Profile(3pm) User Contributed Perl Documentation Profile(3pm)
NAME
Devel::Profile - tell me why my perl program runs so slowly
SYNOPSIS
perl -d:Profile program.pl
less prof.out
DESCRIPTION
The Devel::Profile package is a Perl code profiler. This will collect information on the execution time of a Perl script and of the subs
in that script. This information can be used to determine which subroutines are using the most time and which subroutines are being called
most often.
To profile a Perl script, run the perl interpreter with the -d debugging switch. The profiler uses the debugging hooks. So to profile
script test.pl the following command should be used:
perl -d:Profile test.pl
When the script terminates (or periodicly while running, see ENVIRONMENT) the profiler will dump the profile information to a file called
prof.out. This file is human-readable, no additional tool is required to read it.
Note: Statistics are kept per sub, not per line.
ENVIRONMENT
"PERL_PROFILE_SAVETIME"
How often to save profile data while running, in seconds, 0 to save only at exit. The default is every 2 minutes.
"PERL_PROFILE_FILENAME"
Filename to save profile data to, default is prof.out
"PERL_PROFILE_DONT_OTHER"
Time spent running code not in 'subs' (such as naked code in main) won't get accounted for in the normal manner. By default, we
account for this time in the sub '<other>'. With this variable set, we leave it as 'missing' time. This reduces the effective runtime
of the program, and the calculated percentages.
OUTPUT FORMAT
example ouput:
time elapsed (wall): 86.8212
time running program: 65.7657 (75.75%)
time profiling (est.): 21.0556 (24.25%)
number of calls: 647248
%Time Sec. #calls sec/call F name
31.74 20.8770 2306 0.009053 Configable::init_from_config
20.09 13.2116 144638 0.000091 Configable::init_field_from_config
17.49 11.5043 297997 0.000039 Configable::has_attr
8.22 5.4028 312 0.017317 MonEl::recycle
7.54 4.9570 64239 0.000077 Configable::inherit
5.02 3.3042 101289 0.000033 MonEl::unique
[...]
This is a small summary, followed by one line per sub.
time elapsed (wall)
This is the total time elapsed.
time running program
This is the amount of time spent running your program.
time profiling
This is the amount of time wasted due to profiler overhead.
number of calls
This is the total number of subroutine calls your program made.
Followed by one line per subroutine.
name
The name of the subroutine.
%Time
The percentage of the total program runtime used by this subroutine.
Sec.
The total number of seconds used by this subroutine.
#calls
The number of times this subroutine was called.
sec/call
The average number of seconds this subroutines takes each time it is called.
F Flags.
"*" pseudo-function to account for otherwise unacounted for time.
"?" At least one call of this subroutine did not return (typically because of an "exit", or "die"). The statistics for it may be
slightly off.
"x" At least one call of this subroutine trapped an exception. The statistics for it may be slightly off.
LONG RUNNING PROGRAMS
This module was written so that the author could profile a large long-running (daemon) program. Since normally, this program never exited,
saving profiling data only at program exit was not an interesting option. This module will save profiling data periodically based on
$PERL_PROFILE_SAVETIME, or the program being profiled can call "DB::save()" at any time. This allows you to watch your profiling data while
the program is running.
The above program also had a very large startup phase (reading config files, building data structures, etc), the author wanted to see pro-
filing data for the startup phase, and for the running phase seperately. The running program can call "DB::reset()" to save the profiling
data and reset the statistics. Once reset, only "stuff" that happens from that point on will be reflected in the profile data file.
By default, reset is attached to the signal handler for "SIGUSR2". Using a perl built with "safe signal handling" (5.8.0 and higher), you
may safely send this signal to control profiling.
BUT I WANT INCLUSIVE TIMES NOT EXCLUSIVE TIMES
Please see the spin-off module Devel::DProfLB.
BUGS
Some buggy XS based perl modules can behave erroneously when run under the perl debugger. Since Devel::Profile uses the perl debugger
interfaces, these modules will also behave erroneously when being profiled.
There are no known bugs in this module.
LICENSE
This software may be copied and distributed under the terms found in the Perl "Artistic License".
A copy of the "Artistic License" may be found in the standard Perl distribution.
SEE ALSO
Yellowstone National Park.
Devel::DProfLB
AUTHOR
Jeff Weisberg - http://www.tcp4me.com/
perl v5.8.8 2007-03-07 Profile(3pm)