6 perf-stat - Run a command and gather performance counter statistics
11 'perf stat' [-e <EVENT> | --event=EVENT] [-a] <command>
12 'perf stat' [-e <EVENT> | --event=EVENT] [-a] -- <command> [<options>]
13 'perf stat' [-e <EVENT> | --event=EVENT] [-a] record [-o file] -- <command> [<options>]
14 'perf stat' report [-i file]
18 This command runs a command and gathers performance counter statistics
25 Any command you can specify in a shell.
35 Select the PMU event. Selection can be:
37 - a symbolic event name (use 'perf list' to list all events)
39 - a raw PMU event (eventsel+umask) in the form of rNNN where NNN is a
40 hexadecimal event descriptor.
42 - a symbolically formed event like 'pmu/param1=0x3,param2/' where
43 param1 and param2 are defined as formats for the PMU in
44 /sys/bus/event_source/devices/<pmu>/format/*
46 - a symbolically formed event like 'pmu/config=M,config1=N,config2=K/'
47 where M, N, K are numbers (in decimal, hex, octal format).
48 Acceptable values for each of 'config', 'config1' and 'config2'
49 parameters are defined by corresponding entries in
50 /sys/bus/event_source/devices/<pmu>/format/*
52 Note that the last two syntaxes support prefix and glob matching in
53 the PMU name to simplify creation of events accross multiple instances
54 of the same type of PMU in large systems (e.g. memory controller PMUs).
55 Multiple PMU instances are typical for uncore PMUs, so the prefix
56 'uncore_' is also ignored when performing this match.
61 child tasks do not inherit counters
64 stat events on existing process id (comma separated list)
68 stat events on existing thread id (comma separated list)
73 system-wide collection from all CPUs (default if no target is specified)
77 scale/normalize counter values
81 print more detailed statistics, can be specified up to 3 times
83 -d: detailed events, L1 and LLC data cache
84 -d -d: more detailed events, dTLB and iTLB events
85 -d -d -d: very detailed events, adding prefetch events
89 repeat command and print average + stddev (max: 100). 0 means forever.
93 print large numbers with thousands' separators according to locale
97 Count only on the list of CPUs provided. Multiple CPUs can be provided as a
98 comma-separated list with no space: 0,1. Ranges of CPUs are specified with -: 0-2.
99 In per-thread mode, this option is ignored. The -a option is still necessary
100 to activate system-wide monitoring. Default is to count on all CPUs.
104 Do not aggregate counts across all monitored CPUs.
108 null run - don't start any counters
112 be more verbose (show counter open errors, etc)
115 --field-separator SEP::
116 print counts using a CSV-style output to make it easy to import directly into
117 spreadsheets. Columns are separated by the string specified in SEP.
119 --table:: Display time for each run (-r option), in a table format, e.g.:
121 $ perf stat --null -r 5 --table perf bench sched pipe
123 Performance counter stats for 'perf bench sched pipe' (5 runs):
125 # Table of individual measurements:
133 5.483 +- 0.198 seconds time elapsed ( +- 3.62% )
137 monitor only in the container (cgroup) called "name". This option is available only
138 in per-cpu mode. The cgroup filesystem must be mounted. All threads belonging to
139 container "name" are monitored when they run on the monitored CPUs. Multiple cgroups
140 can be provided. Each cgroup is applied to the corresponding event, i.e., first cgroup
141 to first event, second cgroup to second event and so on. It is possible to provide
142 an empty cgroup (monitor all the time) using, e.g., -G foo,,bar. Cgroups must have
143 corresponding events, i.e., they always refer to events defined earlier on the command
144 line. If the user wants to track multiple events for a specific cgroup, the user can
145 use '-e e1 -e e2 -G foo,foo' or just use '-e e1 -e e2 -G foo'.
147 If wanting to monitor, say, 'cycles' for a cgroup and also for system wide, this
148 command line can be used: 'perf stat -e cycles -G cgroup_name -a -e cycles'.
152 Print the output into the designated file.
155 Append to the output file designated with the -o option. Ignored if -o is not specified.
159 Log output to fd, instead of stderr. Complementary to --output, and mutually exclusive
160 with it. --append may be used here. Examples:
161 3>results perf stat --log-fd 3 -- $cmd
162 3>>results perf stat --log-fd 3 --append -- $cmd
166 Pre and post measurement hooks, e.g.:
168 perf stat --repeat 10 --null --sync --pre 'make -s O=defconfig-build/clean' -- make -s -j64 O=defconfig-build/ bzImage
171 --interval-print msecs::
172 Print count deltas every N milliseconds (minimum: 1ms)
173 The overhead percentage could be high in some cases, for instance with small, sub 100ms intervals. Use with caution.
174 example: 'perf stat -I 1000 -e cycles -a sleep 5'
176 --interval-count times::
177 Print count deltas for fixed number of times.
178 This option should be used together with "-I" option.
179 example: 'perf stat -I 1000 --interval-count 2 -e cycles -a'
182 Clear the screen before next interval.
185 Stop the 'perf stat' session and print count deltas after N milliseconds (minimum: 10 ms).
186 This option is not supported with the "-I" option.
187 example: 'perf stat --time 2000 -e cycles -a'
190 Only print computed metrics. Print them in a single line.
191 Don't show any raw values. Not supported with --per-thread.
194 Aggregate counts per processor socket for system-wide mode measurements. This
195 is a useful mode to detect imbalance between sockets. To enable this mode,
196 use --per-socket in addition to -a. (system-wide). The output includes the
197 socket number and the number of online processors on that socket. This is
198 useful to gauge the amount of aggregation.
