Core_profiler
Core_profiler is a library that helps you profile programs and estimate various various costs.
The full API is browsable here.
Here is a toy program to help understand how to use it:
(* No usage of core_profiler yet *)
open! Core.Std
let func () =
let key = Random.int 100 in
if key mod 3 <> 0 then begin
ignore (Array.create ~len:100 10);
end
let () =
for _i = 1 to 10_000_000 do
func ()
done
The library lets us put probes into our program. Here is a probe:
open! Core.Std
open Core_profiler.Std_offline
let p = Probe.create ~name:"array_len" ~units:Profiler_units.Int
let func () =
let len = 100 in
let key = Random.int 100 in
if key mod 3 <> 0 then begin
ignore (Array.create ~len 10);
Probe.record p len
end
let () =
for _i = 1 to 10_000_000 do
func ()
done
You can run the program like this:
CORE_PROFILER= ./prog2.exe
If the environment variable called CORE_PROFILER is not set, this will complain. This will let us know if we accidentally deploy a binary with profiling into production. Running this program produces an output file called profiler.dat whose contents we can analyze with the profiler tool:
+ profiler_tool.exe summary
┌───────────┬───┬───────┬──────┬─────┬─────┬───────┬──────┬───────┐
│ name │ │ count │ mean │ min │ max │ stdev │ 5 %l │ 95 %l │
├───────────┼───┼───────┼──────┼─────┼─────┼───────┼──────┼───────┤
│ array_len │ v │ 6.6e6 │ 100 │ 100 │ 100 │ 0 │ 100 │ 100 │
└───────────┴───┴───────┴──────┴─────┴─────┴───────┴──────┴───────┘
The output says that array_len has its value set 6.6 million times and provides various stats about it. If the program had setup multiple probes you would see the value of all the probes. The summary subcommands can dump out various quantiles and do other things.
We can change the program to prints stats "online", i.e. when the program is running by opening Std_online:
open! Core.Std
open Core_profiler.Std_online
let p = Probe.create ~name:"array_len" ~units:Profiler_units.Int
let func () =
let len = 100 in
let key = Random.int 100 in
if key mod 3 <> 0 then begin
ignore (Array.create ~len 10);
Probe.record p len
end
let () =
for _i = 1 to 10_000_000 do
func ();
Profiler.safe_to_delay ()
done
When this program is run it will print a summary of the probes to stdout every second:
┌───────────┬───────┬─────────┬──────┬─────┬─────┬───────┐
│ name │ count │ sum │ mean │ min │ max │ stdev │
├───────────┼───────┼─────────┼──────┼─────┼─────┼───────┤
│ array_len │ 6.6e6 │ 660.1e6 │ 100 │ 100 │ 100 │ 0 │
└───────────┴───────┴─────────┴──────┴─────┴─────┴───────┘
The rate of output can be controlled by setting PRINT_INTERVAL to some integer number of seconds. i.e.
In general, online profiling is more limited than offline profiling in what stats in tracks. Depending on how performance sensitive your program is, it might also be more disruptive to the execution of the program because it has to do the work of maintaining stats in process. Offline probes have been tuned to reduce the impact on the running process.
Finally, once you are done profiling your program and what to ship it, you can ship it as follows:
open! Core.Std
open Core_profiler.Std_disabled
let p = Probe.create ~name:"array_len" ~units:Profiler_units.Int
let func () =
let len = 100 in
let key = Random.int 100 in
if key mod 3 <> 0 then begin
ignore (Array.create ~len 10);
Probe.record p len
end
let () =
for _i = 1 to 10_000_000 do
func ();
Profiler.safe_to_delay ()
done
All the functions exposed in Core_profiler_disabled.Std are no-ops and do not contribute to the cost of the running program. If exp is some expensive computation in Probe.report p <exp>, then one should write this as if profiling_enabled then Probe.report p <exp> to avoid the cost of computing exp when the profiling is disabled.
If you just want to track times at which various events happened, you can use Timer instead of probe.
