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Guido van Rossumdf804f81995-03-02 12:38:39 +00001\chapter{The Python Profiler}
2\stmodindex{profile}
3\stmodindex{pstats}
4
Fred Drake4b3f0311996-12-13 22:04:31 +00005Copyright \copyright{} 1994, by InfoSeek Corporation, all rights reserved.
Guido van Rossumdf804f81995-03-02 12:38:39 +00006
7Written by James Roskind%
8\footnote{
Guido van Rossum6c4f0031995-03-07 10:14:09 +00009Updated and converted to \LaTeX\ by Guido van Rossum. The references to
Guido van Rossumdf804f81995-03-02 12:38:39 +000010the old profiler are left in the text, although it no longer exists.
11}
12
13Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this Python software
14and its associated documentation for any purpose (subject to the
15restriction in the following sentence) without fee is hereby granted,
16provided that the above copyright notice appears in all copies, and
17that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in
18supporting documentation, and that the name of InfoSeek not be used in
19advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software
20without specific, written prior permission. This permission is
21explicitly restricted to the copying and modification of the software
22to remain in Python, compiled Python, or other languages (such as C)
23wherein the modified or derived code is exclusively imported into a
24Python module.
25
26INFOSEEK CORPORATION DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS
27SOFTWARE, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND
28FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL INFOSEEK CORPORATION BE LIABLE FOR ANY
29SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER
30RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF
31CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN
32CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
33
34
35The profiler was written after only programming in Python for 3 weeks.
36As a result, it is probably clumsy code, but I don't know for sure yet
37'cause I'm a beginner :-). I did work hard to make the code run fast,
38so that profiling would be a reasonable thing to do. I tried not to
39repeat code fragments, but I'm sure I did some stuff in really awkward
40ways at times. Please send suggestions for improvements to:
Guido van Rossum789742b1996-02-12 23:17:40 +000041\code{jar@netscape.com}. I won't promise \emph{any} support. ...but
Guido van Rossumdf804f81995-03-02 12:38:39 +000042I'd appreciate the feedback.
43
44
Guido van Rossum470be141995-03-17 16:07:09 +000045\section{Introduction to the profiler}
Guido van Rossum86cb0921995-03-20 12:59:56 +000046\nodename{Profiler Introduction}
Guido van Rossumdf804f81995-03-02 12:38:39 +000047
48A \dfn{profiler} is a program that describes the run time performance
49of a program, providing a variety of statistics. This documentation
50describes the profiler functionality provided in the modules
51\code{profile} and \code{pstats.} This profiler provides
52\dfn{deterministic profiling} of any Python programs. It also
53provides a series of report generation tools to allow users to rapidly
54examine the results of a profile operation.
55
56
57\section{How Is This Profiler Different From The Old Profiler?}
Guido van Rossum86cb0921995-03-20 12:59:56 +000058\nodename{Profiler Changes}
Guido van Rossumdf804f81995-03-02 12:38:39 +000059
60The big changes from old profiling module are that you get more
61information, and you pay less CPU time. It's not a trade-off, it's a
62trade-up.
63
64To be specific:
65
66\begin{description}
67
68\item[Bugs removed:]
69Local stack frame is no longer molested, execution time is now charged
70to correct functions.
71
72\item[Accuracy increased:]
73Profiler execution time is no longer charged to user's code,
74calibration for platform is supported, file reads are not done \emph{by}
75profiler \emph{during} profiling (and charged to user's code!).
76
77\item[Speed increased:]
78Overhead CPU cost was reduced by more than a factor of two (perhaps a
79factor of five), lightweight profiler module is all that must be
80loaded, and the report generating module (\code{pstats}) is not needed
81during profiling.
82
83\item[Recursive functions support:]
84Cumulative times in recursive functions are correctly calculated;
85recursive entries are counted.
86
87\item[Large growth in report generating UI:]
88Distinct profiles runs can be added together forming a comprehensive
89report; functions that import statistics take arbitrary lists of
90files; sorting criteria is now based on keywords (instead of 4 integer
91options); reports shows what functions were profiled as well as what
92profile file was referenced; output format has been improved.
