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+perf-top(1)
+===========
+
+NAME
+----
+perf-top - System profiling tool.
+
+SYNOPSIS
+--------
+[verse]
+'perf top' [-e <EVENT> | --event=EVENT] [<options>]
+
+DESCRIPTION
+-----------
+This command generates and displays a performance counter profile in real time.
+
+
+OPTIONS
+-------
+-a::
+--all-cpus::
+ System-wide collection. (default)
+
+-c <count>::
+--count=<count>::
+ Event period to sample.
+
+-C <cpu-list>::
+--cpu=<cpu>::
+Monitor only on the list of CPUs provided. Multiple CPUs can be provided as a
+comma-separated list with no space: 0,1. Ranges of CPUs are specified with -: 0-2.
+Default is to monitor all CPUS.
+
+-d <seconds>::
+--delay=<seconds>::
+ Number of seconds to delay between refreshes.
+
+-e <event>::
+--event=<event>::
+ Select the PMU event. Selection can be a symbolic event name
+ (use 'perf list' to list all events) or a raw PMU event in the form
+ of rN where N is a hexadecimal value that represents the raw register
+ encoding with the layout of the event control registers as described
+ by entries in /sys/bus/event_source/devices/cpu/format/*.
+
+-E <entries>::
+--entries=<entries>::
+ Display this many functions.
+
+-f <count>::
+--count-filter=<count>::
+ Only display functions with more events than this.
+
+--group::
+ Put the counters into a counter group.
+
+--group-sort-idx::
+ Sort the output by the event at the index n in group. If n is invalid,
+ sort by the first event. It can support multiple groups with different
+ amount of events. WARNING: This should be used on grouped events.
+
+-F <freq>::
+--freq=<freq>::
+ Profile at this frequency. Use 'max' to use the currently maximum
+ allowed frequency, i.e. the value in the kernel.perf_event_max_sample_rate
+ sysctl.
+
+-i::
+--inherit::
+ Child tasks do not inherit counters.
+
+-k <path>::
+--vmlinux=<path>::
+ Path to vmlinux. Required for annotation functionality.
+
+--ignore-vmlinux::
+ Ignore vmlinux files.
+
+--kallsyms=<file>::
+ kallsyms pathname
+
+-m <pages>::
+--mmap-pages=<pages>::
+ Number of mmap data pages (must be a power of two) or size
+ specification with appended unit character - B/K/M/G. The
+ size is rounded up to have nearest pages power of two value.
+
+-p <pid>::
+--pid=<pid>::
+ Profile events on existing Process ID (comma separated list).
+
+-t <tid>::
+--tid=<tid>::
+ Profile events on existing thread ID (comma separated list).
+
+-u::
+--uid=::
+ Record events in threads owned by uid. Name or number.
+
+-r <priority>::
+--realtime=<priority>::
+ Collect data with this RT SCHED_FIFO priority.
+
+--sym-annotate=<symbol>::
+ Annotate this symbol.
+
+-K::
+--hide_kernel_symbols::
+ Hide kernel symbols.
+
+-U::
+--hide_user_symbols::
+ Hide user symbols.
+
+--demangle-kernel::
+ Demangle kernel symbols.
+
+-D::
+--dump-symtab::
+ Dump the symbol table used for profiling.
+
+-v::
+--verbose::
+ Be more verbose (show counter open errors, etc).
+
+-z::
+--zero::
+ Zero history across display updates.
+
+-s::
+--sort::
+ Sort by key(s): pid, comm, dso, symbol, parent, srcline, weight,
+ local_weight, abort, in_tx, transaction, overhead, sample, period.
+ Please see description of --sort in the perf-report man page.
+
+--fields=::
+ Specify output field - multiple keys can be specified in CSV format.
+ Following fields are available:
+ overhead, overhead_sys, overhead_us, overhead_children, sample and period.
+ Also it can contain any sort key(s).
+
+ By default, every sort keys not specified in --field will be appended
+ automatically.
+
+-n::
+--show-nr-samples::
+ Show a column with the number of samples.
+
+--show-total-period::
+ Show a column with the sum of periods.
+
+--dsos::
+ Only consider symbols in these dsos. This option will affect the
+ percentage of the overhead column. See --percentage for more info.
+
+--comms::
+ Only consider symbols in these comms. This option will affect the
+ percentage of the overhead column. See --percentage for more info.
