Linux Tools Project/PERF/User Guide

Overview

PERF is a performance counters subsystem in Linux. Performance counters are CPU hardware registers that count hardware events such as instructions executed and cache-misses suffered. These counters aid in profiling applications to detect hotspots in the application. PERF provides per task, per CPU and per-workload counters, sampling on top of these and source code event annotation.

The PERF plug-in for Eclipse allows the developer to execute profiles in their applications in a seamlessly way, using quick launch actions and visualizing the results in an user-friendly interface.

Launching a Profile

Perf plug-in provides useful profile information in a user-friendly interface, gathering the required information from the Perf command-line tool and hooking it into the Eclipse and CDT's facilities.

During a profile run, the Perf plug-in will start, stop and perform other Perf tasks in the background as needed, while the binary being profiled runs as normal.

One-click launch

The Perf plug-in for Eclipse includes a one-click launch feature which profiles the binary with default options. To use the one-click launch, right click on the project, the binary or in an open editor for a source file belonging to that project. Then, navigate to Profile As and click Profile With Perf to start the launch.

Profiling Configuration

Information about how to configure a profile session.

Perf View

Information about the Perf View.