Configuring Oprofile; Specifying The Kernel - Red Hat ENTERPRISE LINUX 4 System Administration Manual

Chapter 40. OProfile
Command
op_import
opannotate
opcontrol
opreport
oprofiled
Table 40.1. OProfile Commands

40.2. Configuring OProfile

Before OProfile can be run, it must be configured. At a minimum, selecting to monitor the kernel
(or selecting not to monitor the kernel) is required. The following sections describe how to use the
opcontrol utility to configure OProfile. As the opcontrol commands are executed, the setup
options are saved to the /root/.oprofile/daemonrc file.

40.2.1. Specifying the Kernel

First, configure whether OProfile should monitor the kernel. This is the only configuration option that is
required before starting OProfile. All others are optional.
To monitor the kernel, execute the following command as root:
opcontrol --setup --vmlinux=/usr/lib/debug/lib/modules/`uname -r`/vmlinux
Note
The debuginfo package must be installed (which contains the uncompressed kernel) in
order to monitor the kernel.
To configure OProfile not to monitor the kernel, execute the following command as root:
opcontrol --setup --no-vmlinux
This command also loads the oprofile kernel module, if it is not already loaded, and creates the /
dev/oprofile/ directory, if it does not already exist. Refer to
for details about this directory.
oprofile/"
Note
Even if OProfile is configured not to profile the kernel, the SMP kernel still must be running
so that the oprofile module can be loaded from it.
354
Description
Converts sample database files from a foreign binary format to the
native format for the system. Only use this option when analyzing a
sample database from a different architecture.
Creates annotated source for an executable if the application was
compiled with debugging symbols. Refer to
for details.
opannotate"
Configures what data is collected. Refer to
OProfile"
for details.
Retrieves profile data. Refer to
details.
Runs as a daemon to periodically write sample data to disk.
Section 40.5.3, "Using
Section 40.2, "Configuring
Section 40.5.1, "Using opreport"
Section 40.6, "Understanding /dev/
for