Installing and Using
Profile.exe
Windows NT Sampling Profiler
Windows NT v4.0
Overview:
The Windows NT Sampling Profiler is an easy to use tool that records
the how often each function of an application is called during the
course of that application.
Installation:
Required Files:
PROFILE.EXE Windows NT Sampling Profiler
Installed from the SDK
PSAPI.DLL Process Support API Library
Installed from the SDK
Before trying to use the Sampling Profile make sure the required
files listed above are in the path.
Use:
Required Environment Variables:
The Sampling profiler must have access to the image's symbols
in order to produce the most meaningful output. The sybmols
are searched in the path described by the
_NT_SYMBOL_PATH
environment variable. Be sure to set this variable to the
correct path before attempting the profile.
Command Line Arguments:
Usage: profile [/a] [/innn] [/k] name-of-image [parameters]...
/a All hits
/bnnn Set profile bucket size to 2 to the nnn bytes
/ffilename Output to filename
/innn Set profile interval to nnn (in 100ns units)
/k profile system modules
/s[profilesource] Use profilesource instead of clock interrupt
/S[profilesource] Use profilesource as secondary profile source
/a
will display ALL hits or addresses that were sampled during
the test run. Normally the hits are summarized by function.
/bnnn
Sets the profile bucket size (in bytes) to use. The default
is 4 bytes. This determines the sample address granularity.
/ffilename
set the output file that is produced when the sampled program
terminates. The defalt for this is "profile.out"
/innn
Sets the sample interval in 100 nS units. The default value
is 488.2 microseconds (or /i4882)
/k
allows processing of system functions that are called by
the process being profiled. Normally on the the user mode
functions of the process are profiled.
/sprofilesource
changes the profile sample interrupt from the clock interrupt
to another source. This option is not supported on all
platforms, however.
ALPHA Options:
align
totalissues
pipelinedry
loadinstructions
pipelinefrozen
branchinstructions
totalnonissues
dcachemisses
icachemisses
branchmispredicts
storeinstructions
MIPS options:
align
/Sprofilesource
same options as above only this selects the secondary profile
interrupt source
Sample Command Lines:
profile myprog.exe
profiles the program "myprog.exe" using the default
settings and monitoring only the user mode functions.
The output is written to the default filename of
"profile.out" in the default directory.
profile /k /fMyProg.dat myprog.exe
profiles the program "myprog.exe" using the default
settings and monitoring both the user mode and the
kernel mode functions executed by this process
The output is written to the user specified filename
of "MyProg.dat" in the default directory.
While the program being profiled runs, the instruction pointer is being
sampled periodicaly and profile records the value of the instruction
pointer each time the sample occurs inside the profiled process. When the
program terminates the recorded address values are looked up in the symbol
files to determine the function being run at the time. The tabulation
of the results is then output to the specified, or default, filename.
The output consists of 3 comma separated fields. The first field is the
number of times a sample occured in the function. The second field is the
name of the module containing that function and the third field is the
name of the function within the module followed by it's virtual
address. In a verbose listing each of these function entries is followed
by a listing of the actual addresses that were sampled.
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