93
94\end{description}
95
96
97\section{Instant Users Manual}
98
99This section is provided for users that ``don't want to read the
100manual.'' It provides a very brief overview, and allows a user to
101rapidly perform profiling on an existing application.
102
103To profile an application with a main entry point of \samp{foo()}, you
104would add the following to your module:
105
106\begin{verbatim}
107 import profile
108 profile.run("foo()")
109\end{verbatim}
110
111The above action would cause \samp{foo()} to be run, and a series of
112informative lines (the profile) to be printed. The above approach is
113most useful when working with the interpreter. If you would like to
114save the results of a profile into a file for later examination, you
115can supply a file name as the second argument to the \code{run()}
116function:
117
118\begin{verbatim}
119 import profile
120 profile.run("foo()", 'fooprof')
121\end{verbatim}
122
123When you wish to review the profile, you should use the methods in the
124\code{pstats} module. Typically you would load the statistics data as
125follows:
126
127\begin{verbatim}
128 import pstats
129 p = pstats.Stats('fooprof')
130\end{verbatim}
131
132The class \code{Stats} (the above code just created an instance of
133this class) has a variety of methods for manipulating and printing the
134data that was just read into \samp{p}. When you ran
135\code{profile.run()} above, what was printed was the result of three
136method calls:
137
138\begin{verbatim}
139 p.strip_dirs().sort_stats(-1).print_stats()
140\end{verbatim}
141
142The first method removed the extraneous path from all the module
143names. The second method sorted all the entries according to the
144standard module/line/name string that is printed (this is to comply
145with the semantics of the old profiler). The third method printed out
146all the statistics. You might try the following sort calls:
147
148\begin{verbatim}
149 p.sort_stats('name')
150 p.print_stats()
151\end{verbatim}
152
153The first call will actually sort the list by function name, and the
154second call will print out the statistics. The following are some
155interesting calls to experiment with:
156
157\begin{verbatim}
158 p.sort_stats('cumulative').print_stats(10)
159\end{verbatim}
160
161This sorts the profile by cumulative time in a function, and then only
162prints the ten most significant lines. If you want to understand what
163algorithms are taking time, the above line is what you would use.
164
165If you were looking to see what functions were looping a lot, and
166taking a lot of time, you would do:
167
168\begin{verbatim}
169 p.sort_stats('time').print_stats(10)
170\end{verbatim}
171
172to sort according to time spent within each function, and then print
173the statistics for the top ten functions.
174
175You might also try:
176
177\begin{verbatim}
178 p.sort_stats('file').print_stats('__init__')
179\end{verbatim}
180
181This will sort all the statistics by file name, and then print out
182statistics for only the class init methods ('cause they are spelled
183with \code{__init__} in them). As one final example, you could try:
184
185\begin{verbatim}
186 p.sort_stats('time', 'cum').print_stats(.5, 'init')
187\end{verbatim}
188
189This line sorts statistics with a primary key of time, and a secondary
190key of cumulative time, and then prints out some of the statistics.
191To be specific, the list is first culled down to 50\% (re: \samp{.5})
192of its original size, then only lines containing \code{init} are
193maintained, and that sub-sub-list is printed.
194
195If you wondered what functions called the above functions, you could
196now (\samp{p} is still sorted according to the last criteria) do:
197
198\begin{verbatim}
199 p.print_callers(.5, 'init')
200\end{verbatim}
201
202and you would get a list of callers for each of the listed functions.
