KPROF(3)                                                 KPROF(3)

     NAME
          kprof - kernel profiling

     SYNOPSIS
          bind -a #K /dev

          /dev/kpctl
          /dev/kpdata

     DESCRIPTION
          The kprof device provides simple profiling data for the
          operating system kernel.   The data accumulates by recording
          the program counter of the kernel at each `tick' of the sys-
          tem clock.

          The file kpdata holds the accumulated counts as 4-byte inte-
          gers in big-endian byte order.  The size of the file depends
          on the size of kernel text.  The first count holds the total
          number of clock ticks during profiling; the second the num-
          ber of ticks that occurred while the kernel was running.
          The rest each hold the number of ticks the kernel program
          counter was within the corresponding 8-byte range of kernel
          text, starting from the base of kernel text.

          The file kpctl controls profiling.  Writing the string start
          to kpctl begins profiling; stop terminates it.  The message
          startclr restarts profiling after zeroing the array of
          counts.

          The program kprof (see prof(1)) formats the data for presen-
          tation.

     EXAMPLE
          The following rc(1) script runs a test program while profil-
          ing the kernel and reports the results.

               bind -a '#K' /dev
               echo start > /dev/kpctl
               runtest
               echo stop > /dev/kpctl
               kprof /386/9pcdisk /dev/kpdata

     SOURCE
          /sys/src/9/port/devkprof.c

     SEE ALSO
          prof(1)

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