Measuring performance with the perf kernel tool
Reading Matter
You will quickly find numerous resources for perf
on the web. First and foremost certainly are Brendan Gregg's [6] pages; Gregg worked on DTrace at Sun and now uses perf
intensively at Netflix in his work as a performance engineer. His book System Performance [7] is regarded as one of the standard works in this field.
Many admins and developers have discovered that better knowledge of perf
leads to faster problem analysis. Some development environments also include perf
, and a few training providers offer perf
training. It seems clear that performance optimization will continue to play an important role in system administration in the future. BPFtrace (see box "BPFtrace," [8]) might be the next exciting project in the pipeline.
BPFtrace
Early in the fall of 2018, Alastair Robertson published the high-level BPFtrace [8] language, which runs in the eBPF VM of the Linux kernel. This allows the kernel to start certain operations, such as filter processes, directly in kernel space, which avoids the need for context switching between kernel and user space and thus puts significantly less strain on the system.
Infos
- OProfile: http://oprofile.sourceforge.net
- SystemTap: https://sourceware.org/systemtap/
- Official kernel documentation for perf: https://perf.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page
- perf subcommands: https://perf.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Tutorial
- Flame graph script: https://github.com/brendangregg/FlameGraph
- Brendan Gregg on perf: http://www.brendangregg.com/perf.html
- Gregg, Brendan. System Performance. Prentice Hall, 2012: http://www.brendangregg.com/sysperfbook.html
- BPFtrace: https://github.com/iovisor/bpftrace/
« Previous 1 2 3 4
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Direct Download
Read full article as PDF:
Price $2.95
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Find SysAdmin Jobs
News
-
MNT Seeks Financial Backing for New Seven-Inch Linux Laptop
MNT Pocket Reform is a tiny laptop that is modular, upgradable, recyclable, reusable, and ships with Debian Linux.
-
Ubuntu Flatpak Remix Adds Flatpak Support Preinstalled
If you're looking for a version of Ubuntu that includes Flatpak support out of the box, there's one clear option.
-
Gnome 44 Release Candidate Now Available
The Gnome 44 release candidate has officially arrived and adds a few changes into the mix.
-
Flathub Vying to Become the Standard Linux App Store
If the Flathub team has any say in the matter, their product will become the default tool for installing Linux apps in 2023.
-
Debian 12 to Ship with KDE Plasma 5.27
The Debian development team has shifted to the latest version of KDE for their testing branch.
-
Planet Computers Launches ARM-based Linux Desktop PCs
The firm that originally released a line of mobile keyboards has taken a different direction and has developed a new line of out-of-the-box mini Linux desktop computers.
-
Ubuntu No Longer Shipping with Flatpak
In a move that probably won’t come as a shock to many, Ubuntu and all of its official spins will no longer ship with Flatpak installed.
-
openSUSE Leap 15.5 Beta Now Available
The final version of the Leap 15 series of openSUSE is available for beta testing and offers only new software versions.
-
Linux Kernel 6.2 Released with New Hardware Support
Find out what's new in the most recent release from Linus Torvalds and the Linux kernel team.
-
Kubuntu Focus Team Releases New Mini Desktop
The team behind Kubuntu Focus has released a new NX GEN 2 mini desktop PC powered by Linux.