summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-timechart.txt
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to '')
-rw-r--r--tools/perf/Documentation/perf-timechart.txt128
1 files changed, 128 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-timechart.txt b/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-timechart.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ef0c7565b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-timechart.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,128 @@
+perf-timechart(1)
+=================
+
+NAME
+----
+perf-timechart - Tool to visualize total system behavior during a workload
+
+SYNOPSIS
+--------
+[verse]
+'perf timechart' [<timechart options>] {record} [<record options>]
+
+DESCRIPTION
+-----------
+There are two variants of perf timechart:
+
+ 'perf timechart record <command>' to record the system level events
+ of an arbitrary workload. By default timechart records only scheduler
+ and CPU events (task switches, running times, CPU power states, etc),
+ but it's possible to record IO (disk, network) activity using -I argument.
+
+ 'perf timechart' to turn a trace into a Scalable Vector Graphics file,
+ that can be viewed with popular SVG viewers such as 'Inkscape'. Depending
+ on the events in the perf.data file, timechart will contain scheduler/cpu
+ events or IO events.
+
+ In IO mode, every bar has two charts: upper and lower.
+ Upper bar shows incoming events (disk reads, ingress network packets).
+ Lower bar shows outgoing events (disk writes, egress network packets).
+ There are also poll bars which show how much time application spent
+ in poll/epoll/select syscalls.
+
+TIMECHART OPTIONS
+-----------------
+-o::
+--output=::
+ Select the output file (default: output.svg)
+-i::
+--input=::
+ Select the input file (default: perf.data unless stdin is a fifo)
+-w::
+--width=::
+ Select the width of the SVG file (default: 1000)
+-P::
+--power-only::
+ Only output the CPU power section of the diagram
+-T::
+--tasks-only::
+ Don't output processor state transitions
+-p::
+--process::
+ Select the processes to display, by name or PID
+-f::
+--force::
+ Don't complain, do it.
+--symfs=<directory>::
+ Look for files with symbols relative to this directory.
+-n::
+--proc-num::
+ Print task info for at least given number of tasks.
+-t::
+--topology::
+ Sort CPUs according to topology.
+--highlight=<duration_nsecs|task_name>::
+ Highlight tasks (using different color) that run more than given
+ duration or tasks with given name. If number is given it's interpreted
+ as number of nanoseconds. If non-numeric string is given it's
+ interpreted as task name.
+--io-skip-eagain::
+ Don't draw EAGAIN IO events.
+--io-min-time=<nsecs>::
+ Draw small events as if they lasted min-time. Useful when you need
+ to see very small and fast IO. It's possible to specify ms or us
+ suffix to specify time in milliseconds or microseconds.
+ Default value is 1ms.
+--io-merge-dist=<nsecs>::
+ Merge events that are merge-dist nanoseconds apart.
+ Reduces number of figures on the SVG and makes it more render-friendly.
+ It's possible to specify ms or us suffix to specify time in
+ milliseconds or microseconds.
+ Default value is 1us.
+
+RECORD OPTIONS
+--------------
+-P::
+--power-only::
+ Record only power-related events
+-T::
+--tasks-only::
+ Record only tasks-related events
+-I::
+--io-only::
+ Record only io-related events
+-g::
+--callchain::
+ Do call-graph (stack chain/backtrace) recording
+
+EXAMPLES
+--------
+
+$ perf timechart record git pull
+
+ [ perf record: Woken up 13 times to write data ]
+ [ perf record: Captured and wrote 4.253 MB perf.data (~185801 samples) ]
+
+$ perf timechart
+
+ Written 10.2 seconds of trace to output.svg.
+
+Record system-wide timechart:
+
+ $ perf timechart record
+
+ then generate timechart and highlight 'gcc' tasks:
+
+ $ perf timechart --highlight gcc
+
+Record system-wide IO events:
+
+ $ perf timechart record -I
+
+ then generate timechart:
+
+ $ perf timechart
+
+SEE ALSO
+--------
+linkperf:perf-record[1]