Profiling (ocamlprof)

# Chapter 17 Profiling (ocamlprof)

- Compiling for profiling
- Profiling an execution
- Printing profiling information
- Time profiling

This chapter describes how the execution of OCaml programs can be profiled, by recording how many times functions are called, branches of conditionals are taken, …

## 17.1 Compiling for profiling

Before profiling an execution, the program must be compiled in profiling mode, using the `ocamlcp` front-end to the `ocamlc` compiler (see chapter 8). When compiling modules separately, `ocamlcp` must be used when compiling the modules (production of `.cmo` files), and can also be used (though this is not strictly necessary) when linking them together.

##### Note

If a module (`.ml` file) doesn’t have a corresponding interface (`.mli` file), then compiling it with `ocamlcp` will produce object files (`.cmi` and `.cmo`) that are not compatible with the ones produced by `ocamlc`, which may lead to problems (if the `.cmi` or `.cmo` is still around) when switching between profiling and non-profiling compilations. To avoid this problem, you should always have a `.mli` file for each `.ml` file.

##### Note

To make sure your programs can be compiled in profiling mode, avoid using any identifier that begins with `__ocaml_prof`.

The amount of profiling information can be controlled through the `-p` option to `ocamlcp`, followed by one or several letters indicating which parts of the program should be profiled:

`a`
  all options
`f`
  function calls : a count point is set at the beginning of each function body
`i`
  if …then …else … : count points are set in both then branch and else branch
`l`
  while, for loops: a count point is set at the beginning of the loop body
`m`
  match branches: a count point is set at the beginning of the body of each branch
`t`
  try …with … branches: a count point is set at the beginning of the body of each branch

For instance, compiling with `ocamlcp -p film` profiles function calls, if…then…else…, loops and pattern matching.

Calling `ocamlcp` without the `-p` option defaults to `-p fm`, meaning that only function calls and pattern matching are profiled.

Note: Due to the implementation of streams and stream patterns as syntactic sugar, it is hard to predict what parts of stream expressions and patterns will be profiled by a given flag. To profile a program with streams, we recommend using `ocamlcp -p a`.

## 17.2 Profiling an execution

Running a bytecode executable file that has been compiled with `ocamlcp` records the execution counts for the specified parts of the program and saves them in a file called `ocamlprof.dump` in the current directory.

If the environment variable `OCAMLPROF_DUMP` is set when the program exits, its value is used as the file name instead of `ocamlprof.dump`.

The dump file is written only if the program terminates normally (by calling `exit` or by falling through). It is not written if the program terminates with an `uncaught exception`.

If a compatible dump file already exists in the current directory, then the profiling information is accumulated in this dump file. This allows, for instance, the profiling of several executions of a program on different inputs.

## 17.3 Printing profiling information

The `ocamlprof` command produces a source listing of the program modules where execution counts have been inserted as comments. For instance,

            ocamlprof foo.ml

prints the source code for the `foo` module, with comments indicating how many times the functions in this module have been called. Naturally, this information is accurate only if the source file has not been modified since the profiling execution took place.

The following options are recognized by `ocamlprof`:

`-f` dumpfile
  Specifies an alternate dump file of profiling information to be read.
`-F` string
  Specifies an additional string to be output with profiling information. By default, `ocamlprof` will annotate programs with comments of the form `(* n *)` where n is the counter value for a profiling point. With option `-F s`, the annotation will be `(* sn *)`.
`-impl` filename
  Process the file filename as an implementation file, even if its extension is not `.ml`.
`-intf` filename
  Process the file filename as an interface file, even if its extension is not `.mli`.
`-version`
  Print version string and exit.
`-vnum`
  Print short version number and exit.
`-help` or `--help`
  Display a short usage summary and exit.

## 17.4 Time profiling

Profiling with `ocamlprof` only records execution counts, not the actual time spent into each function. There is currently no way to perform time profiling on bytecode programs generated by `ocamlc`.

Native-code programs generated by `ocamlopt` can be profiled for time and execution counts using the `-p` option and the standard Unix profiler `gprof`. Just add the `-p` option when compiling and linking the program:

            ocamlopt -o myprog -p other-options files
            ./myprog
            gprof myprog

Caml function names in the output of `gprof` have the following format:

            Module-name_function-name_unique-number

Other functions shown are either parts of the Caml run-time system or external C functions linked with the program.

The output of `gprof` is described in the Unix manual page for `gprof(1)`. It generally consists of two parts: a “flat” profile showing the time spent in each function and the number of invocation of each function, and a “hierarchical” profile based on the call graph. Currently, only the Intel x86/Linux and Alpha/Digital Unix ports of `ocamlopt` support the two profiles. On other platforms, `gprof` will report only the “flat” profile with just time information. When reading the output of `gprof`, keep in mind that the accumulated times computed by `gprof` are based on heuristics and may not be exact.