Groups of probes
Core_profiler includes of a notion of groups of probes. Groups are handy for measuring changes in values between two probes in a group and times when various probes in the group were set. Here is an example:
open! Core.Std
open Core_profiler.Std_offline
let g = Probe.Group.create ~name:"func" ~units:Profiler_units.Words
let p1 = Probe.Group.add_probe g ~name:"p1" ()
let p2 = Probe.Group.add_probe g ~name:"p2" ()
let px = Probe.Group.add_probe g ~name:"px" ()
let func () =
Probe.Group.reset g;
Probe.record p1 (Gc.minor_words ());
let len = 100 in
let key = Random.int 100 in
if key mod 3 <> 0 then begin
ignore (Array.create ~len 10);
Probe.record p2 (Gc.minor_words ());
end;
Probe.record px (Gc.minor_words ())
let () =
for _i = 1 to 10_000_000 do
func ();
done
+ ../offline_tool/bin/profiler_tool.exe summary -file profiler.dat
┌────────────┬────┬───────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┬─────────┬──────────┐
│ name │ │ count │ mean │ min │ max │ stdev │ 5 %l │ 95 %l │
├────────────┼────┼───────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────┼─────────┼──────────┤
│ func:p1 │ v │ 10e6 │ 333.77Mw │ 410.53kw │ 667.12Mw │ 192.48Mw │ 32Mw │ 635.58Mw │
│ func:p2 │ v │ 6.6e6 │ 333.76Mw │ 410.63kw │ 667.12Mw │ 192.46Mw │ 38.93Mw │ 635.58Mw │
│ func:px │ v │ 10e6 │ 333.77Mw │ 410.63kw │ 667.12Mw │ 192.48Mw │ 34.21Mw │ 636.57Mw │
│ func:p1,p2 │ dt │ 6.6e6 │ 181ns │ 112ns │ 2.88ms │ 3.98us │ 122ns │ 277ns │
│ func:p1,p2 │ dv │ 6.6e6 │ 101w │ 101w │ 116w │ 0w │ 101w │ 101w │
│ func:p1,px │ dt │ 3.4e6 │ 66ns │ 40ns │ 2.43ms │ 1.85us │ 52ns │ 69ns │
│ func:p1,px │ dv │ 3.4e6 │ 0w │ 0w │ 15w │ 0w │ 0w │ 0w │
│ func:p2,px │ dt │ 6.6e6 │ 25ns │ 13ns │ 3.3ms │ 1.9us │ 16ns │ 57ns │
│ func:p2,px │ dv │ 6.6e6 │ 0w │ 0w │ 15w │ 0w │ 0w │ 0w │
└────────────┴────┴───────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┴─────────┴──────────┘
In the above table there are a few new values like func:p1,p2. These refer to the change in time dt between p1 and p2 and the change in value dv between the same probes. The syntax func:p1,p2 is an instance of a more general idea of paths that we will see below.
Specifying paths
The strings in the output func:p1,p2 are called "interests" in the Core_profiler speak.
Point interests: An interest can be just a probe name such as p1. A probe that is part of group is prefixed by the group name such as func:p1 above.
Path interests: An interest can also be a path that includes one or more probes of the same group. The interest func:p1,px means all paths from the probe func:p1 directly to the probe func:px with no intervening probes in between. Other than the , separator one can also use the .. sperator. The interest func:p1..px means any path from func:p1 to func:px that may have intervening probes in between.
Further, path calculuation does not cross a Group.reset. This means that in the above code there are no paths between two calls to func.
Here is a comparison of two paths. Notice that the numbers are different for func:p1..px because two-thirds of the paths went through func:p2.
+ ../offline_tool/bin/profiler_tool.exe summary -file profiler.dat func:p1,px func:p1..px
┌─────────────┬────┬───────┬───────┬──────┬────────┬────────┬──────┬───────┐
│ name │ │ count │ mean │ min │ max │ stdev │ 5 %l │ 95 %l │
├─────────────┼────┼───────┼───────┼──────┼────────┼────────┼──────┼───────┤
│ func:p1,px │ dt │ 3.4e6 │ 66ns │ 40ns │ 2.43ms │ 1.85us │ 54ns │ 69ns │
│ func:p1,px │ dv │ 3.4e6 │ 0w │ 0w │ 15w │ 0w │ 0w │ 0w │
│ func:p1..px │ dt │ 10e6 │ 159ns │ 40ns │ 3.3ms │ 3.74us │ 59ns │ 286ns │
│ func:p1..px │ dv │ 10e6 │ 67w │ 0w │ 116w │ 48w │ 0w │ 101w │
└─────────────┴────┴───────┴───────┴──────┴────────┴────────┴──────┴───────┘
One can also compose .. and , in interests, func:p1,p2..px and func:p1..p2..px are valid. Note that a probe name cannot appear twice in a path other than as end points -- i.e. func:p1..p1 is ok, but func:p1..p1..p1 is not.
Range filters
Once can filter interests by value ranges. Filters have the form ~dt[<RANGE>], ~dv[<RANGE>] and ~v[<RANGE>] to filter on time delta, value deltas and values respectively. For example:
g:x..z~dt[0ns,400ns] filters paths between g:x..z to ones where the time difference it within 0 and 400ns.