203
204If you want more functionality, you're going to have to read the
205manual, or guess what the following functions do:
206
207\begin{verbatim}
208 p.print_callees()
209 p.add('fooprof')
210\end{verbatim}
211
212
213\section{What Is Deterministic Profiling?}
Guido van Rossum86cb0921995-03-20 12:59:56 +0000214\nodename{Deterministic Profiling}
Guido van Rossumdf804f81995-03-02 12:38:39 +0000215
216\dfn{Deterministic profiling} is meant to reflect the fact that all
217\dfn{function call}, \dfn{function return}, and \dfn{exception} events
218are monitored, and precise timings are made for the intervals between
219these events (during which time the user's code is executing). In
220contrast, \dfn{statistical profiling} (which is not done by this
221module) randomly samples the effective instruction pointer, and
222deduces where time is being spent. The latter technique traditionally
223involves less overhead (as the code does not need to be instrumented),
224but provides only relative indications of where time is being spent.
225
226In Python, since there is an interpreter active during execution, the
227presence of instrumented code is not required to do deterministic
228profiling. Python automatically provides a \dfn{hook} (optional
229callback) for each event. In addition, the interpreted nature of
230Python tends to add so much overhead to execution, that deterministic
231profiling tends to only add small processing overhead in typical
232applications. The result is that deterministic profiling is not that
233expensive, yet provides extensive run time statistics about the
234execution of a Python program.
235
236Call count statistics can be used to identify bugs in code (surprising
237counts), and to identify possible inline-expansion points (high call
238counts). Internal time statistics can be used to identify ``hot
239loops'' that should be carefully optimized. Cumulative time
240statistics should be used to identify high level errors in the
241selection of algorithms. Note that the unusual handling of cumulative
242times in this profiler allows statistics for recursive implementations
243of algorithms to be directly compared to iterative implementations.
244
245
246\section{Reference Manual}
247
Guido van Rossum470be141995-03-17 16:07:09 +0000248\renewcommand{\indexsubitem}{(profiler function)}
Guido van Rossumdf804f81995-03-02 12:38:39 +0000249
250The primary entry point for the profiler is the global function
251\code{profile.run()}. It is typically used to create any profile
252information. The reports are formatted and printed using methods of
253the class \code{pstats.Stats}. The following is a description of all
254of these standard entry points and functions. For a more in-depth
255view of some of the code, consider reading the later section on
256Profiler Extensions, which includes discussion of how to derive
257``better'' profilers from the classes presented, or reading the source
258code for these modules.
259
Guido van Rossum470be141995-03-17 16:07:09 +0000260\begin{funcdesc}{profile.run}{string\optional{\, filename\optional{\, ...}}}
Guido van Rossumdf804f81995-03-02 12:38:39 +0000261
262This function takes a single argument that has can be passed to the
263\code{exec} statement, and an optional file name. In all cases this
264routine attempts to \code{exec} its first argument, and gather profiling
265statistics from the execution. If no file name is present, then this
266function automatically prints a simple profiling report, sorted by the
267standard name string (file/line/function-name) that is presented in
268each line. The following is a typical output from such a call:
269
Guido van Rossum96628a91995-04-10 11:34:00 +0000270\small{
Guido van Rossumdf804f81995-03-02 12:38:39 +0000271\begin{verbatim}
Guido van Rossum96628a91995-04-10 11:34:00 +0000272 main()
273 2706 function calls (2004 primitive calls) in 4.504 CPU seconds
Guido van Rossumdf804f81995-03-02 12:38:39 +0000274
Guido van Rossum96628a91995-04-10 11:34:00 +0000275Ordered by: standard name
Guido van Rossumdf804f81995-03-02 12:38:39 +0000276
Guido van Rossum96628a91995-04-10 11:34:00 +0000277ncalls tottime percall cumtime percall filename:lineno(function)
278 2 0.006 0.003 0.953 0.477 pobject.py:75(save_objects)
279 43/3 0.533 0.012 0.749 0.250 pobject.py:99(evaluate)
280 ...
Guido van Rossumdf804f81995-03-02 12:38:39 +0000281\end{verbatim}
Guido van Rossum96628a91995-04-10 11:34:00 +0000282}
Guido van Rossumdf804f81995-03-02 12:38:39 +0000283
284The first line indicates that this profile was generated by the call:\\
285\code{profile.run('main()')}, and hence the exec'ed string is
286\code{'main()'}. The second line indicates that 2706 calls were
287monitored. Of those calls, 2004 were \dfn{primitive}. We define
288\dfn{primitive} to mean that the call was not induced via recursion.
