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Valgrind Technical Documentation | |
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Table of Contents
This chapter describes the Callgrind Profile Format, Version 1.
A synonymous name is "Calltree Profile Format". These names actually mean the same since Callgrind was previously named Calltree.
The format description is meant for the user to be able to understand the file contents; but more important, it is given for authors of measurement or visualization tools to be able to write and read this format.
The profile data format is ASCII based. It is written by Callgrind, and it is upwards compatible to the format used by Cachegrind (ie. Cachegrind uses a subset). It can be read by callgrind_annotate and KCachegrind.
This chapter gives on overview of format features and examples. For detailed syntax, look at the format reference.
Each file has a header part of an arbitrary number of lines of the format "key: value". The lines with key "positions" and "events" define the meaning of cost lines in the second part of the file: the value of "positions" is a list of subpositions, and the value of "events" is a list of event type names. Cost lines consist of subpositions followed by 64-bit counters for the events, in the order specified by the "positions" and "events" header line.
The "events" header line is always required in contrast to the optional line for "positions", which defaults to "line", i.e. a line number of some source file. In addition, the second part of the file contains position specifications of the form "spec=name". "spec" can be e.g. "fn" for a function name or "fl" for a file name. Cost lines are always related to the function/file specifications given directly before.
events: Cycles Instructions Flops fl=file.f fn=main 15 90 14 2 16 20 12
The above example gives profile information for event types "Cycles", "Instructions", and "Flops". Thus, cost lines give the number of CPU cycles passed by, number of executed instructions, and number of floating point operations executed while running code corresponding to some source position. As there is no line specifying the value of "positions", it defaults to "line", which means that the first number of a cost line is always a line number.
Thus, the first cost line specifies that in line 15 of source file "file.f" there is code belonging to function "main". While running, 90 CPU cycles passed by, and 2 of the 14 instructions executed were floating point operations. Similarily, the next line specifies that there were 12 instructions executed in the context of function "main" which can be related to line 16 in file "file.f", taking 20 CPU cycles. If a cost line specifies less event counts than given in the "events" line, the rest is assumed to be zero. I.e., there was no floating point instruction executed relating to line 16.
Note that regular cost lines always give self (also called exclusive) cost of code at a given position. If you specify multiple cost lines for the same position, these will be summed up. On the other hand, in the example above there is no specification of how many times function "main" actually was called: profile data only contains sums.
The most important extension to the original format of Cachegrind is the ability to specify call relationship among functions. More generally, you specify assoziations among positions. For this, the second part of the file also can contain assoziation specifications. These look similar to position specifications, but consist of 2 lines. For calls, the format looks like
calls=(Call Count) (Destination position) (Source position) (Inclusive cost of call)
The destination only specifies subpositions like line number. Therefore, to be able to specify a call to another function in another source file, you have to precede the above lines with a "cfn=" specification for the name of the called function, and a "cfl=" specification if the function is in another source file. The 2nd line looks like a regular cost line with the difference that inclusive cost spent inside of the function call has to be specified.
Other assoziations which or for example (conditional) jumps. See the reference below for details.
The following example shows 3 functions, "main", "func1", and "func2". Function "main" calls "func1" once and "func2" 3 times. "func1" calls "func2" 2 times.
events: Instructions fl=file1.c fn=main 16 20 cfn=func1 calls=1 50 16 400 cfl=file2.c cfn=func2 calls=3 20 16 400 fn=func1 51 100 cfl=file2.c cfn=func2 calls=2 20 51 300 fl=file2.c fn=func2 20 700
One can see that in "main" only code from line 16 is executed where also the other functions are called. Inclusive cost of "main" is 420, which is the sum of self cost 20 and costs spent in the calls.
Function "func1" is located in "file1.c", the same as "main". Therefore, a "cfl=" specification for the call to "func1" is not needed. The function "func1" only consists of code at line 51 of "file1.c", where "func2" is called.
With the introduction of association specifications like calls it is needed to specify the same function or same file name multiple times. As absolute filenames or symbol names in C++ can be quite long, it is advantageous to be able to specify integer IDs for position specifications.
To support name compression, a position specification can be not only of the format "spec=name", but also "spec=(ID) name" to specify a mapping of an integer ID to a name, and "spec=(ID)" to reference a previously defined ID mapping. There is a separate ID mapping for each position specification, i.e. you can use ID 1 for both a file name and a symbol name.