Graphs
One can also generate quantile plots. This shows the value difference along the path:
+ ../offline_tool/bin/profiler_tool.exe plot func:p1..px delta
0w -- 5w 34.19 |----1----2----3----4----5
6w -- 11w 0.00 |
12w -- 17w 0.00 |
18w -- 23w 0.00 |
24w -- 29w 0.00 |
30w -- 35w 0.00 |
36w -- 40w 0.00 |
41w -- 46w 0.00 |
47w -- 52w 0.00 |
53w -- 58w 0.00 |
59w -- 64w 0.00 |
65w -- 70w 0.00 |
71w -- 76w 0.00 |
77w -- 81w 0.00 |
82w -- 87w 0.00 |
88w -- 93w 0.00 |
94w -- 99w 0.00 |
100w -- 105w 65.81 |----1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----9----|
106w -- 111w 0.00 |
112w -- 116w 0.00 |
(each '-' is approximately 1.316 units.)
This shows the time difference along the path:
+ ../offline_tool/bin/profiler_tool.exe plot 'func:p1..px~dt[0,300ns]' time_delta
42ns -- 54ns 1.80 |---
55ns -- 67ns 21.98 |----1----2----3----4----5----6----7--
68ns -- 80ns 9.28 |----1----2----3
81ns -- 93ns 0.79 |-
94ns -- 106ns 0.12 |
107ns -- 119ns 0.07 |
120ns -- 132ns 0.02 |
133ns -- 145ns 3.28 |----1
146ns -- 158ns 29.22 |----1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----9----|
159ns -- 171ns 11.05 |----1----2----3---
172ns -- 184ns 4.36 |----1--
185ns -- 197ns 2.47 |----
198ns -- 210ns 3.59 |----1-
211ns -- 223ns 5.28 |----1----
224ns -- 236ns 3.08 |----1
237ns -- 249ns 1.70 |--
250ns -- 262ns 0.75 |-
263ns -- 275ns 0.55 |
276ns -- 288ns 0.36 |
289ns -- 300ns 0.25 |
(each '-' is approximately 0.584 units.)
One can also look at the density plot in log-scale and this is useful when chasing tails. This plot takes a little gettign used to, but is handy. We scale the density to be in the range 0 to 100_000 and display the log10 of it as the 'y-axis' -- i.e. all y-axis values fall in the range 0 to 5. In log-scale a y-axis difference of 1 unit implies a 10x difference in relative density.
+ ../offline_tool/bin/profiler_tool.exe plot 'func:p1..px~dt[0,300ns]' time_delta -log
42ns -- 54ns 3.26 |----1----2----3----4----5----6----7-
55ns -- 67ns 4.34 |----1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----9---
68ns -- 80ns 3.97 |----1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----
81ns -- 93ns 2.90 |----1----2----3----4----5----6--
94ns -- 106ns 2.08 |----1----2----3----4---
107ns -- 119ns 1.85 |----1----2----3----4
120ns -- 132ns 1.30 |----1----2----
133ns -- 145ns 3.52 |----1----2----3----4----5----6----7----
146ns -- 158ns 4.47 |----1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----9----|
159ns -- 171ns 4.04 |----1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----9
172ns -- 184ns 3.64 |----1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8
185ns -- 197ns 3.39 |----1----2----3----4----5----6----7--
198ns -- 210ns 3.56 |----1----2----3----4----5----6----7----
211ns -- 223ns 3.72 |----1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8-
224ns -- 236ns 3.49 |----1----2----3----4----5----6----7----
237ns -- 249ns 3.23 |----1----2----3----4----5----6----7-
250ns -- 262ns 2.88 |----1----2----3----4----5----6--
263ns -- 275ns 2.74 |----1----2----3----4----5----6
276ns -- 288ns 2.56 |----1----2----3----4----5---
289ns -- 300ns 2.40 |----1----2----3----4----5-
(each '-' is approximately 0.089 units.)
