HP-UX Reference (11i v2 07/12) - 1 User Commands A-M (vol 1)

c
caliper(1)
For Integrity Systems Only
caliper(1)
Caliper 4.3 Caliper 4.3
(Requires Optional HP Caliper Software)
performance picture on a system, before "drilling down" using
caliper in per-process mode.
caliper can measure programs which are built 32-bit or 64-bit, shared bound or minshared bound,
optimized or debug. Applications can be written in C, C++, Fortran 9x, assembly (if standard runtime con-
ventions are followed) or a mixture of these languages.
You can specify the program to be measured using an absolute path, a relative path or a simple file name.
caliper searches $PATH when you specify a simple file name and looks in the current directory only if
$PATH includes it.
Alternatively, you can specify one or more already running processes to measure by listing their ID(s) on
the command line. caliper will measure processes until they terminate, unless you use the
--dura-
tion
option, or if you stop caliper by sending it a SIGINT (e.g., using Ctrl-C in a terminal window),
which will also generate a performance report or write performance data to a database.
Note that stopping
caliper with a SIGINT (Ctrl-C) when dynamic instrumentation is being used (meas-
urements acount, cgprof, fcount, and
fcover) will cause caliper to immediately and forcibly
terminate all processes being measured before writing data. Using SIGINT with any other measurement
will stop
caliper while allowing measured processes to continue normally.
caliper can both collect data and optionally generate reports (in ASCII, CSV, HTML, or any combina-
tion) and/or create a caliper database in a single run (using the syntax, "
caliper measurement ...").
caliper can also:
• Generate a report from a previously created database (caliper report),
• Merge or diff the data from multiple databases (caliper merge and caliper diff),
• Analyze performance metrics from one or more previously created databases (
caliper analyze), or
• Generate descriptions of reports and CPU events (
caliper info).
The measurement argument to the caliper command is really the name of a measurement configuration
file which determines what measurement to make and how to make it. You can use the standard measure-
ment configuration files supplied with caliper or you can create your own. You can also override meas-
urement configuration file settings on the command line or in a caliper initialization file (
.caliper-
init
).
One example of a measurement is fprof, which tells caliper to collect the data needed to produce a
flat profile report based on CPU cycles.
Another example of a measurement is dcache, which produces a report detailing where data cache misses
have occurred during execution of the program. See the EXAMPLES section for examples of using fprof,
dcache, and other measurements.
If an executable has been stripped of local symbols, caliper can only report names for global functions.
If no symbol table (or debug information) exists at all, caliper will only report address information.
Like all performance measurement tools, caliper can affect the runtime performance characteristics of
the program being measured.
Some measurements, such as
ecount, have negligible impact while dynamic instrumentation-based meas-
urements (
acount, cgprof, fcount, fcover) can have a large effect. Take this "Heisenberg" effect
into consideration when interpreting any performance data.
When making measurements, performance data is always saved to a caliper database. You can use the
--database option to specify the name and location of the database caliper creates.
If you do not use --database , then the database (named for the type of measurement made) will be
saved in the ./.hp_caliper_databases directory (this default can be changed with the
CALIPER_DATABASES environment variable).
The most recently created measurement database is pointed to by an automatic "latest" symlink in the
CALIPER_DATABASES directory. If a simple database name is given on a caliper report or
advise run, then the CALIPER_DATABASES directory is searched after the current directory for the
database. So, caliper report fprof will report from the most recent fprof measurement run,
caliper report latest will report the latest measurement run of any type.
In addition to measuring and reporting performance data, caliper can also analyze collected data and
make suggestions for improving your program’s performance. This analysis is driven by a set of rules
which look for specific data metrics indicating typical performance problems.
HP-UX 11i Version 2: December 2007 Update − 3 − Hewlett-Packard Company 93