To: bert hubert <bert.hubert@netherlabs.nl>
Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Announce:  Sysprof 1.0 -- a sampling, systemwide Linux profiler
References: <ye8br2r9zi7.fsf@horse06.daimi.au.dk>
	<20050917211656.GA27448@outpost.ds9a.nl>
From: Soeren Sandmann <sandmann@daimi.au.dk>
Date: 18 Sep 2005 00:05:15 +0200
In-Reply-To: <20050917211656.GA27448@outpost.ds9a.nl>
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bert hubert <bert.hubert@netherlabs.nl> writes:

> How is this different from oprofile? 
> 
> Looks like you did an exact, but less capable, reimplementation.

The kernel module is indeed less capable by itself, but the userspace
tools are a lot easier to use and show you significantly more
details. Oprofile may have improved since then, but when I started
sysprof:

- oprofile didn't work on anything but smp kernels

- oprofile could not produce callgraph information without not only
  recompiling my kernel, but also patching the kernel

- oprofile had a user interface that I simply didn't understand. As I
  remember it, I had to know about performance counters and how to
  translate those into binary masks

Contrast with sysprof, where you

        - insert the module
        - hit the start button
        - do the thing you want to profile
        - hit the profile button

and you get data presented in a way that is just a whole lot more
useful than the flat text files generated by oprofile.


S?ren
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