path: root/usr/src/man/man1/cputrack.1

'\" te
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.TH CPUTRACK 1 "April 9, 2016"
.SH NAME
cputrack \- monitor process and LWP behavior using CPU performance counters
.SH SYNOPSIS
.LP
.nf
\fBcputrack\fR \fB-c\fR \fIeventspec\fR [\fB-c\fR \fIeventspec\fR]... [\fB-efntvD\fR]
     [\fB-N\fR \fIcount\fR] [\fB-o\fR \fIpathname\fR] [\fB-T\fR \fIinterval\fR] \fIcommand\fR [\fIargs\fR]
.fi

.LP
.nf
\fBcputrack\fR \fB-c\fR \fIeventspec\fR [\fB-c\fR \fIeventspec\fR]... \fB-p\fR \fIpid\fR [\fB-efntvD\fR]
     [\fB-N\fR \fIcount\fR] [\fB-o\fR \fIpathname\fR] [\fB-T\fR \fIinterval\fR]
.fi

.LP
.nf
\fBcputrack\fR \fB-h\fR
.fi

.SH DESCRIPTION
.LP
The \fBcputrack\fR utility allows \fBCPU\fR performance counters to be used to
monitor the behavior of a process or family of processes running on the system.
If \fIinterval\fR is specified with the \fB-T\fR option, \fBcputrack\fR samples
activity every \fIinterval\fR seconds, repeating forever. If a \fIcount\fR is
specified with the \fB-N\fR option, the statistics are repeated \fIcount\fR
times for each process tracked. If neither are specified, an interval of one
second is used. If \fIcommand\fR and optional \fIargs\fR are specified,
\fBcputrack\fR runs the command with the arguments given while monitoring the
specified \fBCPU\fR performance events. Alternatively, the process \fBID\fR of
an existing process can be specified using the \fB-p\fR option.
.sp
.LP
Because \fBcputrack\fR is an unprivileged program, it is subject to the same
restrictions that apply to \fBtruss\fR(1). For example, \fBsetuid\fR(2)
executables cannot be tracked.
.SH OPTIONS
.LP
The following options are supported:
.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-c\fR \fIeventspec\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 16n
Specifies a set of events for the \fBCPU\fR performance counters to monitor.
The syntax of these event specifications is:
.sp
.in +2
.nf
[picn=]\fIeventn\fR[,attr[\fIn\fR][=\fIval\fR]][,[picn=]\fIeventn\fR
     [,attr[n][=\fIval\fR]],...,]
.fi
.in -2
.sp

You can use the \fB-h\fR option to obtain a list of available events and
attributes. This causes generation of the usage message. You can omit an
explicit counter assignment, in which case \fBcpustat\fR attempts to choose a
capable counter automatically.
.sp
Attribute values can be expressed in hexadecimal, octal, or decimal notation,
in a format suitable for \fBstrtoll\fR(3C). An attribute present in the event
specification without an explicit value receives a default value of \fB1\fR. An
attribute without a corresponding counter number is applied to all counters in
the specification.
.sp
The semantics of these event specifications can be determined by reading the
\fBCPU\fR manufacturer's documentation for the events.
.sp
Multiple \fB-c\fR options can be specified, in which case \fBcputrack\fR cycles
between the different event settings on each sample.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-D\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 16n
Enables debug mode.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-e\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 16n
Follows all \fBexec\fR(2), or \fBexecve\fR(2) system calls.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-f\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 16n
Follows all children created by \fBfork\fR(2), \fBfork1\fR(2), or
\fBvfork\fR(2) system calls.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-h\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 16n
Prints an extended help message on how to use the utility, how to program the
processor-dependent counters, and where to look for more detailed information.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-n\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 16n
Omits all header output (useful if \fBcputrack\fR is the beginning of a
pipeline).
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-N\fR \fIcount\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 16n
Specifies the maximum number of \fBCPU\fR performance counter samples to take
before exiting.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-o\fR \fIoutfile\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 16n
Specifies file to be used for the \fBcputrack\fR output.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-p\fR \fIpid\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 16n
Interprets the argument as the process \fBID\fR of an existing process to which
process counter context should be attached and monitored.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-t\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 16n
Prints an additional column of processor cycle counts, if available on the
current architecture.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-T\fR \fIinterval\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 16n
Specifies the interval between \fBCPU\fR performance counter samples in
seconds. Very small intervals may cause some samples to be skipped. See
WARNINGS.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-v\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 16n
Enables more verbose output.
.RE

