6 perf-script - Read perf.data (created by perf record) and display trace output
11 'perf script' [<options>]
12 'perf script' [<options>] record <script> [<record-options>] <command>
13 'perf script' [<options>] report <script> [script-args]
14 'perf script' [<options>] <script> <required-script-args> [<record-options>] <command>
15 'perf script' [<options>] <top-script> [script-args]
19 This command reads the input file and displays the trace recorded.
21 There are several variants of perf script:
23 'perf script' to see a detailed trace of the workload that was
26 You can also run a set of pre-canned scripts that aggregate and
27 summarize the raw trace data in various ways (the list of scripts is
28 available via 'perf script -l'). The following variants allow you to
29 record and run those scripts:
31 'perf script record <script> <command>' to record the events required
32 for 'perf script report'. <script> is the name displayed in the
33 output of 'perf script --list' i.e. the actual script name minus any
34 language extension. If <command> is not specified, the events are
35 recorded using the -a (system-wide) 'perf record' option.
37 'perf script report <script> [args]' to run and display the results
38 of <script>. <script> is the name displayed in the output of 'perf
39 script --list' i.e. the actual script name minus any language
40 extension. The perf.data output from a previous run of 'perf script
41 record <script>' is used and should be present for this command to
42 succeed. [args] refers to the (mainly optional) args expected by
45 'perf script <script> <required-script-args> <command>' to both
46 record the events required for <script> and to run the <script>
47 using 'live-mode' i.e. without writing anything to disk. <script>
48 is the name displayed in the output of 'perf script --list' i.e. the
49 actual script name minus any language extension. If <command> is
50 not specified, the events are recorded using the -a (system-wide)
51 'perf record' option. If <script> has any required args, they
52 should be specified before <command>. This mode doesn't allow for
53 optional script args to be specified; if optional script args are
54 desired, they can be specified using separate 'perf script record'
55 and 'perf script report' commands, with the stdout of the record step
56 piped to the stdin of the report script, using the '-o -' and '-i -'
57 options of the corresponding commands.
59 'perf script <top-script>' to both record the events required for
60 <top-script> and to run the <top-script> using 'live-mode'
61 i.e. without writing anything to disk. <top-script> is the name
62 displayed in the output of 'perf script --list' i.e. the actual
63 script name minus any language extension; a <top-script> is defined
64 as any script name ending with the string 'top'.
66 [<record-options>] can be passed to the record steps of 'perf script
67 record' and 'live-mode' variants; this isn't possible however for
68 <top-script> 'live-mode' or 'perf script report' variants.
70 See the 'SEE ALSO' section for links to language-specific
71 information on how to write and run your own trace scripts.
76 Any command you can specify in a shell.
80 Display verbose dump of the trace data.
84 Show latency attributes (irqs/preemption disabled, etc).
88 Display a list of available trace scripts.
92 Process trace data with the given script ([lang]:script[.ext]).
93 If the string 'lang' is specified in place of a script name, a
94 list of supported languages will be displayed instead.
98 Generate perf-script.[ext] starter script for given language,
99 using current perf.data.
102 Force system-wide collection. Scripts run without a <command>
103 normally use -a by default, while scripts run with a <command>
104 normally don't - this option allows the latter to be run in
109 Input file name. (default: perf.data unless stdin is a fifo)
113 Do various checks like samples ordering and lost events.
117 Comma separated list of fields to print. Options are:
118 comm, tid, pid, time, cpu, event, trace, ip, sym, dso, addr, symoff,
119 srcline, period, iregs, uregs, brstack, brstacksym, flags, bpf-output, brstackinsn,
120 brstackoff, callindent, insn, insnlen, synth, phys_addr, metric, misc.
121 Field list can be prepended with the type, trace, sw or hw,
122 to indicate to which event type the field list applies.
123 e.g., -F sw:comm,tid,time,ip,sym and -F trace:time,cpu,trace
125 perf script -F <fields>
129 perf script -F trace:<fields> -F sw:<fields> -F hw:<fields>
131 i.e., the specified fields apply to all event types if the type string
134 In addition to overriding fields, it is also possible to add or remove
135 fields from the defaults. For example
139 removes the cpu field and adds the insn field. Adding/removing fields
140 cannot be mixed with normal overriding.
