Collecting a Local Profile

Perforator can collect ad-hoc profiles on a local machine.

Prerequisites

To work, you need:

1. A recent Linux kernel. Minimum 5.4, preferably 5.15. You can check the kernel version using uname -r.
2. Full root access. Perforator requires CAP_SYS_ADMIN because it runs an eBPF program capable of reading any state from the kernel or userspace. (run with sudo)

Collect profile of a process and save to a pprof file

perforator record --format pprof -p <pid> --duration 1m --output profile.pprof

View profile.pprof file.

Start a subprocess and collect its flamegraph

perforator record --duration 1m -o ./flame.svg -- ls

View flame.svg file.

Collect profile of a process and serve a flamegraph on localhost:9000

perforator record -p <pid> --duration 1m --serve ":9000"

View the flamegraph at http://localhost:9000 in your browser.

Collect profile of a whole system and serve a flamegraph on localhost:9000

perforator record -a --duration 1m --serve ":9000"

View the flamegraph at http://localhost:9000 in your browser.

Collect profile of a whole system and save flamegraph SVG to file.

perforator record -a --duration 1m --output flame.svg

View flame.svg file.