<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <html> <!-- Created by GNU Texinfo 6.5, http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/ --> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <title>Profiling (GNU Octave (version 5.1.0))</title> <meta name="description" content="Profiling (GNU Octave (version 5.1.0))"> <meta name="keywords" content="Profiling (GNU Octave (version 5.1.0))"> <meta name="resource-type" content="document"> <meta name="distribution" content="global"> <meta name="Generator" content="makeinfo"> <link href="index.html#Top" rel="start" title="Top"> <link href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" rel="index" title="Concept Index"> <link href="index.html#SEC_Contents" rel="contents" title="Table of Contents"> <link href="Debugging.html#Debugging" rel="up" title="Debugging"> <link href="Profiler-Example.html#Profiler-Example" rel="next" title="Profiler Example"> <link href="Call-Stack.html#Call-Stack" rel="prev" title="Call Stack"> <style type="text/css"> <!-- a.summary-letter {text-decoration: none} blockquote.indentedblock {margin-right: 0em} blockquote.smallindentedblock {margin-right: 0em; font-size: smaller} blockquote.smallquotation {font-size: smaller} div.display {margin-left: 3.2em} div.example {margin-left: 3.2em} div.lisp {margin-left: 3.2em} div.smalldisplay {margin-left: 3.2em} div.smallexample {margin-left: 3.2em} div.smalllisp {margin-left: 3.2em} kbd {font-style: oblique} pre.display {font-family: inherit} pre.format {font-family: inherit} pre.menu-comment {font-family: serif} pre.menu-preformatted {font-family: serif} pre.smalldisplay {font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller} pre.smallexample {font-size: smaller} pre.smallformat {font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller} pre.smalllisp {font-size: smaller} span.nolinebreak {white-space: nowrap} span.roman {font-family: initial; font-weight: normal} span.sansserif {font-family: sans-serif; font-weight: normal} ul.no-bullet {list-style: none} --> </style> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="octave.css"> </head> <body lang="en"> <a name="Profiling"></a> <div class="header"> <p> Next: <a href="Profiler-Example.html#Profiler-Example" accesskey="n" rel="next">Profiler Example</a>, Previous: <a href="Call-Stack.html#Call-Stack" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Call Stack</a>, Up: <a href="Debugging.html#Debugging" accesskey="u" rel="up">Debugging</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p> </div> <hr> <a name="Profiling-1"></a> <h3 class="section">13.6 Profiling</h3> <a name="index-profiler"></a> <a name="index-code-profiling"></a> <p>Octave supports profiling of code execution on a per-function level. If profiling is enabled, each call to a function (supporting built-ins, operators, functions in oct- and mex-files, user-defined functions in Octave code and anonymous functions) is recorded while running Octave code. After that, this data can aid in analyzing the code behavior, and is in particular helpful for finding “hot spots” in the code which use up a lot of computation time and are the best targets to spend optimization efforts on. </p> <p>The main command for profiling is <code>profile</code>, which can be used to start or stop the profiler and also to query collected data afterwards. The data is returned in an Octave data structure which can then be examined or further processed by other routines or tools. </p> <a name="XREFprofile"></a><dl> <dt><a name="index-profile"></a><em></em> <strong>profile</strong> <em>on</em></dt> <dt><a name="index-profile-1"></a><em></em> <strong>profile</strong> <em>off</em></dt> <dt><a name="index-profile-2"></a><em></em> <strong>profile</strong> <em>resume</em></dt> <dt><a name="index-profile-3"></a><em></em> <strong>profile</strong> <em>clear</em></dt> <dt><a name="index-profile-4"></a><em><var>S</var> =</em> <strong>profile</strong> <em>("status")</em></dt> <dt><a name="index-profile-5"></a><em><var>T</var> =</em> <strong>profile</strong> <em>("info")</em></dt> <dd><p>Control the built-in profiler. </p> <dl compact="compact"> <dt><code>profile on</code></dt> <dd><p>Start the profiler, clearing all previously collected data if there is any. </p> </dd> <dt><code>profile off</code></dt> <dd><p>Stop profiling. The collected data can later be retrieved and examined with <code>T = profile ("info")</code>. </p> </dd> <dt><code>profile clear</code></dt> <dd><p>Clear all collected profiler data. </p> </dd> <dt><code>profile resume</code></dt> <dd><p>Restart profiling without clearing the old data. All newly collected statistics are added to the existing ones. </p> </dd> <dt><code><var>S</var> = profile ("status")</code></dt> <dd><p>Return a structure with information about the current status of the profiler. At the moment, the only field is <code>ProfilerStatus</code> which is either <code>"on"</code> or <code>"off"</code>. </p> </dd> <dt><code><var>T</var> = profile ("info")</code></dt> <dd><p>Return the collected profiling statistics in the structure <var>T</var>. The flat profile is returned in the field <code>FunctionTable</code> which is an array of structures, each entry corresponding to a function which was called and for which profiling statistics are present. In addition, the field <code>Hierarchical</code> contains the hierarchical call tree. Each node has an index into the <code>FunctionTable</code> identifying the function it corresponds to as well as data fields for number of calls and time spent at this level in the call tree. </p> <p><strong>See also:</strong> <a href="#XREFprofshow">profshow</a>, <a href="#XREFprofexplore">profexplore</a>. </p></dd> </dl> </dd></dl> <p>An easy way to get an overview over the collected data is <code>profshow</code>. This function takes the profiler data returned by <code>profile</code> as input and prints a flat profile, for instance: </p> <div class="example"> <pre class="example"> Function Attr Time (s) Calls ---------------------------------------- >myfib R 2.195 13529 binary <= 0.061 13529 binary - 0.050 13528 binary + 0.026 6764 </pre></div> <p>This shows that most of the run time was spent executing the function ‘<samp>myfib</samp>’, and some minor proportion evaluating the listed binary operators. Furthermore, it is shown how often the function was called and the profiler also records that it is recursive. </p> <a name="XREFprofshow"></a><dl> <dt><a name="index-profshow"></a><em></em> <strong>profshow</strong> <em>(<var>data</var>)</em></dt> <dt><a name="index-profshow-1"></a><em></em> <strong>profshow</strong> <em>(<var>data</var>, <var>n</var>)</em></dt> <dt><a name="index-profshow-2"></a><em></em> <strong>profshow</strong> <em>()</em></dt> <dt><a name="index-profshow-3"></a><em></em> <strong>profshow</strong> <em>(<var>n</var>)</em></dt> <dd><p>Display flat per-function profiler results. </p> <p>Print out profiler data (execution time, number of calls) for the most critical <var>n</var> functions. The results are sorted in descending order by the total time spent in each function. If <var>n</var> is unspecified it defaults to 20. </p> <p>The input <var>data</var> is the structure returned by <code>profile ("info")</code>. If unspecified, <code>profshow</code> will use the current profile dataset. </p> <p>The attribute column displays ‘<samp>R</samp>’ for recursive functions, and is blank for all other function types. </p> <p><strong>See also:</strong> <a href="#XREFprofexplore">profexplore</a>, <a href="#XREFprofile">profile</a>. </p></dd></dl> <a name="XREFprofexport"></a><dl> <dt><a name="index-profexport"></a><em></em> <strong>profexport</strong> <em>(<var>dir</var>)</em></dt> <dt><a name="index-profexport-1"></a><em></em> <strong>profexport</strong> <em>(<var>dir</var>, <var>data</var>)</em></dt> <dt><a name="index-profexport-2"></a><em></em> <strong>profexport</strong> <em>(<var>dir</var>, <var>name</var>)</em></dt> <dt><a name="index-profexport-3"></a><em></em> <strong>profexport</strong> <em>(<var>dir</var>, <var>name</var>, <var>data</var>)</em></dt> <dd> <p>Export profiler data as HTML. </p> <p>Export the profiling data in <var>data</var> into a series of HTML files in the folder <var>dir</var>. The initial file will be <samp><var>data</var>/index.html</samp>. </p> <p>If <var>name</var> is specified, it must be a string that contains a “name” for the profile being exported. This name is included in the HTML. </p> <p>The input <var>data</var> is the structure returned by <code>profile ("info")</code>. If unspecified, <code>profexport</code> will use the current profile dataset. </p> <p><strong>See also:</strong> <a href="#XREFprofshow">profshow</a>, <a href="#XREFprofexplore">profexplore</a>, <a href="#XREFprofile">profile</a>. </p></dd></dl> <a name="XREFprofexplore"></a><dl> <dt><a name="index-profexplore"></a><em></em> <strong>profexplore</strong> <em>()</em></dt> <dt><a name="index-profexplore-1"></a><em></em> <strong>profexplore</strong> <em>(<var>data</var>)</em></dt> <dd><p>Interactively explore hierarchical profiler output. </p> <p>Assuming <var>data</var> is the structure with profile data returned by <code>profile (<code>"info"</code>)</code>, this command opens an interactive prompt that can be used to explore the call-tree. Type <kbd>help</kbd> to get a list of possible commands. If <var>data</var> is omitted, <code>profile ("info")</code> is called and used in its place. </p> <p><strong>See also:</strong> <a href="#XREFprofile">profile</a>, <a href="#XREFprofshow">profshow</a>. </p></dd></dl> <hr> <div class="header"> <p> Next: <a href="Profiler-Example.html#Profiler-Example" accesskey="n" rel="next">Profiler Example</a>, Previous: <a href="Call-Stack.html#Call-Stack" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Call Stack</a>, Up: <a href="Debugging.html#Debugging" accesskey="u" rel="up">Debugging</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p> </div> </body> </html>