142 The arguments are processed in the order received. A later usage can
143 reset a prior request. e.g.:
145 -F trace: -F comm,tid,time,ip,sym
147 The first -F suppresses trace events (field list is ""), but then the
148 second invocation sets the fields to comm,tid,time,ip,sym. In this case a
149 warning is given to the user:
151 "Overriding previous field request for all events."
153 Alternatively, consider the order:
155 -F comm,tid,time,ip,sym -F trace:
157 The first -F sets the fields for all events and the second -F
158 suppresses trace events. The user is given a warning message about
159 the override, and the result of the above is that only S/W and H/W
160 events are displayed with the given fields.
162 For the 'wildcard' option if a user selected field is invalid for an
163 event type, a message is displayed to the user that the option is
164 ignored for that type. For example:
166 $ perf script -F comm,tid,trace
167 'trace' not valid for hardware events. Ignoring.
168 'trace' not valid for software events. Ignoring.
170 Alternatively, if the type is given an invalid field is specified it
171 is an error. For example:
173 perf script -v -F sw:comm,tid,trace
174 'trace' not valid for software events.
176 At this point usage is displayed, and perf-script exits.
178 The flags field is synthesized and may have a value when Instruction
179 Trace decoding. The flags are "bcrosyiABEx" which stand for branch,
180 call, return, conditional, system, asynchronous, interrupt,
181 transaction abort, trace begin, trace end, and in transaction,
182 respectively. Known combinations of flags are printed more nicely e.g.
183 "call" for "bc", "return" for "br", "jcc" for "bo", "jmp" for "b",
184 "int" for "bci", "iret" for "bri", "syscall" for "bcs", "sysret" for "brs",
185 "async" for "by", "hw int" for "bcyi", "tx abrt" for "bA", "tr strt" for "bB",
186 "tr end" for "bE". However the "x" flag will be display separately in those
187 cases e.g. "jcc (x)" for a condition branch within a transaction.
189 The callindent field is synthesized and may have a value when
190 Instruction Trace decoding. For calls and returns, it will display the
191 name of the symbol indented with spaces to reflect the stack depth.
193 When doing instruction trace decoding insn and insnlen give the
194 instruction bytes and the instruction length of the current
197 The synth field is used by synthesized events which may be created when
198 Instruction Trace decoding.
200 Finally, a user may not set fields to none for all event types.
201 i.e., -F "" is not allowed.
203 The brstack output includes branch related information with raw addresses using the
204 /v/v/v/v/cycles syntax in the following order:
205 FROM: branch source instruction
206 TO : branch target instruction
207 M/P/-: M=branch target mispredicted or branch direction was mispredicted, P=target predicted or direction predicted, -=not supported
208 X/- : X=branch inside a transactional region, -=not in transaction region or not supported
209 A/- : A=TSX abort entry, -=not aborted region or not supported
212 The brstacksym is identical to brstack, except that the FROM and TO addresses are printed in a symbolic form if possible.
214 When brstackinsn is specified the full assembler sequences of branch sequences for each sample
215 is printed. This is the full execution path leading to the sample. This is only supported when the
216 sample was recorded with perf record -b or -j any.
218 The brstackoff field will print an offset into a specific dso/binary.
220 With the metric option perf script can compute metrics for
221 sampling periods, similar to perf stat. This requires
222 specifying a group with multiple metrics with the :S option
223 for perf record. perf will sample on the first event, and
224 compute metrics for all the events in the group. Please note
225 that the metric computed is averaged over the whole sampling
226 period, not just for the sample point.