289The next line: \code{Ordered by:\ standard name}, indicates that
290the text string in the far right column was used to sort the output.
291The column headings include:
292
293\begin{description}
294
295\item[ncalls ]
296for the number of calls,
297
298\item[tottime ]
299for the total time spent in the given function (and excluding time
300made in calls to sub-functions),
301
302\item[percall ]
303is the quotient of \code{tottime} divided by \code{ncalls}
304
305\item[cumtime ]
306is the total time spent in this and all subfunctions (i.e., from
307invocation till exit). This figure is accurate \emph{even} for recursive
308functions.
309
310\item[percall ]
311is the quotient of \code{cumtime} divided by primitive calls
312
313\item[filename:lineno(function) ]
314provides the respective data of each function
315
316\end{description}
317
318When there are two numbers in the first column (e.g.: \samp{43/3}),
319then the latter is the number of primitive calls, and the former is
320the actual number of calls. Note that when the function does not
321recurse, these two values are the same, and only the single figure is
322printed.
Guido van Rossum96628a91995-04-10 11:34:00 +0000323
Guido van Rossumdf804f81995-03-02 12:38:39 +0000324\end{funcdesc}
325
326\begin{funcdesc}{pstats.Stats}{filename\optional{\, ...}}
327This class constructor creates an instance of a ``statistics object''
328from a \var{filename} (or set of filenames). \code{Stats} objects are
329manipulated by methods, in order to print useful reports.
330
331The file selected by the above constructor must have been created by
332the corresponding version of \code{profile}. To be specific, there is
333\emph{NO} file compatibility guaranteed with future versions of this
334profiler, and there is no compatibility with files produced by other
335profilers (e.g., the old system profiler).
336
337If several files are provided, all the statistics for identical
338functions will be coalesced, so that an overall view of several
339processes can be considered in a single report. If additional files
340need to be combined with data in an existing \code{Stats} object, the
341\code{add()} method can be used.
342\end{funcdesc}
343
344
Guido van Rossum470be141995-03-17 16:07:09 +0000345\subsection{The \sectcode{Stats} Class}
Guido van Rossumdf804f81995-03-02 12:38:39 +0000346
347\renewcommand{\indexsubitem}{(Stats method)}
348
349\begin{funcdesc}{strip_dirs}{}
Guido van Rossum470be141995-03-17 16:07:09 +0000350This method for the \code{Stats} class removes all leading path information
Guido van Rossumdf804f81995-03-02 12:38:39 +0000351from file names. It is very useful in reducing the size of the
352printout to fit within (close to) 80 columns. This method modifies
353the object, and the stripped information is lost. After performing a
354strip operation, the object is considered to have its entries in a
355``random'' order, as it was just after object initialization and
356loading. If \code{strip_dirs()} causes two function names to be
357indistinguishable (i.e., they are on the same line of the same
358filename, and have the same function name), then the statistics for
359these two entries are accumulated into a single entry.
360\end{funcdesc}
361
362
363\begin{funcdesc}{add}{filename\optional{\, ...}}
Guido van Rossum470be141995-03-17 16:07:09 +0000364This method of the \code{Stats} class accumulates additional profiling
Guido van Rossumdf804f81995-03-02 12:38:39 +0000365information into the current profiling object. Its arguments should
366refer to filenames created by the corresponding version of
367\code{profile.run()}. Statistics for identically named (re: file,
368line, name) functions are automatically accumulated into single
369function statistics.
370\end{funcdesc}
371
372\begin{funcdesc}{sort_stats}{key\optional{\, ...}}
Guido van Rossum470be141995-03-17 16:07:09 +0000373This method modifies the \code{Stats} object by sorting it according to the
Guido van Rossumdf804f81995-03-02 12:38:39 +0000374supplied criteria. The argument is typically a string identifying the
375basis of a sort (example: \code{"time"} or \code{"name"}).
