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--group:: 242 Put all events in a single event group. This precedes the --event 243 option and remains only for backward compatibility. See --event. 244 245-g:: 246 Enables call-graph (stack chain/backtrace) recording for both 247 kernel space and user space. 248 249--call-graph:: 250 Setup and enable call-graph (stack chain/backtrace) recording, 251 implies -g. Default is "fp" (for user space). 252 253 The unwinding method used for kernel space is dependent on the 254 unwinder used by the active kernel configuration, i.e 255 CONFIG_UNWINDER_FRAME_POINTER (fp) or CONFIG_UNWINDER_ORC (orc) 256 257 Any option specified here controls the method used for user space. 258 259 Valid options are "fp" (frame pointer), "dwarf" (DWARF's CFI - 260 Call Frame Information) or "lbr" (Hardware Last Branch Record 261 facility). 262 263 In some systems, where binaries are build with gcc 264 --fomit-frame-pointer, using the "fp" method will produce bogus 265 call graphs, using "dwarf", if available (perf tools linked to 266 the libunwind or libdw library) should be used instead. 267 Using the "lbr" method doesn't require any compiler options. It 268 will produce call graphs from the hardware LBR registers. The 269 main limitation is that it is only available on new Intel 270 platforms, such as Haswell. It can only get user call chain. It 271 doesn't work with branch stack sampling at the same time. 272 273 When "dwarf" recording is used, perf also records (user) stack dump 274 when sampled. Default size of the stack dump is 8192 (bytes). 275 User can change the size by passing the size after comma like 276 "--call-graph dwarf,4096". 277 278 When "fp" recording is used, perf tries to save stack enties 279 up to the number specified in sysctl.kernel.perf_event_max_stack 280 by default. User can change the number by passing it after comma 281 like "--call-graph fp,32". 282 283-q:: 284--quiet:: 285 Don't print any message, useful for scripting. 286 287-v:: 288--verbose:: 289 Be more verbose (show counter open errors, etc). 290 291-s:: 292--stat:: 293 Record per-thread event counts. Use it with 'perf report -T' to see 294 the values. 295 296-d:: 297--data:: 298 Record the sample virtual addresses. 299 300--phys-data:: 301 Record the sample physical addresses. 302 303--data-page-size:: 304 Record the sampled data address data page size. 305 306--code-page-size:: 307 Record the sampled code address (ip) page size 308 309-T:: 310--timestamp:: 311 Record the sample timestamps. Use it with 'perf report -D' to see the 312 timestamps, for instance. 313 314-P:: 315--period:: 316 Record the sample period. 317 318--sample-cpu:: 319 Record the sample cpu. 320 321--sample-identifier:: 322 Record the sample identifier i.e. PERF_SAMPLE_IDENTIFIER bit set in 323 the sample_type member of the struct perf_event_attr argument to the 324 perf_event_open system call. 325 326-n:: 327--no-samples:: 328 Don't sample. 329 330-R:: 331--raw-samples:: 332Collect raw sample records from all opened counters (default for tracepoint counters). 333 334-C:: 335--cpu:: 336Collect samples only on the list of CPUs provided. Multiple CPUs can be provided as a 337comma-separated list with no space: 0,1. Ranges of CPUs are specified with -: 0-2. 338In per-thread mode with inheritance mode on (default), samples are captured only when 339the thread executes on the designated CPUs. Default is to monitor all CPUs. 340 341-B:: 342--no-buildid:: 343Do not save the build ids of binaries in the perf.data files. This skips 344post processing after recording, which sometimes makes the final step in 345the recording process to take a long time, as it needs to process all 346events looking for mmap records. The downside is that it can misresolve 347symbols if the workload binaries used when recording get locally rebuilt 348or upgraded, because the only key available in this case is the 349pathname. You can also set the "record.build-id" config variable to 350'skip to have this behaviour permanently. 351 352-N:: 353--no-buildid-cache:: 354Do not update the buildid cache. This saves some overhead in situations 355where the information in the perf.data file (which includes buildids) 356is sufficient. You can also set the "record.build-id" config variable to 357'no-cache' to have the same effect. 