.SH USAGE
.LP
The operating system enforces certain restrictions on the tracing of processes.
In particular, a command whose object file cannot be read by a user cannot be
tracked by that user; set-uid and set-gid commands can only be tracked by a
privileged user. Unless it is run by a privileged user, \fBcputrack\fR loses
control of any process that performs an \fBexec()\fR of a set-id or unreadable
object file. Such processes continue normally, though independently of
\fBcputrack\fR, from the point of the \fBexec()\fR.
.sp
.LP
The system may run out of per-user process slots when the \fB-f\fR option is
used, since \fBcputrack\fR runs one controlling process for each process being
tracked.
.sp
.LP
The times printed by \fBcputrack\fR correspond to the wallclock time when the
hardware counters were actually sample. The time is derived from the same
timebase as \fBgethrtime\fR(3C).
.sp
.LP
The \fBcputrack\fR utility attaches performance counter context to each process
that it examines. The presence of this context allows the performance counters
to be multiplexed between different processes on the system, but it cannot be
used at the same time as the \fBcpustat\fR(1M) utility.
.sp
.LP
Once an instance of the \fBcpustat\fR utility is running, further attempts to
run \fBcputrack\fR will fail until all instances of \fBcpustat\fR terminate.
.sp
.LP
Sometimes \fBcputrack\fR provides sufficient flexibility and prints sufficient
statistics to make adding the observation code to an application unnecessary.
However, more control is occasionally desired. Because the same performance
counter context is used by both the application itself and by the agent LWP
injected into the application by \fBcputrack\fR, it is possible for an
application to interact with the counter context to achieve some interesting
capabilities. See \fBcpc_enable\fR(3CPC).
.sp
.LP
The processor cycle counts enabled by the \fB-t\fR option always apply to both
user and system modes, regardless of the settings applied to the performance
counter registers.
.sp
.LP
The output of \fBcputrack\fR is designed to be readily parsable by
\fBnawk\fR(1) and \fBperl\fR(1), thereby allowing performance tools to be
composed by embedding \fBcputrack\fR in scripts. Alternatively, tools may be
constructed directly using the same \fBAPI\fRs that \fBcputrack\fR is built
upon, using the facilities of \fBlibcpc\fR(3LIB) and \fBlibpctx\fR(3LIB). See
\fBcpc\fR(3CPC).
.sp
.LP
Although \fBcputrack\fR uses performance counter context to maintain separate
performance counter values for each LWP, some of the events that can be counted
will inevitably be impacted by other activities occurring on the system,
particularly for limited resources that are shared between processes (for
example, cache miss rates). For such events, it may also be interesting to
observe overall system behavior with \fBcpustat\fR(1M).
.sp
.LP
For the \fB-T\fR \fIinterval\fR option, if \fIinterval\fR is specified as zero,
no periodic sampling is performed. The performance counters are only sampled
when the process creates or destroys an \fBLWP\fR, or it invokes \fBfork\fR(2),
\fBexec\fR(2), or \fBexit\fR(2).
.SH EXAMPLES
.SS "SPARC"
.LP
\fBExample 1 \fRUsing Performance Counters to Count Clock Cycles
.sp
.LP
In this example, the utility is being used on a machine containing an
UltraSPARC-III+ processor. The counters are set to count processor clock cycles
and instructions dispatched in user mode while running the \fBsleep\fR(1)
command.

.sp
.in +2
.nf
example% \fBcputrack -c pic0=Cycle_cnt,pic1=Instr_cnt sleep 10\fR


  time lwp      event      pic0      pic1
 1.007   1       tick    765308    219233
 2.007   1       tick         0         0
 4.017   1       tick         0         0
 6.007   1       tick         0         0
 8.007   1       tick         0         0
10.007   1       tick         0         0
10.017   1       exit    844703    228058

.fi
.in -2
.sp

.LP
\fBExample 2 \fRCounting External Cache References and Misses
.sp
.LP
This example shows more verbose output while following the \fBfork()\fR and
\fBexec()\fR of a simple shell script on an UltraSPARC machine. The counters
are measuring the number of external cache references and external cache
misses. Notice that the explicit \fBpic0\fR and \fBpic1\fR names can be omitted
where there are no ambiguities.

