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<a name="Profiling"></a>
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<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>
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