358 359-G name,...:: 360--cgroup name,...:: 361monitor only in the container (cgroup) called "name". This option is available only 362in per-cpu mode. The cgroup filesystem must be mounted. All threads belonging to 363container "name" are monitored when they run on the monitored CPUs. Multiple cgroups 364can be provided. Each cgroup is applied to the corresponding event, i.e., first cgroup 365to first event, second cgroup to second event and so on. It is possible to provide 366an empty cgroup (monitor all the time) using, e.g., -G foo,,bar. Cgroups must have 367corresponding events, i.e., they always refer to events defined earlier on the command 368line. If the user wants to track multiple events for a specific cgroup, the user can 369use '-e e1 -e e2 -G foo,foo' or just use '-e e1 -e e2 -G foo'. 370 371If wanting to monitor, say, 'cycles' for a cgroup and also for system wide, this 372command line can be used: 'perf stat -e cycles -G cgroup_name -a -e cycles'. 373 374-b:: 375--branch-any:: 376Enable taken branch stack sampling. Any type of taken branch may be sampled. 377This is a shortcut for --branch-filter any. See --branch-filter for more infos. 378 379-j:: 380--branch-filter:: 381Enable taken branch stack sampling. Each sample captures a series of consecutive 382taken branches. The number of branches captured with each sample depends on the 383underlying hardware, the type of branches of interest, and the executed code. 384It is possible to select the types of branches captured by enabling filters. The 385following filters are defined: 386 387 - any: any type of branches 388 - any_call: any function call or system call 389 - any_ret: any function return or system call return 390 - ind_call: any indirect branch 391 - call: direct calls, including far (to/from kernel) calls 392 - u: only when the branch target is at the user level 393 - k: only when the branch target is in the kernel 394 - hv: only when the target is at the hypervisor level 395 - in_tx: only when the target is in a hardware transaction 396 - no_tx: only when the target is not in a hardware transaction 397 - abort_tx: only when the target is a hardware transaction abort 398 - cond: conditional branches 399 - save_type: save branch type during sampling in case binary is not available later 400 For the platforms with Intel Arch LBR support (12th-Gen+ client or 401 4th-Gen Xeon+ server), the save branch type is unconditionally enabled 402 when the taken branch stack sampling is enabled. 403 - priv: save privilege state during sampling in case binary is not available later 404 405+ 406The option requires at least one branch type among any, any_call, any_ret, ind_call, cond. 407The privilege levels may be omitted, in which case, the privilege levels of the associated 408event are applied to the branch filter. Both kernel (k) and hypervisor (hv) privilege 409levels are subject to permissions. When sampling on multiple events, branch stack sampling 410is enabled for all the sampling events. The sampled branch type is the same for all events. 411The various filters must be specified as a comma separated list: --branch-filter any_ret,u,k 412Note that this feature may not be available on all processors. 413 414-W:: 415--weight:: 416Enable weightened sampling. An additional weight is recorded per sample and can be 417displayed with the weight and local_weight sort keys. This currently works for TSX 418abort events and some memory events in precise mode on modern Intel CPUs. 419 420--namespaces:: 421Record events of type PERF_RECORD_NAMESPACES. This enables 'cgroup_id' sort key. 422 423--all-cgroups:: 424Record events of type PERF_RECORD_CGROUP. This enables 'cgroup' sort key. 425 426--transaction:: 427Record transaction flags for transaction related events. 428 429--per-thread:: 430Use per-thread mmaps. By default per-cpu mmaps are created. This option 431overrides that and uses per-thread mmaps. A side-effect of that is that 432inheritance is automatically disabled. --per-thread is ignored with a warning 433if combined with -a or -C options. 434 435-D:: 436--delay=:: 437After starting the program, wait msecs before measuring (-1: start with events 438disabled), or enable events only for specified ranges of msecs (e.g. 439-D 10-20,30-40 means wait 10 msecs, enable for 10 msecs, wait 10 msecs, enable 440for 10 msecs, then stop). Note, delaying enabling of events is useful to filter 441out the startup phase of the program, which is often very different. 442 443-I:: 444--intr-regs:: 445Capture machine state (registers) at interrupt, i.e., on counter overflows for 446each sample. List of captured registers depends on the architecture. This option 447is off by default. It is possible to select the registers to sample using their 448symbolic names, e.g. on x86, ax, si. To list the available registers use 449--intr-regs=\?. To name registers, pass a comma separated list such as 450--intr-regs=ax,bx. The list of register is architecture dependent. 