Here are two more examples of the same:
+ ../offline_tool/bin/profiler_tool.exe plot 'func:p1..px~dt[0,15us]' time_delta
42ns -- 786ns 99.94 |----1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----9----|
787ns -- 1.53us 0.00 |
1.53us -- 2.28us 0.00 |
2.28us -- 3.02us 0.00 |
3.02us -- 3.77us 0.00 |
3.77us -- 4.51us 0.00 |
4.51us -- 5.25us 0.00 |
5.26us -- 6us 0.00 |
6us -- 6.75us 0.00 |
6.75us -- 7.49us 0.00 |
7.49us -- 8.23us 0.02 |
8.24us -- 8.98us 0.00 |
8.98us -- 9.72us 0.03 |
9.73us -- 10.47us 0.00 |
10.47us -- 11.21us 0.00 |
11.21us -- 11.96us 0.01 |
11.96us -- 12.7us 0.00 |
12.71us -- 13.45us 0.00 |
13.45us -- 14.19us 0.00 |
14.2us -- 14.94us 0.00 |
(each '-' is approximately 1.999 units.)+ ../offline_tool/bin/profiler_tool.exe plot 'func:p1..px~dt[0,15us]' time_delta -log
42ns -- 786ns 5.00 |----1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----9----|
787ns -- 1.53us 0.00 |
1.53us -- 2.28us 0.00 |
2.28us -- 3.02us 0.00 |
3.02us -- 3.77us 0.00 |
3.77us -- 4.51us 0.00 |
4.51us -- 5.25us 0.00 |
5.26us -- 6us 0.00 |
6us -- 6.75us 0.00 |
6.75us -- 7.49us 0.00 |
7.49us -- 8.23us 1.30 |----1----2---
8.24us -- 8.98us 0.00 |
8.98us -- 9.72us 1.48 |----1----2----
9.73us -- 10.47us 0.00 |
10.47us -- 11.21us 0.00 |
11.21us -- 11.96us 1.00 |----1----2
11.96us -- 12.7us 0.00 |
12.71us -- 13.45us 0.00 |
13.45us -- 14.19us 0.00 |
14.2us -- 14.94us 0.00 |
(each '-' is approximately 0.100 units.)Viewing the time series
One can also look at the entire time series of events recorded using the log command. This is sometimes useful in figuring out what happened in a particular instance -- maybe a specific outlier.
Typically dumping out the whole time series is too much information. The log command can be filtered such that one can find one event and show a few metrics (a context) around the interesting metric. For example, in the above data we could ask to see the time series near cases when going from p1 to px took somewhere between 11.9 and 12 micro secs. In the output below each such instance in the dataset is demarcated by ---.
+ ../offline_tool/bin/profiler_tool.exe log -near 'func:p1,px~dt[11.9us,12us]'
14:24:12.883846430 func:p1 v 22.37Mw
14:24:12.883846504 func:px v 22.37Mw
14:24:12.883846504 func:p1,px dt 74ns dv 0w v 22.37Mw
14:24:12.883846543 func:p1 v 22.37Mw
14:24:12.883846678 func:p2 v 22.37Mw
14:24:12.883846678 func:p1,p2 dt 135ns dv 101w v 22.37Mw
14:24:12.883846702 func:px v 22.37Mw
14:24:12.883846702 func:p2,px dt 24ns dv 0w v 22.37Mw
14:24:12.883846745 func:p1 v 22.37Mw
14:24:12.883858695 func:px v 22.37Mw
14:24:12.883858695 func:p1,px dt 11.95us dv 0w v 22.37Mw <----
14:24:12.883858947 func:p1 v 22.37Mw
14:24:12.883859186 func:p2 v 22.37Mw
14:24:12.883859186 func:p1,p2 dt 239ns dv 101w v 22.37Mw
14:24:12.883859202 func:px v 22.37Mw
14:24:12.883859202 func:p2,px dt 16ns dv 0w v 22.37Mw
14:24:12.883859253 func:p1 v 22.37Mw
14:24:12.883859390 func:p2 v 22.37Mw
14:24:12.883859390 func:p1,p2 dt 137ns dv 101w v 22.37Mw
14:24:12.883859414 func:px v 22.37Mw
14:24:12.883859414 func:p2,px dt 24ns dv 0w v 22.37Mw
---
14:24:13.066214700 func:px v 81.91Mw
14:24:13.066214700 func:p2,px dt 18ns dv 0w v 81.91Mw
14:24:13.066214757 func:p1 v 81.91Mw
14:24:13.066214833 func:px v 81.91Mw
14:24:13.066214833 func:p1,px dt 76ns dv 0w v 81.91Mw
14:24:13.066214873 func:p1 v 81.91Mw
14:24:13.066214942 func:px v 81.91Mw
14:24:13.066214942 func:p1,px dt 69ns dv 0w v 81.91Mw
14:24:13.066214980 func:p1 v 81.91Mw
14:24:13.066226966 func:px v 81.91Mw
14:24:13.066226966 func:p1,px dt 11.99us dv 0w v 81.91Mw <-----
14:24:13.066227279 func:p1 v 81.91Mw
14:24:13.066227515 func:px v 81.91Mw
14:24:13.066227515 func:p1,px dt 236ns dv 0w v 81.91Mw
14:24:13.066227553 func:p1 v 81.91Mw
14:24:13.066227614 func:px v 81.91Mw
14:24:13.066227614 func:p1,px dt 61ns dv 0w v 81.91Mw
14:24:13.066227651 func:p1 v 81.91Mw
14:24:13.066227720 func:px v 81.91Mw
14:24:13.066227720 func:p1,px dt 69ns dv 0w v 81.91Mw
14:24:13.066227756 func:p1 v 81.91Mw
---