The source of truth for the Perfetto codebase currently lives in AOSP: https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/perfetto/
Perfetto can be built both from the Android tree (AOSP) and standalone. Standalone builds are meant only for local testing and are not shipped. Due to the reduced dependencies they are faster to iterate on and the suggested way to work on Perfetto.
Standalone checkout:
$ git clone https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/perfetto/
Android tree:
Perfetto lives in external/perfetto in the AOSP tree.
Standalone checkout:
All dependent libraries are self-hosted and pulled through:
$ tools/install-build-deps [--no-android] [--ui]
Android tree:
See https://source.android.com/setup
Standalone checkout:
If you are a chromium developer and have depot_tools installed you can avoid the tools/ prefix below and just use gn/ninja from depot_tools.
$ tools/gn args out/android to generate build files and enter in the editor:
target_os = "android" # Only when building for Android target_cpu = "arm" / "arm64" / "x64" # Only when building for Android is_debug = true / false
(See the Build Configurations section below for more)
$ tools/ninja -C out/android
To build the UI (remember to run tools/install-build-deps --ui first):
$ tools/ninja -C out/android ui
Android tree:$ mmma external/perfetto
or $ m perfetto traced traced_probes
This will generate artifacts out/target/product/XXX/system/. Executables and shared libraries are stripped by default by the Android build system. The unstripped artifacts are kept into out/target/product/XXX/symbols.
The source of truth of our build file is in the BUILD.gn files, which are based on GN. The Android build file (Android.bp) is autogenerated from the GN files through tools/gen_android_bp, which needs to be invoked whenever a change touches GN files or introduces new ones.
A presubmit check checks that the Android.bp is consistent with GN files when submitting a CL through git cl upload.
The generator has a whitelist of root targets that will be translated into the Android.bp file. If you are adding a new target, add a new entry to the default_targets variable inside tools/gen_android_bp.
Linux desktop (Debian Rodete):
Android:
Mac:
*** aside tools/build_all_configs.py can be used to generate out/XXX folders for most of the supported configurations.
The following GN args are supported:
target_os = "android" | "linux" | "mac":
Defaults to the current host, set "android" to build for Android.
target_cpu = "arm" | "arm64" | "x86" | "x64":
Defaults to "arm" when target_os == "android", "x64" when targeting the host. 32-bit host builds are not supported.
is_debug = true | false:
Toggles Debug (default) / Release mode.
is_clang = true | false:
Use Clang (default: true) or GCC (false). On Linux, by default it uses the self-hosted clang (see is_hermetic_clang). On Android, by default it uses clang from the NDK (in buildtools/ndk). On Mac, by default it uses the system version of clang (requires Xcode).
is_hermetic_clang = true | false:
Use bundled toolchain from buildtools/ rather than system-wide one.
cc = "gcc" / cxx = "g++":
Uses a different compiler binary (default: autodetected depending on is_clang).
is_asan = true:
Enables Address Sanitizer
is_lsan = true:
Enables Leak Sanitizer
(Linux/Mac only)
is_msan = true:
Enables Memory Sanitizer
(Linux only)
is_tsan = true:
Enables Thread Sanitizer
(Linux/Mac only)
is_ubsan = true:
Enables Undefined Behavior Sanitizer