Introduction

ParaProf is a portable, scalable performance analysis tool included with the TAU distribution.

ParaProf requires Oracle / Sun’s Java 1.5 Runtime Environment for basic functionality. Java JOGL (included) is required for 3d visualization and image export. Additionally, OpenGL is required for 3d visualization.

Most windows in ParaProf can export bitmap (png/jpg) and vector (svg/eps) images to disk (png/jpg) or print directly to a printer. This are available through the File menu.

Using ParaProf from the command line

ParaProf is a java program that is run from the supplied paraprof script ( paraprof.bat for windows binary release).

% paraprof --help
Usage: paraprof [options] <files/directory>

Options:

  -f, --filetype <filetype>       Specify type of performance data, options are:
                                    profiles (default), pprof, dynaprof, mpip,
                                    gprof, psrun, hpm, packed, cube, hpc, ompp
                                    snap, perixml, gptl, ipm, google
  --range a-b:c                   Load only profiles from the given range(s) of processes
                                    Seperate individual ids or dash-defined ranges with colons
  -h, --help                      Display this help message

The following options will run only from the console (no GUI will launch):

  --merge <file.gz>               Merges snapshot profiles
  --pack <file>                   Pack the data into packed (.ppk) format
  --dump                          Dump profile data to TAU profile format
  --dumprank <rank>               Dump profile data for <rank> to TAU profile format
  -v, --dumpsummary               Dump derived statistical data to TAU profile format
  --overwrite                     Allow overwriting of profiles
  -o, --oss                       Print profile data in OSS style text output
  -q, --dumpmpisummary            Print high level time and communication summary
  -d, --metadump                  Print profile metadata (works with --dumpmpisummary)
  -x, --suppressmetrics           Exclude child calls and exclusive time from --dumpmpisummary
  -s, --summary                   Print only summary statistics
                                    (only applies to OSS output)

Notes:
  For the TAU profiles type, you can specify either a specific set of profile
files on the commandline, or you can specify a directory (by default the current
directory).  The specified directory will be searched for profile.*.*.* files,
or, in the case of multiple counters, directories named MULTI_* containing
profile data.

Supported Formats

ParaProf can load profile date from many sources. The types currently supported are:

TAU Profiles (profiles) - Output from the TAU measurement library, these files generally take the form of profile.X.X.X , one for each node/context/thread combination. When multiple counters are used, each metric is located in a directory prefixed with "MULTI". To launch ParaProf with all the metrics, simply launch it from the root of the MULTI directories.

ParaProf Packed Format (ppk) - Export format supported by PerfDMF/ParaProf. Typically .ppk.

TAU Merged Profiles (snap) - Merged and snapshot profile format supported by TAU. Typically tauprofile.xml.

TAU pprof (pprof) - Dump Output from TAU’s pprof -d . Provided for backward compatibility only.

DynaProf (dynaprof) - Output From DynaProf’s wallclock and papi probes.

mpiP (mpip) - Output from mpiP.

gprof (gprof) - Output from gprof, see also the --fixnames option.

PerfSuite (psrun) - Output from PerfSuite psrun files.

HPM Toolkit (hpm) - Output from IBM’s HPM Toolkit.

Cube (cube) - Output from Kojak Expert tool for use with Cube.

Cube3 (cube3) - Output from Kojak Expert tool for use with Cube3 and Cube4.

HPCToolkit (hpc) - XML data from hpcquick. Typically, the user runs hpcrun, then hpcquick on the resulting binary file.

OpenMP Profiler (ompp) - CSV format from the ompP OpenMP Profiler (http://www.ompp-tool.com). The user must use OMPP_OUTFORMAT=CVS.

PERI XML (perixml) - Output from the PERI data exchange format.

General Purpose Timing Library (gptl) - Output from the General Purpose Timing Library.

Paraver (paraver) - 2D output from the Paraver trace analysis tool from BSC.

IPM (ipm) - Integrated Performance Monitoring format, from NERSC.

Google (google) - Google Profiles.

Command line options

In addition to specifying the profile format, the user can also specify the following options

  • --fixnames - Use the fixnames option for gprof. When C and Fortran code are mixed, the C routines have to be mapped to either .function or function_. Strip the leading period or trailing underscore, if it is there.

  • --pack <file> - Rather than load the data and launch the GUI, pack the data into the specified file.

  • --dump - Rather than load the data and launch the GUI, dump the data to TAU Profiles. This can be used to convert supported formats to TAU Profiles.

  • --oss - Outputs profile data in OSS Style. Example:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thread: n,c,t 0,0,0
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 excl.secs  excl.%   cum.%    PAPI_TOT_CYC     PAPI_FP_OPS     calls  function
     0.005   56.0%   56.0%        13475345         4194518         1  foo
     0.003   40.1%   96.1%         9682185         4205367         1  bar
         0    3.6%   99.7%          223173           17445         1  baz
   2.2E-05    0.3%  100.0%           14663             206         1  main

  • --summary - Output only summary information for OSS style output.