in a per-user 177 directory, $HOME/.debug/, of binaries, shared libraries, /proc/kallsyms 178 and /proc/kcore files to be used at analysis time. 179 180 The buildid.dir variable can be used to either change this directory 181 cache location, or to disable it altogether. If you want to disable it, 182 set buildid.dir to /dev/null. The default is $HOME/.debug 183 184annotate.*:: 185 These options work only for TUI. 186 These are in control of addresses, jump function, source code 187 in lines of assembly code from a specific program. 188 189 annotate.hide_src_code:: 190 If a program which is analyzed has source code, 191 this option lets 'annotate' print a list of assembly code with the source code. 192 For example, let's see a part of a program. There're four lines. 193 If this option is 'true', they can be printed 194 without source code from a program as below. 195 196 │ push %rbp 197 │ mov %rsp,%rbp 198 │ sub $0x10,%rsp 199 │ mov (%rdi),%rdx 200 201 But if this option is 'false', source code of the part 202 can be also printed as below. Default is 'false'. 203 204 │ struct rb_node *rb_next(const struct rb_node *node) 205 │ { 206 │ push %rbp 207 │ mov %rsp,%rbp 208 │ sub $0x10,%rsp 209 │ struct rb_node *parent; 210 │ 211 │ if (RB_EMPTY_NODE(node)) 212 │ mov (%rdi),%rdx 213 │ return n; 214 215 annotate.use_offset:: 216 Basing on a first address of a loaded function, offset can be used. 217 Instead of using original addresses of assembly code, 218 addresses subtracted from a base address can be printed. 219 Let's illustrate an example. 220 If a base address is 0XFFFFFFFF81624d50 as below, 221 222 ffffffff81624d50 <load0> 223 224 an address on assembly code has a specific absolute address as below 225 226 ffffffff816250b8:│ mov 0x8(%r14),%rdi 227 228 but if use_offset is 'true', an address subtracted from a base address is printed. 229 Default is true. This option is only applied to TUI. 230 231 368:│ mov 0x8(%r14),%rdi 232 233 annotate.jump_arrows:: 234 There can be jump instruction among assembly code. 235 Depending on a boolean value of jump_arrows, 236 arrows can be printed or not which represent 237 where do the instruction jump into as below. 238 239 │ ┌──jmp 1333 240 │ │ xchg %ax,%ax 241 │1330:│ mov %r15,%r10 242 │1333:└─→cmp %r15,%r14 243 244 If jump_arrow is 'false', the arrows isn't printed as below. 245 Default is 'false'. 246 247 │ ↓ jmp 1333 248 │ xchg %ax,%ax 249 │1330: mov %r15,%r10 250 │1333: cmp %r15,%r14 251 252 annotate.show_linenr:: 253 When showing source code if this option is 'true', 254 line numbers are printed as below. 255 256 │1628 if (type & PERF_SAMPLE_IDENTIFIER) { 257 │ ↓ jne 508 258 │1628 data->id = *array; 259 │1629 array++; 260 │1630 } 261 262 However if this option is 'false', they aren't printed as below. 263 Default is 'false'. 264 265 │ if (type & PERF_SAMPLE_IDENTIFIER) { 266 │ ↓ jne 508 267 │ data->id = *array; 268 │ array++; 269 │ } 270 271 annotate.show_nr_jumps:: 272 Let's see a part of assembly code. 273 274 │1382: movb $0x1,-0x270(%rbp) 275 276 If use this, the number of branches jumping to that address can be printed as below. 277 Default is 'false'. 278 279 │1 1382: movb $0x1,-0x270(%rbp) 280 281 annotate.show_total_period:: 282 To compare two records on an instruction base, with this option 283 provided, display total number of samples that belong to a line 284 in assembly code. If this option is 'true', total periods are printed 285 instead of percent values as below. 286 287 302 │ mov %eax,%eax 288 289 But if this option is 'false', percent values for overhead are printed i.e. 290 Default is 'false'. 291 292 99.93 │ mov %eax,%eax 293 294hist.*:: 295 hist.percentage:: 296 This option control the way to calculate overhead of filtered entries - 297 that means the value of this option is effective only if there's a 298 filter (by comm, dso or symbol name). Suppose a following example: 299 300 Overhead Symbols 301 ........ ....... 302 33.33% foo 303 33.33% bar 304 33.33% baz 305 306 This is an original overhead and we'll filter out the first 'foo' 307 entry. The value of 'relative' would increase the overhead of 'bar' 308 and 'baz' to 50.00% for each, while 'absolute' would show their 309 current overhead (33.33%). 310 311ui.*:: 312 ui.show-headers:: 313 This option controls display of column headers (like 'Overhead' and 'Symbol') 314 in 'report' and 'top'. If this option is false, they are hidden. 315 This option is only applied to TUI. 316 317call-graph.*:: 318 When sub-commands 'top' and 'report' work with -g/—-children 319 there're options in control of call-graph. 320 321 call-graph.record-mode:: 322 The record-mode can be 'fp' (frame pointer), 'dwarf' and 'lbr'. 323 The value of 'dwarf' is effective only if perf detect needed library 324 (libunwind or a recent version of libdw). 325 'lbr' only work for cpus that support it. 326 327 call-graph.dump-size:: 328 The size of stack to dump in order to do post-unwinding. Default is 8192 (byte). 