The perf_to_profile binary can be used to turn a perf.data file, which is generated by the linux profiler, perf, into a profile.proto file which can be visualized using the tool pprof.

For details on pprof, see https://github.com/google/pprof

THIS IS NOT AN OFFICIAL GOOGLE PRODUCT

• Install dependencies

  sudo apt-get -y install g++ git libelf-dev libcap-dev
  

• At least g++-5 or clang-7

To install all dependences and build the binary, run the following commands. These were tested on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS:

• Install bazel by following the instructions here.

• Install dependencies and build perf_to_profile using bazel

  git clone https://github.com/google/perf_data_converter.git
  cd perf_data_converter
  bazel build src:perf_to_profile
  

Place the perf_to_profile binary in a place accessible from your PATH (e.g. /usr/local/bin).

• There are a small number of tests that verify the basic functionality. To run these, after successful compilation, run:

  bazel test src:all
  bazel test src/quipper:all
  

Note: Executables generated using bazel build are available under the directory bazel-bin/.

• Profile a command using perf, for example:

  perf record /bin/ls
  

• Recent versions of pprof will automatically invoke perf_to_profile:

  pprof -web perf.data
  

We appreciate your help!

Note that perf data converter and quipper projects do not use GitHub pull requests, and that we use the issue tracker for bug reports.