With string compression, the example from 1.4 looks like this:
events: Instructions fl=(1) file1.c fn=(1) main 16 20 cfn=(2) func1 calls=1 50 16 400 cfl=(2) file2.c cfn=(3) func2 calls=3 20 16 400 fn=(2) 51 100 cfl=(2) cfn=(3) calls=2 20 51 300 fl=(2) fn=(3) 20 700
As position specifications carry no information themself, but only change the meaning of subsequent cost lines or associations, they can appear everywhere in the file without any negative consequence. Especially, you can define name compression mappings directly after the header, and before any cost lines. Thus, the above example can also be written as
events: Instructions # define file ID mapping fl=(1) file1.c fl=(2) file2.c # define function ID mapping fn=(1) main fn=(2) func1 fn=(3) func2 fl=(1) fn=(1) 16 20 ...
If a Calltree data file should hold costs for each assembler instruction of a program, you specify subpostion "instr" in the "positions:" header line, and each cost line has to include the address of some instruction. Addresses are allowed to have a size of 64bit to support 64bit architectures. This motivates for subposition compression: instead of every cost line starting with a 16 character long address, one is allowed to specify relative subpositions.
A relative subposition always is based on the corresponding subposition of the last cost line, and starts with a "+" to specify a positive difference, a "-" to specify a negative difference, or consists of "*" to specify the same subposition. Assume the following example (subpositions can always be specified as hexadecimal numbers, beginning with "0x"):
positions: instr line events: ticks fn=func 0x80001234 90 1 0x80001237 90 5 0x80001238 91 6
With subposition compression, this looks like
positions: instr line events: ticks fn=func 0x80001234 90 1 +3 * 5 +1 +1 6
Remark: For assembler annotation to work, instruction addresses have to be corrected to correspond to addresses found in the original binary. I.e. for relocatable shared objects, often a load offset has to be subtracted.
For the visualization to be able to show cost percentage, a sum of the cost of the full run has to be known. Usually, it is assumed that this is the sum of all cost lines in a file. But sometimes, this is not correct. Thus, you can specify a "summary:" line in the header giving the full cost for the profile run. This has another effect: a import filter can show a progress bar while loading a large data file if he knows to cost sum in advance.
Event types for cost lines are specified in the "events:" line with an abbreviated name. For visualization, it makes sense to be able to specify some longer, more descriptive name. For an event type "Ir" which means "Instruction Fetches", this can be specified the header line
event: Ir : Instruction Fetches events: Ir Dr
In this example, "Dr" itself has no long name assoziated. The order of "event:" lines and the "events:" line is of no importance. Additionally, inherited event types can be introduced for which no raw data is available, but which are calculated from given types. Suppose the last example, you could add
event: Sum = Ir + Dr
to specify an additional event type "Sum", which is calculated by adding costs for "Ir and "Dr".
ProfileDataFile := FormatVersion? Creator? PartData*
FormatVersion := "version:" Space* Number "\n"
Creator := "creator:" NoNewLineChar* "\n"
PartData := (HeaderLine "\n")+ (BodyLine "\n")+
HeaderLine := (empty line)
| ('#' NoNewLineChar*)
| PartDetail
| Description
| EventSpecification
| CostLineDef
PartDetail := TargetCommand | TargetID
TargetCommand := "cmd:" Space* NoNewLineChar*
TargetID := ("pid"|"thread"|"part") ":" Space* Number
Description := "desc:" Space* Name Space* ":" NoNewLineChar*
EventSpecification := "event:" Space* Name InheritedDef? LongNameDef?
InheritedDef := "=" InheritedExpr
InheritedExpr := Name
| Number Space* ("*" Space*)? Name
| InheritedExpr Space* "+" Space* InheritedExpr
LongNameDef := ":" NoNewLineChar*
CostLineDef := "events:" Space* Name (Space+ Name)* | "positions:" "instr"? (Space+ "line")?
BodyLine := (empty line)
| ('#' NoNewLineChar*)
| CostLine
| PositionSpecification
| AssoziationSpecification
CostLine := SubPositionList Costs?
SubPositionList := (SubPosition+ Space+)+
SubPosition := Number | "+" Number | "-" Number | "*"
Costs := (Number Space+)+
PositionSpecification := Position "=" Space* PositionName
Position := CostPosition | CalledPosition
CostPosition := "ob" | "fl" | "fi" | "fe" | "fn"
CalledPosition := " "cob" | "cfl" | "cfn"
PositionName := ( "(" Number ")" )? (Space* NoNewLineChar* )?