329 When using dwarf into record-mode, the default size will be used if omitted. 330 331 call-graph.print-type:: 332 The print-types can be graph (graph absolute), fractal (graph relative), 333 flat and folded. This option controls a way to show overhead for each callchain 334 entry. Suppose a following example. 335 336 Overhead Symbols 337 ........ ....... 338 40.00% foo 339 | 340 ---foo 341 | 342 |--50.00%--bar 343 | main 344 | 345 --50.00%--baz 346 main 347 348 This output is a 'fractal' format. The 'foo' came from 'bar' and 'baz' exactly 349 half and half so 'fractal' shows 50.00% for each 350 (meaning that it assumes 100% total overhead of 'foo'). 351 352 The 'graph' uses absolute overhead value of 'foo' as total so each of 353 'bar' and 'baz' callchain will have 20.00% of overhead. 354 If 'flat' is used, single column and linear exposure of call chains. 355 'folded' mean call chains are displayed in a line, separated by semicolons. 356 357 call-graph.order:: 358 This option controls print order of callchains. The default is 359 'callee' which means callee is printed at top and then followed by its 360 caller and so on. The 'caller' prints it in reverse order. 361 362 If this option is not set and report.children or top.children is 363 set to true (or the equivalent command line option is given), 364 the default value of this option is changed to 'caller' for the 365 execution of 'perf report' or 'perf top'. Other commands will 366 still default to 'callee'. 367 368 call-graph.sort-key:: 369 The callchains are merged if they contain same information. 370 The sort-key option determines a way to compare the callchains. 371 A value of 'sort-key' can be 'function' or 'address'. 372 The default is 'function'. 373 374 call-graph.threshold:: 375 When there're many callchains it'd print tons of lines. So perf omits 376 small callchains under a certain overhead (threshold) and this option 377 control the threshold. Default is 0.5 (%). The overhead is calculated 378 by value depends on call-graph.print-type. 379 380 call-graph.print-limit:: 381 This is a maximum number of lines of callchain printed for a single 382 histogram entry. Default is 0 which means no limitation. 383 384report.*:: 385 report.percent-limit:: 386 This one is mostly the same as call-graph.threshold but works for 387 histogram entries. Entries having an overhead lower than this 388 percentage will not be printed. Default is '0'. If percent-limit 389 is '10', only entries which have more than 10% of overhead will be 390 printed. 391 392 report.queue-size:: 393 This option sets up the maximum allocation size of the internal 394 event queue for ordering events. Default is 0, meaning no limit. 395 396 report.children:: 397 'Children' means functions called from another function. 398 If this option is true, 'perf report' cumulates callchains of children 399 and show (accumulated) total overhead as well as 'Self' overhead. 400 Please refer to the 'perf report' manual. The default is 'true'. 401 402 report.group:: 403 This option is to show event group information together. 404 Example output with this turned on, notice that there is one column 405 per event in the group, ref-cycles and cycles: 406 407 # group: {ref-cycles,cycles} 408 # ======== 409 # 410 # Samples: 7K of event 'anon group { ref-cycles, cycles }' 411 # Event count (approx.): 6876107743 412 # 413 # Overhead Command Shared Object Symbol 414 # ................ ....... ................. ................... 415 # 416 99.84% 99.76% noploop noploop [.] main 417 0.07% 0.00% noploop ld-2.15.so [.] strcmp 418 0.03% 0.00% noploop [kernel.kallsyms] [k] timerqueue_del 419 420top.*:: 421 top.children:: 422 Same as 'report.children'. So if it is enabled, the output of 'top' 423 command will have 'Children' overhead column as well as 'Self' overhead 424 column by default. 425 The default is 'true'. 426 427man.*:: 428 man.viewer:: 429 This option can assign a tool to view manual pages when 'help' 430 subcommand was invoked. Supported tools are 'man', 'woman' 431 (with emacs client) and 'konqueror'. Default is 'man'. 432 433 New man viewer tool can be also added using 'man.<tool>.cmd' 434 or use different path using 'man.<tool>.path' config option. 435 436pager.*:: 437 pager.<subcommand>:: 438 When the subcommand is run on stdio, determine whether it uses 439 pager or not based on this value. Default is 'unspecified'. 440 441kmem.*:: 442 kmem.default:: 443 This option decides which allocator is to be analyzed if neither 444 '--slab' nor '--page' option is used. Default is 'slab'. 445 446record.*:: 447 record.build-id:: 448 This option can be 'cache', 'no-cache' or 'skip'. 449 'cache' is to post-process data and save/update the binaries into 450 the build-id cache (in ~/.debug). This is the default. 451 But if this option is 'no-cache', it will not update the build-id cache. 452 'skip' skips post-processing and does not update the cache. 453 454SEE ALSO 455-------- 456linkperf:perf[1] 457