376
377When more than one key is provided, then additional keys are used as
378secondary criteria when the there is equality in all keys selected
379before them. For example, sort_stats('name', 'file') will sort all
380the entries according to their function name, and resolve all ties
381(identical function names) by sorting by file name.
382
383Abbreviations can be used for any key names, as long as the
384abbreviation is unambiguous. The following are the keys currently
385defined:
386
387\begin{tableii}{|l|l|}{code}{Valid Arg}{Meaning}
388\lineii{"calls"}{call count}
389\lineii{"cumulative"}{cumulative time}
390\lineii{"file"}{file name}
391\lineii{"module"}{file name}
392\lineii{"pcalls"}{primitive call count}
393\lineii{"line"}{line number}
394\lineii{"name"}{function name}
395\lineii{"nfl"}{name/file/line}
396\lineii{"stdname"}{standard name}
397\lineii{"time"}{internal time}
398\end{tableii}
399
400Note that all sorts on statistics are in descending order (placing
401most time consuming items first), where as name, file, and line number
402searches are in ascending order (i.e., alphabetical). The subtle
403distinction between \code{"nfl"} and \code{"stdname"} is that the
404standard name is a sort of the name as printed, which means that the
405embedded line numbers get compared in an odd way. For example, lines
4063, 20, and 40 would (if the file names were the same) appear in the
407string order 20, 3 and 40. In contrast, \code{"nfl"} does a numeric
408compare of the line numbers. In fact, \code{sort_stats("nfl")} is the
409same as \code{sort_stats("name", "file", "line")}.
410
411For compatibility with the old profiler, the numeric arguments
412\samp{-1}, \samp{0}, \samp{1}, and \samp{2} are permitted. They are
413interpreted as \code{"stdname"}, \code{"calls"}, \code{"time"}, and
414\code{"cumulative"} respectively. If this old style format (numeric)
415is used, only one sort key (the numeric key) will be used, and
416additional arguments will be silently ignored.
417\end{funcdesc}
418
419
420\begin{funcdesc}{reverse_order}{}
Guido van Rossum470be141995-03-17 16:07:09 +0000421This method for the \code{Stats} class reverses the ordering of the basic
Guido van Rossumdf804f81995-03-02 12:38:39 +0000422list within the object. This method is provided primarily for
423compatibility with the old profiler. Its utility is questionable
424now that ascending vs descending order is properly selected based on
425the sort key of choice.
426\end{funcdesc}
427
428\begin{funcdesc}{print_stats}{restriction\optional{\, ...}}
Guido van Rossum470be141995-03-17 16:07:09 +0000429This method for the \code{Stats} class prints out a report as described
Guido van Rossumdf804f81995-03-02 12:38:39 +0000430in the \code{profile.run()} definition.
431
432The order of the printing is based on the last \code{sort_stats()}
433operation done on the object (subject to caveats in \code{add()} and
434\code{strip_dirs())}.
435
436The arguments provided (if any) can be used to limit the list down to
437the significant entries. Initially, the list is taken to be the
438complete set of profiled functions. Each restriction is either an
439integer (to select a count of lines), or a decimal fraction between
4400.0 and 1.0 inclusive (to select a percentage of lines), or a regular
441expression (to pattern match the standard name that is printed). If
442several restrictions are provided, then they are applied sequentially.
443For example:
444
445\begin{verbatim}
446 print_stats(.1, "foo:")
447\end{verbatim}
448
449would first limit the printing to first 10\% of list, and then only
450print functions that were part of filename \samp{.*foo:}. In
451contrast, the command:
452
453\begin{verbatim}
454 print_stats("foo:", .1)
455\end{verbatim}
456
457would limit the list to all functions having file names \samp{.*foo:},
458and then proceed to only print the first 10\% of them.
