How can we list all the functions being called in an application For any realistically sized application, this list will have thousands of entries, which will probably make it useless. You can find out all functions defined (but not necessarily called) in an application with the nm command, e.g. nm /path/to/a.out | egrep ‘ [TW] … Read more
Having just read the paper (again), let me try to explain it. Suppose it takes samples at 100Hz, except not when the process is blocked for IO or some other reason. Each sample records the PC, which is in some function. The count of samples in that function is incremented. So, at the end of … Read more
If your program terminates in a non-clean manner then the profile data won’t get written correctly – how is your program exiting? Regardless, I’d strongly recommend using Shark instead of gprof – it’s very easy to use and superior in pretty much every way to gprof – and doesn’t require you to recompile your program.
gprof does not use that function for timing, of entry or exit, but for call-counting of function A calling any function B. Rather, it uses the self-time gathered by counting PC samples in each routine, and then uses the function-to-function call counts to estimate how much of that self-time should be charged back to callers. … Read more
gprof (read the paper) exists for historical reasons. If you think it will help you find performance problems, it was never advertised as such. Here’s what the paper says: The proļ¬le can be used to compare and assess the costs of various implementations. It does not say it can be used to identify the various … Read more