451 452--user-regs:: 453Similar to -I, but capture user registers at sample time. To list the available 454user registers use --user-regs=\?. 455 456--running-time:: 457Record running and enabled time for read events (:S) 458 459-k:: 460--clockid:: 461Sets the clock id to use for the various time fields in the perf_event_type 462records. See clock_gettime(). In particular CLOCK_MONOTONIC and 463CLOCK_MONOTONIC_RAW are supported, some events might also allow 464CLOCK_BOOTTIME, CLOCK_REALTIME and CLOCK_TAI. 465 466-S:: 467--snapshot:: 468Select AUX area tracing Snapshot Mode. This option is valid only with an 469AUX area tracing event. Optionally, certain snapshot capturing parameters 470can be specified in a string that follows this option: 471 'e': take one last snapshot on exit; guarantees that there is at least one 472 snapshot in the output file; 473 <size>: if the PMU supports this, specify the desired snapshot size. 474 475In Snapshot Mode trace data is captured only when signal SIGUSR2 is received 476and on exit if the above 'e' option is given. 477 478--aux-sample[=OPTIONS]:: 479Select AUX area sampling. At least one of the events selected by the -e option 480must be an AUX area event. Samples on other events will be created containing 481data from the AUX area. Optionally sample size may be specified, otherwise it 482defaults to 4KiB. 483 484--proc-map-timeout:: 485When processing pre-existing threads /proc/XXX/mmap, it may take a long time, 486because the file may be huge. A time out is needed in such cases. 487This option sets the time out limit. The default value is 500 ms. 488 489--switch-events:: 490Record context switch events i.e. events of type PERF_RECORD_SWITCH or 491PERF_RECORD_SWITCH_CPU_WIDE. In some cases (e.g. Intel PT, CoreSight or Arm SPE) 492switch events will be enabled automatically, which can be suppressed by 493by the option --no-switch-events. 494 495--clang-path=PATH:: 496Path to clang binary to use for compiling BPF scriptlets. 497(enabled when BPF support is on) 498 499--clang-opt=OPTIONS:: 500Options passed to clang when compiling BPF scriptlets. 501(enabled when BPF support is on) 502 503--vmlinux=PATH:: 504Specify vmlinux path which has debuginfo. 505(enabled when BPF prologue is on) 506 507--buildid-all:: 508Record build-id of all DSOs regardless whether it's actually hit or not. 509 510--buildid-mmap:: 511Record build ids in mmap2 events, disables build id cache (implies --no-buildid). 512 513--aio[=n]:: 514Use <n> control blocks in asynchronous (Posix AIO) trace writing mode (default: 1, max: 4). 515Asynchronous mode is supported only when linking Perf tool with libc library 516providing implementation for Posix AIO API. 517 518--affinity=mode:: 519Set affinity mask of trace reading thread according to the policy defined by 'mode' value: 520 node - thread affinity mask is set to NUMA node cpu mask of the processed mmap buffer 521 cpu - thread affinity mask is set to cpu of the processed mmap buffer 522 523--mmap-flush=number:: 524 525Specify minimal number of bytes that is extracted from mmap data pages and 526processed for output. One can specify the number using B/K/M/G suffixes. 527 528The maximal allowed value is a quarter of the size of mmaped data pages. 529 530The default option value is 1 byte which means that every time that the output 531writing thread finds some new data in the mmaped buffer the data is extracted, 532possibly compressed (-z) and written to the output, perf.data or pipe. 533 534Larger data chunks are compressed more effectively in comparison to smaller 535chunks so extraction of larger chunks from the mmap data pages is preferable 536from the perspective of output size reduction. 537 538Also at some cases executing less output write syscalls with bigger data size 539can take less time than executing more output write syscalls with smaller data 540size thus lowering runtime profiling overhead. 541 542-z:: 543--compression-level[=n]:: 544Produce compressed trace using specified level n (default: 1 - fastest compression, 54522 - smallest trace) 546 547--all-kernel:: 548Configure all used events to run in kernel space. 549 550--all-user:: 551Configure all used events to run in user space. 552 553--kernel-callchains:: 554Collect callchains only from kernel space. I.e. this option sets 555perf_event_attr.exclude_callchain_user to 1. 556 557--user-callchains:: 558Collect callchains only from user space. I.e. this option sets 559perf_event_attr.exclude_callchain_kernel to 1. 