459\end{funcdesc}
460
461
462\begin{funcdesc}{print_callers}{restrictions\optional{\, ...}}
Guido van Rossum470be141995-03-17 16:07:09 +0000463This method for the \code{Stats} class prints a list of all functions
Guido van Rossumdf804f81995-03-02 12:38:39 +0000464that called each function in the profiled database. The ordering is
465identical to that provided by \code{print_stats()}, and the definition
466of the restricting argument is also identical. For convenience, a
467number is shown in parentheses after each caller to show how many
468times this specific call was made. A second non-parenthesized number
469is the cumulative time spent in the function at the right.
470\end{funcdesc}
471
472\begin{funcdesc}{print_callees}{restrictions\optional{\, ...}}
Guido van Rossum470be141995-03-17 16:07:09 +0000473This method for the \code{Stats} class prints a list of all function
Guido van Rossumdf804f81995-03-02 12:38:39 +0000474that were called by the indicated function. Aside from this reversal
475of direction of calls (re: called vs was called by), the arguments and
476ordering are identical to the \code{print_callers()} method.
477\end{funcdesc}
478
479\begin{funcdesc}{ignore}{}
Guido van Rossum470be141995-03-17 16:07:09 +0000480This method of the \code{Stats} class is used to dispose of the value
Guido van Rossumdf804f81995-03-02 12:38:39 +0000481returned by earlier methods. All standard methods in this class
482return the instance that is being processed, so that the commands can
483be strung together. For example:
484
485\begin{verbatim}
Guido van Rossum96628a91995-04-10 11:34:00 +0000486pstats.Stats('foofile').strip_dirs().sort_stats('cum') \
487 .print_stats().ignore()
Guido van Rossumdf804f81995-03-02 12:38:39 +0000488\end{verbatim}
489
490would perform all the indicated functions, but it would not return
Guido van Rossum470be141995-03-17 16:07:09 +0000491the final reference to the \code{Stats} instance.%
Guido van Rossumdf804f81995-03-02 12:38:39 +0000492\footnote{
493This was once necessary, when Python would print any unused expression
494result that was not \code{None}. The method is still defined for
495backward compatibility.
496}
497\end{funcdesc}
498
499
500\section{Limitations}
501
502There are two fundamental limitations on this profiler. The first is
503that it relies on the Python interpreter to dispatch \dfn{call},
504\dfn{return}, and \dfn{exception} events. Compiled C code does not
505get interpreted, and hence is ``invisible'' to the profiler. All time
506spent in C code (including builtin functions) will be charged to the
Guido van Rossumcca8d2b1995-03-22 15:48:46 +0000507Python function that invoked the C code. If the C code calls out
Guido van Rossumdf804f81995-03-02 12:38:39 +0000508to some native Python code, then those calls will be profiled
509properly.
510
511The second limitation has to do with accuracy of timing information.
512There is a fundamental problem with deterministic profilers involving
513accuracy. The most obvious restriction is that the underlying ``clock''
514is only ticking at a rate (typically) of about .001 seconds. Hence no
515measurements will be more accurate that that underlying clock. If
516enough measurements are taken, then the ``error'' will tend to average
517out. Unfortunately, removing this first error induces a second source
518of error...
519
520The second problem is that it ``takes a while'' from when an event is
521dispatched until the profiler's call to get the time actually
522\emph{gets} the state of the clock. Similarly, there is a certain lag
523when exiting the profiler event handler from the time that the clock's
524value was obtained (and then squirreled away), until the user's code
525is once again executing. As a result, functions that are called many
526times, or call many functions, will typically accumulate this error.
527The error that accumulates in this fashion is typically less than the
528accuracy of the clock (i.e., less than one clock tick), but it
529\emph{can} accumulate and become very significant. This profiler
530provides a means of calibrating itself for a given platform so that
531this error can be probabilistically (i.e., on the average) removed.
532After the profiler is calibrated, it will be more accurate (in a least
533square sense), but it will sometimes produce negative numbers (when
534call counts are exceptionally low, and the gods of probability work
535against you :-). ) Do \emph{NOT} be alarmed by negative numbers in
536the profile. They should \emph{only} appear if you have calibrated
537your profiler, and the results are actually better than without
538calibration.
