Analyzing Linux Performance Issues With Perf

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Analyzing Linux Performance Issues With Perf

If you have never made use of Linux's perf subsystem, it can provide some valuable insight to what is slowing down your game/application...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-Perf-Collab-Guide

[coats]

Another good feature of "perf" is that since it uses kernel facilities to "see" the whole program-execution, it can tell you about things like systems-library usage that don't show up with user-level tools like "prof".

As an example, running the EPA's (numerical supercomputing) air quality model CMAQ for the standard 15KM test case with "perf" showed that this model spent 29.8% of its time in Fortran run-time-library string manipulation. (Remember, this is supposed to be a numerical, not a text, application!!.

[strtj]

If you want to dig deeper into all of what perf can do, there is a fantastic guide here: http://www.brendangregg.com/perf.html

[norsetto]

As an example, running the EPA's (numerical supercomputing) air quality model CMAQ for the standard 15KM test case with "perf" showed that this model spent 29.8% of its time in Fortran run-time-library string manipulation. (Remember, this is supposed to be a numerical, not a text, application!!.

This is pretty interesting. Have you (or whoever) done any further investigations?