+
+--symbols::
+ Only consider these symbols. This option will affect the
+ percentage of the overhead column. See --percentage for more info.
+
+-M::
+--disassembler-style=:: Set disassembler style for objdump.
+
+--prefix=PREFIX::
+--prefix-strip=N::
+ Remove first N entries from source file path names in executables
+ and add PREFIX. This allows to display source code compiled on systems
+ with different file system layout.
+
+--source::
+ Interleave source code with assembly code. Enabled by default,
+ disable with --no-source.
+
+--asm-raw::
+ Show raw instruction encoding of assembly instructions.
+
+-g::
+ Enables call-graph (stack chain/backtrace) recording.
+
+--call-graph [mode,type,min[,limit],order[,key][,branch]]::
+ Setup and enable call-graph (stack chain/backtrace) recording,
+ implies -g. See `--call-graph` section in perf-record and
+ perf-report man pages for details.
+
+--children::
+ Accumulate callchain of children to parent entry so that then can
+ show up in the output. The output will have a new "Children" column
+ and will be sorted on the data. It requires -g/--call-graph option
+ enabled. See the `overhead calculation' section for more details.
+ Enabled by default, disable with --no-children.
+
+--max-stack::
+ Set the stack depth limit when parsing the callchain, anything
+ beyond the specified depth will be ignored. This is a trade-off
+ between information loss and faster processing especially for
+ workloads that can have a very long callchain stack.
+
+ Default: /proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_max_stack when present, 127 otherwise.
+
+--ignore-callees=<regex>::
+ Ignore callees of the function(s) matching the given regex.
+ This has the effect of collecting the callers of each such
+ function into one place in the call-graph tree.
+
+--percent-limit::
+ Do not show entries which have an overhead under that percent.
+ (Default: 0).
+
+--percentage::
+ Determine how to display the overhead percentage of filtered entries.
+ Filters can be applied by --comms, --dsos and/or --symbols options and
+ Zoom operations on the TUI (thread, dso, etc).
+
+ "relative" means it's relative to filtered entries only so that the
+ sum of shown entries will be always 100%. "absolute" means it retains
+ the original value before and after the filter is applied.
+
+-w::
+--column-widths=<width[,width...]>::
+ Force each column width to the provided list, for large terminal
+ readability. 0 means no limit (default behavior).
+
+--proc-map-timeout::
+ When processing pre-existing threads /proc/XXX/mmap, it may take
+ a long time, because the file may be huge. A time out is needed
+ in such cases.
+ This option sets the time out limit. The default value is 500 ms.
+
+
+-b::
+--branch-any::
+ Enable taken branch stack sampling. Any type of taken branch may be sampled.
+ This is a shortcut for --branch-filter any. See --branch-filter for more infos.
+
+-j::
+--branch-filter::
+ Enable taken branch stack sampling. Each sample captures a series of consecutive
+ taken branches. The number of branches captured with each sample depends on the
+ underlying hardware, the type of branches of interest, and the executed code.
+ It is possible to select the types of branches captured by enabling filters.
+ For a full list of modifiers please see the perf record manpage.
+
+ The option requires at least one branch type among any, any_call, any_ret, ind_call, cond.
+ The privilege levels may be omitted, in which case, the privilege levels of the associated
+ event are applied to the branch filter. Both kernel (k) and hypervisor (hv) privilege
+ levels are subject to permissions. When sampling on multiple events, branch stack sampling
+ is enabled for all the sampling events. The sampled branch type is the same for all events.
+ The various filters must be specified as a comma separated list: --branch-filter any_ret,u,k
+ Note that this feature may not be available on all processors.
+
+--raw-trace::
+ When displaying traceevent output, do not use print fmt or plugins.
+
+--hierarchy::
+ Enable hierarchy output.
+
+--overwrite::
+ Enable this to use just the most recent records, which helps in high core count
+ machines such as Knights Landing/Mill, but right now is disabled by default as
+ the pausing used in this technique is leading to loss of metadata events such
+ as PERF_RECORD_MMAP which makes 'perf top' unable to resolve samples, leading
+ to lots of unknown samples appearing on the UI. Enable this if you are in such
+ machines and profiling a workload that doesn't creates short lived threads and/or
+ doesn't uses many executable mmap operations. Work is being planed to solve
+ this situation, till then, this will remain disabled by default.
+
+--force::
+ Don't do ownership validation.
+
+--num-thread-synthesize::
+ The number of threads to run when synthesizing events for existing processes.