AssoziationSpecification := CallSpezification | JumpSpecification
CallSpecification := CallLine "\n" CostLine
CallLine := "calls=" Space* Number Space+ SubPositionList
JumpSpecification := ...
Space := " " | "\t"
Number := HexNumber | (Digit)+
Digit := "0" | ... | "9"
HexNumber := "0x" (Digit | HexChar)+
HexChar := "a" | ... | "f" | "A" | ... | "F"
Name = Alpha (Digit | Alpha)*
Alpha = "a" | ... | "z" | "A" | ... | "Z"
NoNewLineChar := all characters without "\n"
The header has an arbitrary number of lines of the format "key: value". Possible key values for the header are:
version: number [Callgrind]
This is used to distinguish future profile data formats. A major version of 0 or 1 is supposed to be upwards compatible with Cachegrinds format. It is optional; if not appearing, version 1 is supposed. Otherwise, this has to be the first header line.
pid: process id [Callgrind]
This specifies the process ID of the supervised application for which this profile was generated.
cmd: program name + args [Cachegrind]
This specifies the full command line of the supervised application for which this profile was generated.
part: number [Callgrind]
This specifies a sequentially incremented number for each dump generated, starting at 1.
desc: type: value [Cachegrind]
This specifies various information for this dump. For some types, the semantic is defined, but any description type is allowed. Unknown types should be ignored.
There are the types "I1 cache", "D1 cache", "L2 cache", which specify parameters used for the cache simulator. These are the only types originally used by Cachegrind. Additionally, Callgrind uses the following types: "Timerange" gives a rough range of the basic block counter, for which the cost of this dump was collected. Type "Trigger" states the reason of why this trace was generated. E.g. program termination or forced interactive dump.
positions: [instr] [line] [Callgrind]
For cost lines, this defines the semantic of the first numbers. Any combination of "instr", "bb" and "line" is allowed, but has to be in this order which corresponds to position numbers at the start of the cost lines later in the file.
If "instr" is specified, the position is the address of an instruction whose execution raised the events given later on the line. This address is relative to the offset of the binary/shared library file to not have to specify relocation info. For "line", the position is the line number of a source file, which is responsible for the events raised. Note that the mapping of "instr" and "line" positions are given by the debugging line information produced by the compiler.
This field is optional. If not specified, "line" is supposed only.
events: event type abbrevations [Cachegrind]
A list of short names of the event types logged in this file. The order is the same as in cost lines. The first event type is the second or third number in a cost line, depending on the value of "positions". Callgrind does not add additional cost types. Specify exactly once.
Cost types from original Cachegrind are:
Ir: Instruction read access
I1mr: Instruction Level 1 read cache miss
I2mr: Instruction Level 2 read cache miss
...
summary: costs [Callgrind]
totals: costs [Cachegrind]
The value or the total number of events covered by this trace file. Both keys have the same meaning, but the "totals:" line happens to be at the end of the file, while "summary:" appears in the header. This was added to allow postprocessing tools to know in advance to total cost. The two lines always give the same cost counts.
There exist lines
spec=position. The values for position
specifications are arbitrary strings. When starting with "(" and a
digit, it's a string in compressed format. Otherwise it's the real
position string. This allows for file and symbol names as position
strings, as these never start with "(" + digit.
The compressed format is either "(" number ")"
space position or only
"(" number ")". The first relates
position to number in the
context of the given format specification from this line to the end of
the file; it makes the (number) an alias for
position. Compressed format is always
optional.
Position specifications allowed:
ob= [Callgrind]
The ELF object where the cost of next cost lines happens.
fl= [Cachegrind]
fi= [Cachegrind]
fe= [Cachegrind]
The source file including the code which is responsible for the cost of next cost lines. "fi="/"fe=" is used when the source file changes inside of a function, i.e. for inlined code.
fn= [Cachegrind]
The name of the function where the cost of next cost lines happens.
cob= [Callgrind]
The ELF object of the target of the next call cost lines.
cfl= [Callgrind]
The source file including the code of the target of the next call cost lines.
cfn= [Callgrind]
The name of the target function of the next call cost lines.
calls= [Callgrind]
The number of nonrecursive calls which are responsible for the cost specified by the next call cost line. This is the cost spent inside of the called function.
After "calls=" there MUST be a cost line. This is the cost spent in the called function. The first number is the source line from where the call happened.
jump=count target position [Callgrind]
Unconditional jump, executed count times, to the given target position.
jcnd=exe.count jumpcount target position [Callgrind]
Conditional jump, executed exe.count times with jumpcount jumps to the given target position.