Chapter 1. Introduction

ParaProf is a portable, scalable performance analysis tool included with the TAU distribution.

[Important] Important

ParaProf requires Sun's Java 1.3 Runtime Environment for basic functionality. Java 1.4 is required for 3d visualization and image export. Additionally, OpenGL is required for 3d visualization.

[Note] Note

Most windows in ParaProf can export bitmap (png/jpg) and vector (svg/eps) images to disk (png/jpg) or print directly to a printer. This are available through the File menu.

1.1. Using ParaProf from the command line

ParaProf is a java program that is run from the supplied paraprof script (paraprof.bat for windows binary release).

% paraprof --help
Usage: paraprof [options] <files/directory>

Options:

  -f, --filetype <filetype>   Specify type of performance data, 
                                options are: profiles (default), pprof, 
                                dynaprof, mpip, gprof, psrun, hpm, 
                                packed, cube, hpc, ompp
  -h, --help                  Display this help message
  -p                          Use `pprof` to compute derived data
  -i, --fixnames              Use the fixnames option for gprof
  -m, --monitor               Perform runtime monitoring of profile data

The following options will run only from the console (no GUI will launch):

  --pack <file>               Pack the data into packed (.ppk) format
  --dump                      Dump profile data to TAU profile format
  -o, --oss                   Print profile data in OSS style text output
  -s, --summary               Print only summary statistics
                                (only applies to OSS output)

Notes: 
  For the TAU profiles type, you can specify either a specific set of
  profile files on the commandline, or you can specify a directory 
  (by default the current directory).  The specified directory will 
  be searched for profile.*.*.* files, or, in the case of 
  multiple counters, directories named MULTI_* containing profile data.