+ By default, the number of threads equals to the number of online CPUs.
+
+--namespaces::
+ Record events of type PERF_RECORD_NAMESPACES and display it with the
+ 'cgroup_id' sort key.
+
+-G name::
+--cgroup name::
+monitor only in the container (cgroup) called "name". This option is available only
+in per-cpu mode. The cgroup filesystem must be mounted. All threads belonging to
+container "name" are monitored when they run on the monitored CPUs. Multiple cgroups
+can be provided. Each cgroup is applied to the corresponding event, i.e., first cgroup
+to first event, second cgroup to second event and so on. It is possible to provide
+an empty cgroup (monitor all the time) using, e.g., -G foo,,bar. Cgroups must have
+corresponding events, i.e., they always refer to events defined earlier on the command
+line. If the user wants to track multiple events for a specific cgroup, the user can
+use '-e e1 -e e2 -G foo,foo' or just use '-e e1 -e e2 -G foo'.
+
+--all-cgroups::
+ Record events of type PERF_RECORD_CGROUP and display it with the
+ 'cgroup' sort key.
+
+--switch-on EVENT_NAME::
+ Only consider events after this event is found.
+
+ E.g.:
+
+ Find out where broadcast packets are handled
+
+ perf probe -L icmp_rcv
+
+ Insert a probe there:
+
+ perf probe icmp_rcv:59
+
+ Start perf top and ask it to only consider the cycles events when a
+ broadcast packet arrives This will show a menu with two entries and
+ will start counting when a broadcast packet arrives:
+
+ perf top -e cycles,probe:icmp_rcv --switch-on=probe:icmp_rcv
+
+ Alternatively one can ask for --group and then two overhead columns
+ will appear, the first for cycles and the second for the switch-on event.
+
+ perf top --group -e cycles,probe:icmp_rcv --switch-on=probe:icmp_rcv
+
+ This may be interesting to measure a workload only after some initialization
+ phase is over, i.e. insert a perf probe at that point and use the above
+ examples replacing probe:icmp_rcv with the just-after-init probe.
+
+--switch-off EVENT_NAME::
+ Stop considering events after this event is found.
+
+--show-on-off-events::
+ Show the --switch-on/off events too. This has no effect in 'perf top' now
+ but probably we'll make the default not to show the switch-on/off events
+ on the --group mode and if there is only one event besides the off/on ones,
+ go straight to the histogram browser, just like 'perf top' with no events
+ explicitly specified does.
+
+--stitch-lbr::
+ Show callgraph with stitched LBRs, which may have more complete
+ callgraph. The option must be used with --call-graph lbr recording.
+ Disabled by default. In common cases with call stack overflows,
+ it can recreate better call stacks than the default lbr call stack
+ output. But this approach is not full proof. There can be cases
+ where it creates incorrect call stacks from incorrect matches.
+ The known limitations include exception handing such as
+ setjmp/longjmp will have calls/returns not match.
+
+ifdef::HAVE_LIBPFM[]
+--pfm-events events::
+Select a PMU event using libpfm4 syntax (see http://perfmon2.sf.net)
+including support for event filters. For example '--pfm-events
+inst_retired:any_p:u:c=1:i'. More than one event can be passed to the
+option using the comma separator. Hardware events and generic hardware
+events cannot be mixed together. The latter must be used with the -e
+option. The -e option and this one can be mixed and matched. Events
+can be grouped using the {} notation.
+endif::HAVE_LIBPFM[]
+
+INTERACTIVE PROMPTING KEYS
+--------------------------
+
+[d]::
+ Display refresh delay.
+
+[e]::
+ Number of entries to display.
+
+[E]::
+ Event to display when multiple counters are active.
+
+[f]::
+ Profile display filter (>= hit count).
+
+[F]::
+ Annotation display filter (>= % of total).
+
+[s]::
+ Annotate symbol.
+
+[S]::
+ Stop annotation, return to full profile display.
+
+[K]::
+ Hide kernel symbols.
+
+[U]::
+ Hide user symbols.
+
+[z]::
+ Toggle event count zeroing across display updates.
+
+[qQ]::
+ Quit.
+
+Pressing any unmapped key displays a menu, and prompts for input.
+
+include::callchain-overhead-calculation.txt[]
+
+SEE ALSO
+--------
+linkperf:perf-stat[1], linkperf:perf-list[1], linkperf:perf-report[1]