560 561Don't use both --kernel-callchains and --user-callchains at the same time or no 562callchains will be collected. 563 564--timestamp-filename 565Append timestamp to output file name. 566 567--timestamp-boundary:: 568Record timestamp boundary (time of first/last samples). 569 570--switch-output[=mode]:: 571Generate multiple perf.data files, timestamp prefixed, switching to a new one 572based on 'mode' value: 573 "signal" - when receiving a SIGUSR2 (default value) or 574 <size> - when reaching the size threshold, size is expected to 575 be a number with appended unit character - B/K/M/G 576 <time> - when reaching the time threshold, size is expected to 577 be a number with appended unit character - s/m/h/d 578 579 Note: the precision of the size threshold hugely depends 580 on your configuration - the number and size of your ring 581 buffers (-m). It is generally more precise for higher sizes 582 (like >5M), for lower values expect different sizes. 583 584A possible use case is to, given an external event, slice the perf.data file 585that gets then processed, possibly via a perf script, to decide if that 586particular perf.data snapshot should be kept or not. 587 588Implies --timestamp-filename, --no-buildid and --no-buildid-cache. 589The reason for the latter two is to reduce the data file switching 590overhead. You can still switch them on with: 591 592 --switch-output --no-no-buildid --no-no-buildid-cache 593 594--switch-output-event:: 595Events that will cause the switch of the perf.data file, auto-selecting 596--switch-output=signal, the results are similar as internally the side band 597thread will also send a SIGUSR2 to the main one. 598 599Uses the same syntax as --event, it will just not be recorded, serving only to 600switch the perf.data file as soon as the --switch-output event is processed by 601a separate sideband thread. 602 603This sideband thread is also used to other purposes, like processing the 604PERF_RECORD_BPF_EVENT records as they happen, asking the kernel for extra BPF 605information, etc. 606 607--switch-max-files=N:: 608 609When rotating perf.data with --switch-output, only keep N files. 610 611--dry-run:: 612Parse options then exit. --dry-run can be used to detect errors in cmdline 613options. 614 615'perf record --dry-run -e' can act as a BPF script compiler if llvm.dump-obj 616in config file is set to true. 617 618--synth=TYPE:: 619Collect and synthesize given type of events (comma separated). Note that 620this option controls the synthesis from the /proc filesystem which represent 621task status for pre-existing threads. 622 623Kernel (and some other) events are recorded regardless of the 624choice in this option. For example, --synth=no would have MMAP events for 625kernel and modules. 626 627Available types are: 628 'task' - synthesize FORK and COMM events for each task 629 'mmap' - synthesize MMAP events for each process (implies 'task') 630 'cgroup' - synthesize CGROUP events for each cgroup 631 'all' - synthesize all events (default) 632 'no' - do not synthesize any of the above events 633 634--tail-synthesize:: 635Instead of collecting non-sample events (for example, fork, comm, mmap) at 636the beginning of record, collect them during finalizing an output file. 637The collected non-sample events reflects the status of the system when 638record is finished. 639 640--overwrite:: 641Makes all events use an overwritable ring buffer. An overwritable ring 642buffer works like a flight recorder: when it gets full, the kernel will 643overwrite the oldest records, that thus will never make it to the 644perf.data file. 645 646When '--overwrite' and '--switch-output' are used perf records and drops 647events until it receives a signal, meaning that something unusual was 648detected that warrants taking a snapshot of the most current events, 649those fitting in the ring buffer at that moment. 650 651'overwrite' attribute can also be set or canceled for an event using 652config terms. For example: 'cycles/overwrite/' and 'instructions/no-overwrite/'. 653 654Implies --tail-synthesize. 655 656--kcore:: 657Make a copy of /proc/kcore and place it into a directory with the perf data file. 658 659--max-size=<size>:: 660Limit the sample data max size, <size> is expected to be a number with 661appended unit character - B/K/M/G 662 663--num-thread-synthesize:: 664 The number of threads to run when synthesizing events for existing processes. 665 By default, the number of threads equals 1. 