Manual: perf-bench
PERF-BENCH(1) perf Manual PERF-BENCH(1)
NAME
perf-bench - General framework for benchmark suites
SYNOPSIS
perf bench [] []
DESCRIPTION
This perf bench command is a general framework for benchmark suites.
COMMON OPTIONS
-r, --repeat=
Specify number of times to repeat the run (default 10).
-f, --format=
Specify format style. Current available format styles are:
default
Default style. This is mainly for human reading.
.ft C
% perf bench sched pipe # with no style specified
(executing 1000000 pipe operations between two tasks)
Total time:5.855 sec
5.855061 usecs/op
170792 ops/sec
.ft
simple
This simple style is friendly for automated processing by scripts.
.ft C
% perf bench --format=simple sched pipe # specified simple
5.988
.ft
SUBSYSTEM
sched
Scheduler and IPC mechanisms.
syscall
System call performance (throughput).
mem
Memory access performance.
numa
NUMA scheduling and MM benchmarks.
futex
Futex stressing benchmarks.
epoll
Eventpoll (epoll) stressing benchmarks.
internals
Benchmark internal perf functionality.
uprobe
Benchmark overhead of uprobe + BPF.
all
All benchmark subsystems.
SUITES FOR sched
messaging
Suite for evaluating performance of scheduler and IPC mechanisms. Based on hackbench by Rusty Russell.
Options of messaging
-p, --pipe
Use pipe() instead of socketpair()
-t, --thread
Be multi thread instead of multi process
-g, --group=
Specify number of groups
-l, --nr_loops=
Specify number of loops
Example of messaging
.ft C
% perf bench sched messaging # run with default
options (20 sender and receiver processes per group)
(10 groups == 400 processes run)
Total time:0.308 sec
% perf bench sched messaging -t -g 20 # be multi-thread, with 20 groups
(20 sender and receiver threads per group)
(20 groups == 800 threads run)
Total time:0.582 sec
.ft
pipe
Suite for pipe() system call. Based on pipe-test-1m.c by Ingo Molnar.
Options of pipe
-l, --loop=
Specify number of loops.
-G, --cgroups=
Names of cgroups for sender and receiver, separated by a comma. This is useful to check cgroup context
switching overhead. Note that perf doesnât create nor delete the cgroups, so users should make sure that the
cgroups exist and are accessible before use.
Example of pipe
.ft C
% perf bench sched pipe
(executing 1000000 pipe operations between two tasks)
Total time:8.091 sec
8.091833 usecs/op
123581 ops/sec
% perf bench sched pipe -l 1000 # loop 1000
(executing 1000 pipe operations between two tasks)
Total time:0.016 sec
16.948000 usecs/op
59004 ops/sec
% perf bench sched pipe -G AAA,BBB
(executing 1000000 pipe operations between cgroups)
# Running 'sched/pipe' benchmark:
# Executed 1000000 pipe operations between two processes
Total time: 6.886 [sec]
6.886208 usecs/op
145217 ops/sec
.ft
SUITES FOR syscall
basic
Suite for evaluating performance of core system call throughput (both usecs/op and ops/sec metrics). This uses a
single thread simply doing getppid(2), which is a simple syscall where the result is not cached by glibc.
SUITES FOR mem
memcpy
Suite for evaluating performance of simple memory copy in various ways.
Options of memcpy
-s, --size
Specify size of memory to copy (default: 1MB). Available units are B, KB, MB, GB and TB (case insensitive).
-p, --page
Specify page-size for mapping memory buffers (default: 4KB). Available values are 4KB, 2MB, 1GB (case
insensitive).
-k, --chunk
Specify the chunk-size for each invocation. (default: 0, or full-extent) Available units are B, KB, MB, GB
and TB (case insensitive).
-f, --function
Specify function to copy (default: default). Available functions are depend on the architecture. On x86-64,
x86-64-unrolled, x86-64-movsq and x86-64-movsb are supported.
-l, --nr_loops
Repeat memcpy invocation this number of times.
-c, --cycles
Use perfâs cpu-cycles event instead of gettimeofday syscall.
memset
Suite for evaluating performance of simple memory set in various ways.
Options of memset
-s, --size
Specify size of memory to set (default: 1MB). Available units are B, KB, MB, GB and TB (case insensitive).
-p, --page
Specify page-size for mapping memory buffers (default: 4KB). Available values are 4KB, 2MB, 1GB (case
insensitive).
-k, --chunk
Specify the chunk-size for each invocation. (default: 0, or full-extent) Available units are B, KB, MB, GB
and TB (case insensitive).
-f, --function
Specify function to set (default: default). Available functions are depend on the architecture. On x86-64,
x86-64-unrolled, x86-64-stosq and x86-64-stosb are supported.
-l, --nr_loops
Repeat memset invocation this number of times.
-c, --cycles
Use perfâs cpu-cycles event instead of gettimeofday syscall.
mmap
Suite for evaluating memory subsystem performance for mmap()'d memory.
Options of mmap
-s, --size
Specify size of memory to set (default: 1MB). Available units are B, KB, MB, GB and TB (case insensitive).
-p, --page
Specify page-size for mapping memory buffers (default: 4KB). Available values are 4KB, 2MB, 1GB (case
insensitive).
-r, --randomize
Specify seed to randomize page access offset (default: 0, or not randomized).
-f, --function
Specify function to set (default: all). Available functions are demand and populate, with the first demand
faulting pages in the region and the second using an eager mapping.
-l, --nr_loops
Repeat mmap() invocation this number of times.
-c, --cycles
Use perfâs cpu-cycles event instead of gettimeofday syscall.
SUITES FOR numa
mem
Suite for evaluating NUMA workloads.
SUITES FOR futex
hash
Suite for evaluating hash tables.
wake
Suite for evaluating wake calls.
wake-parallel
Suite for evaluating parallel wake calls.
requeue
Suite for evaluating requeue calls.
lock-pi
Suite for evaluating futex lock_pi calls.
SUITES FOR epoll
wait
Suite for evaluating concurrent epoll_wait calls.
ctl
Suite for evaluating multiple epoll_ctl calls.
SUITES FOR internals
synthesize
Suite for evaluating perfâs event synthesis performance.
SEE ALSO
perf(1)
perf 07/31/2026 PERF-BENCH(1)