Linux
2017-09-15
manpages-dev
Manual pages about using GNU/Linux for development
man-pages
Linux kernel and C library user-space interface documentation
NAME
profil - execution time profile
SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):
int profil(unsigned short *buf, size_t bufsiz, size_t offset, unsigned int scale);
profil():
Since glibc 2.21: _DEFAULT_SOURCE In glibc 2.19 and 2.20: _DEFAULT_SOURCE || (_XOPEN_SOURCE && _XOPEN_SOURCE < 500) Up to and including glibc 2.19: _BSD_SOURCE || (_XOPEN_SOURCE && _XOPEN_SOURCE < 500)
DESCRIPTION
This routine provides a means to find out in what areas your program spends most of its time. The argument buf points to bufsiz bytes of core. Every virtual 10 milliseconds, the user’s program counter (PC) is examined: offset is subtracted and the result is multiplied by scale and divided by 65536. If the resulting value is less than bufsiz, then the corresponding entry in buf is incremented. If buf is NULL, profiling is disabled.
RETURN VALUE
Zero is always returned.
ATTRIBUTES
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).
Interface | Attribute | Value |
Thread safety | MT-Unsafe |
CONFORMING TO
Similar to a call in SVr4 (but not POSIX.1).
BUGS
profil() cannot be used on a program that also uses ITIMER_PROF interval timers (see setitimer(2)).
True kernel profiling provides more accurate results. Libc 4.4 contained a kernel patch providing a system call profil.