228 For sample events it's possible to display misc field with -F +misc option,
229 following letters are displayed for each bit:
231 PERF_RECORD_MISC_KERNEL K
232 PERF_RECORD_MISC_USER U
233 PERF_RECORD_MISC_HYPERVISOR H
234 PERF_RECORD_MISC_GUEST_KERNEL G
235 PERF_RECORD_MISC_GUEST_USER g
236 PERF_RECORD_MISC_MMAP_DATA* M
237 PERF_RECORD_MISC_COMM_EXEC E
238 PERF_RECORD_MISC_SWITCH_OUT S
239 PERF_RECORD_MISC_SWITCH_OUT_PREEMPT Sp
241 $ perf script -F +misc ...
242 sched-messaging 1414 K 28690.636582: 4590 cycles ...
243 sched-messaging 1407 U 28690.636600: 325620 cycles ...
244 sched-messaging 1414 K 28690.636608: 19473 cycles ...
245 misc field ___________/
254 --symfs=<directory>::
255 Look for files with symbols relative to this directory.
259 When printing symbols do not display call chain.
262 Stop display of callgraph at these symbols
265 --cpu:: Only report samples for the list of CPUs provided. Multiple CPUs can
266 be provided as a comma-separated list with no space: 0,1. Ranges of
267 CPUs are specified with -: 0-2. Default is to report samples on all
272 Only display events for these comms. CSV that understands
273 file://filename entries.
276 Only show events for given process ID (comma separated list).
279 Only show events for given thread ID (comma separated list).
283 Display extended information about the perf.data file. This adds
284 information which may be very large and thus may clutter the display.
285 It currently includes: cpu and numa topology of the host system.
286 It can only be used with the perf script report mode.
289 Try to resolve the path of [kernel.kallsyms]
292 Display task related events (e.g. FORK, COMM, EXIT).
295 Display mmap related events (e.g. MMAP, MMAP2).
297 --show-namespace-events
298 Display namespace events i.e. events of type PERF_RECORD_NAMESPACES.
301 Display context switch events i.e. events of type PERF_RECORD_SWITCH or
302 PERF_RECORD_SWITCH_CPU_WIDE.
305 Display lost events i.e. events of type PERF_RECORD_LOST.
308 Display finished round events i.e. events of type PERF_RECORD_FINISHED_ROUND.
311 Demangle symbol names to human readable form. It's enabled by default,
312 disable with --no-demangle.
315 Demangle kernel symbol names to human readable form (for C++ kernels).
318 Show perf.data header.
321 Show only perf.data header.
324 Options for decoding instruction tracing data. The options are:
326 include::itrace.txt[]
328 To disable decoding entirely, use --no-itrace.
331 Show the full path for source files for srcline output.
334 Set the stack depth limit when parsing the callchain, anything
335 beyond the specified depth will be ignored. This is a trade-off
336 between information loss and faster processing especially for
337 workloads that can have a very long callchain stack.
338 Note that when using the --itrace option the synthesized callchain size
339 will override this value if the synthesized callchain size is bigger.
344 Use 9 decimal places when displaying time (i.e. show the nanoseconds)
348 Don't do ownership validation.
351 Only analyze samples within given time window: <start>,<stop>. Times
352 have the format seconds.microseconds. If start is not given (i.e., time
353 string is ',x.y') then analysis starts at the beginning of the file. If
354 stop time is not given (i.e, time string is 'x.y,') then analysis goes
357 Also support time percent with multipe time range. Time string is
358 'a%/n,b%/m,...' or 'a%-b%,c%-%d,...'.
361 Select the second 10% time slice:
362 perf script --time 10%/2
364 Select from 0% to 10% time slice:
365 perf script --time 0%-10%
367 Select the first and second 10% time slices:
368 perf script --time 10%/1,10%/2
370 Select from 0% to 10% and 30% to 40% slices:
371 perf script --time 0%-10%,30%-40%
374 Set the maximum number of program blocks to print with brstackasm for
378 Create per event files with a "perf.data.EVENT.dump" name instead of
379 printing to stdout, useful, for instance, for generating flamegraphs.
382 If a callgraph address belongs to an inlined function, the inline stack
383 will be printed. Each entry has function name and file/line. Enabled by
384 default, disable with --no-inline.
388 linkperf:perf-record[1], linkperf:perf-script-perl[1],
389 linkperf:perf-script-python[1]