The Visual Profiler

The Visual Profiler, VProf, is a tool for optimizing the performance of programs. VProf requires only static relinking of an application that has been compiled with normal optimization options and the "-g" option. The application is then run to collect profiling data. These data are used to generate performance summaries sorted by source code line, by file, and by function. This information can be displayed with either a graphical user interface (vprof) or to the console (cprof).

Portability

VProf is known to work in the following environments:

• Linux/Intel (hardware performance counter events can also be measured in this environment)
• AIX/RS6000
• Linux/Alpha (the Compaq compilers will work only if a binutils snapshot is used)
• Most Unix-like systems should work. The main limitation is binutils support.