.sp
.in +2
.nf
example% \fBcputrack -fev -c EC_ref,EC_hit /bin/ulimit -c\fR


time    pid lwp      event      pic0      pic1
0.007 101142   1   init_lwp    805286     20023
0.023 101142   1       fork                     # 101143
0.026 101143   1   init_lwp   1015382     24461
0.029 101143   1   fini_lwp   1025546     25074
0.029 101143   1       exec   1025546     25074
0.000 101143   1       exec                     \e
                                      # '/usr/bin/sh /usr/bin/basename \e
                                         /bin/ulimit'
0.039 101143   1   init_lwp   1025546     25074
0.050 101143   1   fini_lwp   1140482     27806
0.050 101143   1       exec   1140482     27806
0.000 101143   1       exec                     # '/usr/bin/expr \e
   //bin/ulimit : \e(.*[^/]\e)/*$ : .*/ \e(..*\e) : \e(.*\e)$ | //bin/ulimi'
0.059 101143   1   init_lwp   1140482     27806
0.075 101143   1   fini_lwp   1237647     30207
0.075 101143   1       exit   1237647     30207
unlimited
0.081 101142   1   fini_lwp    953383     23814
0.081 101142   1       exit    953383     23814
.fi
.in -2
.sp

.SS "x86"
.LP
\fBExample 3 \fRCounting Instructions
.sp
.LP
This example shows how many instructions were executed in the application and
in the kernel to print the date on a Pentium III machine:

.sp
.in +2
.nf
example% \fBcputrack -c inst_retired,inst_retired,nouser1,sys1 date\fR


   time lwp      event      pic0      pic1
Fri Aug 20 20:03:08 PDT 1999
  0.072   1       exit    246725    339666
.fi
.in -2
.sp

.LP
\fBExample 4 \fRCounting TLB Hits
.sp
.LP
This example shows how to use processor-specific attributes to count TLB hits
on a Pentium 4 machine:

.sp
.in +2
.nf
example% \fBcputrack -c ITLB_reference,emask=1 date\fR


    time lwp      event      pic0
      Fri Aug 20 20:03:08 PDT 1999
   0.072   1       exit    246725
.fi
.in -2
.sp

.SH WARNINGS
.LP
By running any instance of the \fBcpustat\fR(1M) utility, all existing
performance counter context is forcibly invalidated across the machine. This
may in turn cause all invocations of the \fBcputrack\fR command to exit
prematurely with unspecified errors.
.sp
.LP
If \fBcpustat\fR is invoked on a system that has \fBCPU\fR performance counters
which are not supported by Solaris, the following message appears:
.sp
.in +2
.nf
cputrack: cannot access performance counters - Operation not applicable
.fi
.in -2
.sp

.sp
.LP
This error message implies that \fBcpc_open()\fR has failed and is documented
in \fBcpc_open\fR(3CPC). Review this documentation for more information about
the problem and possible solutions.
.sp
.LP
If a short interval is requested, \fBcputrack\fR may not be able to keep up
with the desired sample rate. In this case, some samples may be dropped.
.SH ATTRIBUTES
.LP
See \fBattributes\fR(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
.sp

.sp
.TS
box;
c | c
l | l .
ATTRIBUTE TYPE	ATTRIBUTE VALUE
Interface Stability	Evolving
.TE

.SH SEE ALSO
.LP
\fBnawk\fR(1), \fBperl\fR(1), \fBproc\fR(1), \fBtruss\fR(1), \fBprstat\fR(1M),
\fBcpustat\fR(1M), \fBexec\fR(2), \fBexit\fR(2), \fBfork\fR(2),
\fBsetuid\fR(2), \fBvfork\fR(2), \fBgethrtime\fR(3C), \fBstrtoll\fR(3C),
\fBcpc\fR(3CPC), \fBcpc_bind_pctx\fR(3CPC), \fBcpc_enable\fR(3CPC),
\fBcpc_open\fR(3CPC), \fBlibcpc\fR(3LIB), \fBlibpctx\fR(3LIB), \fBproc\fR(4),
\fBattributes\fR(5)