539
540
541\section{Calibration}
542
543The profiler class has a hard coded constant that is added to each
544event handling time to compensate for the overhead of calling the time
545function, and socking away the results. The following procedure can
546be used to obtain this constant for a given platform (see discussion
547in section Limitations above).
548
549\begin{verbatim}
550 import profile
551 pr = profile.Profile()
552 pr.calibrate(100)
553 pr.calibrate(100)
554 pr.calibrate(100)
555\end{verbatim}
556
557The argument to calibrate() is the number of times to try to do the
558sample calls to get the CPU times. If your computer is \emph{very}
559fast, you might have to do:
560
561\begin{verbatim}
562 pr.calibrate(1000)
563\end{verbatim}
564
565or even:
566
567\begin{verbatim}
568 pr.calibrate(10000)
569\end{verbatim}
570
571The object of this exercise is to get a fairly consistent result.
572When you have a consistent answer, you are ready to use that number in
573the source code. For a Sun Sparcstation 1000 running Solaris 2.3, the
574magical number is about .00053. If you have a choice, you are better
575off with a smaller constant, and your results will ``less often'' show
576up as negative in profile statistics.
577
578The following shows how the trace_dispatch() method in the Profile
579class should be modified to install the calibration constant on a Sun
580Sparcstation 1000:
581
582\begin{verbatim}
583 def trace_dispatch(self, frame, event, arg):
584 t = self.timer()
585 t = t[0] + t[1] - self.t - .00053 # Calibration constant
586
587 if self.dispatch[event](frame,t):
588 t = self.timer()
589 self.t = t[0] + t[1]
590 else:
591 r = self.timer()
592 self.t = r[0] + r[1] - t # put back unrecorded delta
593 return
594\end{verbatim}
595
596Note that if there is no calibration constant, then the line
597containing the callibration constant should simply say:
598
599\begin{verbatim}
600 t = t[0] + t[1] - self.t # no calibration constant
601\end{verbatim}
602
603You can also achieve the same results using a derived class (and the
604profiler will actually run equally fast!!), but the above method is
605the simplest to use. I could have made the profiler ``self
606calibrating'', but it would have made the initialization of the
607profiler class slower, and would have required some \emph{very} fancy
608coding, or else the use of a variable where the constant \samp{.00053}
609was placed in the code shown. This is a \strong{VERY} critical
610performance section, and there is no reason to use a variable lookup
611at this point, when a constant can be used.
612
613
Guido van Rossum86cb0921995-03-20 12:59:56 +0000614\section{Extensions --- Deriving Better Profilers}
615\nodename{Profiler Extensions}
Guido van Rossumdf804f81995-03-02 12:38:39 +0000616
617The \code{Profile} class of module \code{profile} was written so that
618derived classes could be developed to extend the profiler. Rather
619than describing all the details of such an effort, I'll just present
620the following two examples of derived classes that can be used to do
621profiling. If the reader is an avid Python programmer, then it should
622be possible to use these as a model and create similar (and perchance
623better) profile classes.
624
625If all you want to do is change how the timer is called, or which
626timer function is used, then the basic class has an option for that in
627the constructor for the class. Consider passing the name of a
628function to call into the constructor:
629
630\begin{verbatim}
631 pr = profile.Profile(your_time_func)
632\end{verbatim}
633
634The resulting profiler will call \code{your_time_func()} instead of
635\code{os.times()}. The function should return either a single number
636or a list of numbers (like what \code{os.times()} returns). If the
637function returns a single time number, or the list of returned numbers
638has length 2, then you will get an especially fast version of the
639dispatch routine.
640
641Be warned that you \emph{should} calibrate the profiler class for the
642timer function that you choose. For most machines, a timer that
643returns a lone integer value will provide the best results in terms of
644low overhead during profiling. (os.times is \emph{pretty} bad, 'cause
645it returns a tuple of floating point values, so all arithmetic is
646floating point in the profiler!). If you want to substitute a
647better timer in the cleanest fashion, you should derive a class, and
648simply put in the replacement dispatch method that better handles your
649timer call, along with the appropriate calibration constant :-).