201 Aggregate counts per physical processor for system-wide mode measurements. This
202 is a useful mode to detect imbalance between physical cores. To enable this mode,
203 use --per-core in addition to -a. (system-wide). The output includes the
204 core number and the number of online logical processors on that physical processor.
207 Aggregate counts per monitored threads, when monitoring threads (-t option)
208 or processes (-p option).
212 After starting the program, wait msecs before measuring. This is useful to
213 filter out the startup phase of the program, which is often very different.
218 Print statistics of transactional execution if supported.
222 Stores stat data into perf data file.
230 Reads and reports stat data from perf data file.
237 Aggregate counts per processor socket for system-wide mode measurements.
240 Aggregate counts per physical processor for system-wide mode measurements.
244 Print metrics or metricgroups specified in a comma separated list.
245 For a group all metrics from the group are added.
246 The events from the metrics are automatically measured.
247 See perf list output for the possble metrics and metricgroups.
251 Do not aggregate counts across all monitored CPUs.
254 Print top down level 1 metrics if supported by the CPU. This allows to
255 determine bottle necks in the CPU pipeline for CPU bound workloads,
256 by breaking the cycles consumed down into frontend bound, backend bound,
257 bad speculation and retiring.
259 Frontend bound means that the CPU cannot fetch and decode instructions fast
260 enough. Backend bound means that computation or memory access is the bottle
261 neck. Bad Speculation means that the CPU wasted cycles due to branch
262 mispredictions and similar issues. Retiring means that the CPU computed without
263 an apparently bottleneck. The bottleneck is only the real bottleneck
264 if the workload is actually bound by the CPU and not by something else.
266 For best results it is usually a good idea to use it with interval
267 mode like -I 1000, as the bottleneck of workloads can change often.
269 The top down metrics are collected per core instead of per
270 CPU thread. Per core mode is automatically enabled
271 and -a (global monitoring) is needed, requiring root rights or
272 perf.perf_event_paranoid=-1.
274 Topdown uses the full Performance Monitoring Unit, and needs
275 disabling of the NMI watchdog (as root):
276 echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/nmi_watchdog
277 for best results. Otherwise the bottlenecks may be inconsistent
278 on workload with changing phases.
280 This enables --metric-only, unless overriden with --no-metric-only.
282 To interpret the results it is usually needed to know on which
283 CPUs the workload runs on. If needed the CPUs can be forced using
287 Do not merge results from same PMUs.
289 When multiple events are created from a single event specification,
290 stat will, by default, aggregate the event counts and show the result
291 in a single row. This option disables that behavior and shows
292 the individual events and counts.
294 Multiple events are created from a single event specification when:
295 1. Prefix or glob matching is used for the PMU name.
296 2. Aliases, which are listed immediately after the Kernel PMU events
297 by perf list, are used.
300 Measure SMI cost if msr/aperf/ and msr/smi/ events are supported.
302 During the measurement, the /sys/device/cpu/freeze_on_smi will be set to
303 freeze core counters on SMI.
304 The aperf counter will not be effected by the setting.
305 The cost of SMI can be measured by (aperf - unhalted core cycles).
307 In practice, the percentages of SMI cycles is very useful for performance
308 oriented analysis. --metric_only will be applied by default.
309 The output is SMI cycles%, equals to (aperf - unhalted core cycles) / aperf
311 Users who wants to get the actual value can apply --no-metric-only.
318 Performance counter stats for 'make':
320 83723.452481 task-clock:u (msec) # 1.004 CPUs utilized
321 0 context-switches:u # 0.000 K/sec
322 0 cpu-migrations:u # 0.000 K/sec
323 3,228,188 page-faults:u # 0.039 M/sec
324 229,570,665,834 cycles:u # 2.742 GHz
325 313,163,853,778 instructions:u # 1.36 insn per cycle
326 69,704,684,856 branches:u # 832.559 M/sec
327 2,078,861,393 branch-misses:u # 2.98% of all branches
329 83.409183620 seconds time elapsed
331 74.684747000 seconds user
332 8.739217000 seconds sys
336 As displayed in the example above we can display 3 types of timings.
337 We always display the time the counters were enabled/alive:
339 83.409183620 seconds time elapsed
341 For workload sessions we also display time the workloads spent in
344 74.684747000 seconds user
345 8.739217000 seconds sys
347 Those times are the very same as displayed by the 'time' tool.
352 With -x, perf stat is able to output a not-quite-CSV format output
353 Commas in the output are not put into "". To make it easy to parse
354 it is recommended to use a different character like -x \;
356 The fields are in this order:
358 - optional usec time stamp in fractions of second (with -I xxx)
359 - optional CPU, core, or socket identifier
360 - optional number of logical CPUs aggregated
362 - unit of the counter value or empty
364 - run time of counter
365 - percentage of measurement time the counter was running
366 - optional variance if multiple values are collected with -r
367 - optional metric value
368 - optional unit of metric
370 Additional metrics may be printed with all earlier fields being empty.
374 linkperf:perf-top[1], linkperf:perf-list[1]