666 667ifdef::HAVE_LIBPFM[] 668--pfm-events events:: 669Select a PMU event using libpfm4 syntax (see http://perfmon2.sf.net) 670including support for event filters. For example '--pfm-events 671inst_retired:any_p:u:c=1:i'. More than one event can be passed to the 672option using the comma separator. Hardware events and generic hardware 673events cannot be mixed together. The latter must be used with the -e 674option. The -e option and this one can be mixed and matched. Events 675can be grouped using the {} notation. 676endif::HAVE_LIBPFM[] 677 678--control=fifo:ctl-fifo[,ack-fifo]:: 679--control=fd:ctl-fd[,ack-fd]:: 680ctl-fifo / ack-fifo are opened and used as ctl-fd / ack-fd as follows. 681Listen on ctl-fd descriptor for command to control measurement. 682 683Available commands: 684 'enable' : enable events 685 'disable' : disable events 686 'enable name' : enable event 'name' 687 'disable name' : disable event 'name' 688 'snapshot' : AUX area tracing snapshot). 689 'stop' : stop perf record 690 'ping' : ping 691 692 'evlist [-v|-g|-F] : display all events 693 -F Show just the sample frequency used for each event. 694 -v Show all fields. 695 -g Show event group information. 696 697Measurements can be started with events disabled using --delay=-1 option. Optionally 698send control command completion ('ack\n') to ack-fd descriptor to synchronize with the 699controlling process. Example of bash shell script to enable and disable events during 700measurements: 701 702 #!/bin/bash 703 704 ctl_dir=/tmp/ 705 706 ctl_fifo=${ctl_dir}perf_ctl.fifo 707 test -p ${ctl_fifo} && unlink ${ctl_fifo} 708 mkfifo ${ctl_fifo} 709 exec {ctl_fd}<>${ctl_fifo} 710 711 ctl_ack_fifo=${ctl_dir}perf_ctl_ack.fifo 712 test -p ${ctl_ack_fifo} && unlink ${ctl_ack_fifo} 713 mkfifo ${ctl_ack_fifo} 714 exec {ctl_fd_ack}<>${ctl_ack_fifo} 715 716 perf record -D -1 -e cpu-cycles -a \ 717 --control fd:${ctl_fd},${ctl_fd_ack} \ 718 -- sleep 30 & 719 perf_pid=$! 720 721 sleep 5 && echo 'enable' >&${ctl_fd} && read -u ${ctl_fd_ack} e1 && echo "enabled(${e1})" 722 sleep 10 && echo 'disable' >&${ctl_fd} && read -u ${ctl_fd_ack} d1 && echo "disabled(${d1})" 723 724 exec {ctl_fd_ack}>&- 725 unlink ${ctl_ack_fifo} 726 727 exec {ctl_fd}>&- 728 unlink ${ctl_fifo} 729 730 wait -n ${perf_pid} 731 exit $? 732 733--threads=<spec>:: 734Write collected trace data into several data files using parallel threads. 735<spec> value can be user defined list of masks. Masks separated by colon 736define CPUs to be monitored by a thread and affinity mask of that thread 737is separated by slash: 738 739 <cpus mask 1>/<affinity mask 1>:<cpus mask 2>/<affinity mask 2>:... 740 741CPUs or affinity masks must not overlap with other corresponding masks. 742Invalid CPUs are ignored, but masks containing only invalid CPUs are not 743allowed. 744 745For example user specification like the following: 746 747 0,2-4/2-4:1,5-7/5-7 748 749specifies parallel threads layout that consists of two threads, 750the first thread monitors CPUs 0 and 2-4 with the affinity mask 2-4, 751the second monitors CPUs 1 and 5-7 with the affinity mask 5-7. 752 753<spec> value can also be a string meaning predefined parallel threads 754layout: 755 756 cpu - create new data streaming thread for every monitored cpu 757 core - create new thread to monitor CPUs grouped by a core 758 package - create new thread to monitor CPUs grouped by a package 759 numa - create new threed to monitor CPUs grouped by a NUMA domain 760 761Predefined layouts can be used on systems with large number of CPUs in 762order not to spawn multiple per-cpu streaming threads but still avoid LOST 763events in data directory files. Option specified with no or empty value 764defaults to CPU layout. Masks defined or provided by the option value are 765filtered through the mask provided by -C option. 766 767--debuginfod[=URLs]:: 768 Specify debuginfod URL to be used when cacheing perf.data binaries, 769 it follows the same syntax as the DEBUGINFOD_URLS variable, like: 770 771 http://192.168.122.174:8002 772 773 If the URLs is not specified, the value of DEBUGINFOD_URLS 774 system environment variable is used. 775 776--off-cpu:: 777 Enable off-cpu profiling with BPF. The BPF program will collect 778 task scheduling information with (user) stacktrace and save them 779 as sample data of a software event named "offcpu-time". The 780 sample period will have the time the task slept in nanoseconds. 781 782 Note that BPF can collect stack traces using frame pointer ("fp") 783 only, as of now. So the applications built without the frame 784 pointer might see bogus addresses. 785 786include::intel-hybrid.txt[] 787 788SEE ALSO 789-------- 790linkperf:perf-stat[1], linkperf:perf-list[1], linkperf:perf-intel-pt[1] 791