650
651
652\subsection{OldProfile Class}
653
654The following derived profiler simulates the old style profiler,
655providing errant results on recursive functions. The reason for the
656usefulness of this profiler is that it runs faster (i.e., less
657overhead) than the old profiler. It still creates all the caller
658stats, and is quite useful when there is \emph{no} recursion in the
659user's code. It is also a lot more accurate than the old profiler, as
660it does not charge all its overhead time to the user's code.
661
662\begin{verbatim}
663class OldProfile(Profile):
664
665 def trace_dispatch_exception(self, frame, t):
666 rt, rtt, rct, rfn, rframe, rcur = self.cur
667 if rcur and not rframe is frame:
668 return self.trace_dispatch_return(rframe, t)
669 return 0
670
671 def trace_dispatch_call(self, frame, t):
672 fn = `frame.f_code`
673
674 self.cur = (t, 0, 0, fn, frame, self.cur)
675 if self.timings.has_key(fn):
676 tt, ct, callers = self.timings[fn]
677 self.timings[fn] = tt, ct, callers
678 else:
679 self.timings[fn] = 0, 0, {}
680 return 1
681
682 def trace_dispatch_return(self, frame, t):
683 rt, rtt, rct, rfn, frame, rcur = self.cur
684 rtt = rtt + t
685 sft = rtt + rct
686
687 pt, ptt, pct, pfn, pframe, pcur = rcur
688 self.cur = pt, ptt+rt, pct+sft, pfn, pframe, pcur
689
690 tt, ct, callers = self.timings[rfn]
691 if callers.has_key(pfn):
692 callers[pfn] = callers[pfn] + 1
693 else:
694 callers[pfn] = 1
695 self.timings[rfn] = tt+rtt, ct + sft, callers
696
697 return 1
698
699
700 def snapshot_stats(self):
701 self.stats = {}
702 for func in self.timings.keys():
703 tt, ct, callers = self.timings[func]
704 nor_func = self.func_normalize(func)
705 nor_callers = {}
706 nc = 0
707 for func_caller in callers.keys():
708 nor_callers[self.func_normalize(func_caller)]=\
709 callers[func_caller]
710 nc = nc + callers[func_caller]
711 self.stats[nor_func] = nc, nc, tt, ct, nor_callers
712\end{verbatim}
713
714
715\subsection{HotProfile Class}
716
717This profiler is the fastest derived profile example. It does not
718calculate caller-callee relationships, and does not calculate
719cumulative time under a function. It only calculates time spent in a
720function, so it runs very quickly (re: very low overhead). In truth,
721the basic profiler is so fast, that is probably not worth the savings
722to give up the data, but this class still provides a nice example.
723
724\begin{verbatim}
725class HotProfile(Profile):
726
727 def trace_dispatch_exception(self, frame, t):
728 rt, rtt, rfn, rframe, rcur = self.cur
729 if rcur and not rframe is frame:
730 return self.trace_dispatch_return(rframe, t)
731 return 0
732
733 def trace_dispatch_call(self, frame, t):
734 self.cur = (t, 0, frame, self.cur)
735 return 1
736
737 def trace_dispatch_return(self, frame, t):
738 rt, rtt, frame, rcur = self.cur
739
740 rfn = `frame.f_code`
741
742 pt, ptt, pframe, pcur = rcur
743 self.cur = pt, ptt+rt, pframe, pcur
744
745 if self.timings.has_key(rfn):
746 nc, tt = self.timings[rfn]
747 self.timings[rfn] = nc + 1, rt + rtt + tt
748 else:
749 self.timings[rfn] = 1, rt + rtt
750
751 return 1
752
753
754 def snapshot_stats(self):
755 self.stats = {}
756 for func in self.timings.keys():
757 nc, tt = self.timings[func]
758 nor_func = self.func_normalize(func)
759 self.stats[nor_func] = nc, nc, tt, 0, {}
760\end{verbatim}