Manual: sprof
sprof(1) General Commands Manual sprof(1)
NAME
sprof - read and display shared object profiling data
SYNOPSIS
sprof [option ...] shared-object-path [profile-data-path]
DESCRIPTION
The sprof command displays a profiling summary for the shared object (shared library) specified as its first command-
line argument. The profiling summary is created using previously generated profiling data in the (optional) second
command-line argument. If the profiling data pathname is omitted, then sprof will attempt to deduce it using the
soname of the shared object, looking for a file with the name .profile in the current directory.
OPTIONS
The following command-line options specify the profile output to be produced:
--call-pairs
-c Print a list of pairs of call paths for the interfaces exported by the shared object, along with the number of
times each path is used.
--flat-profile
-p Generate a flat profile of all of the functions in the monitored object, with counts and ticks.
--graph
-q Generate a call graph.
If none of the above options is specified, then the default behavior is to display a flat profile and a call graph.
The following additional command-line options are available:
--help
-? Display a summary of command-line options and arguments and exit.
--usage
Display a short usage message and exit.
--version
-V Display the program version and exit.
STANDARDS
GNU.
EXAMPLES
The following example demonstrates the use of sprof. The example consists of a main program that calls two functions
in a shared object. First, the code of the main program:
$ cat prog.c;
#include
void x1(void);
void x2(void);
int
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
x1();
x2();
exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}
The functions x1() and x2() are defined in the following source file that is used to construct the shared object:
$ cat libdemo.c;
#include
void
consumeCpu1(int lim)
{
for (unsigned int j = 0; j < lim; j++)
getppid();
}
void
x1(void) {
for (unsigned int j = 0; j < 100; j++)
consumeCpu1(200000);
}
void
consumeCpu2(int lim)
{
for (unsigned int j = 0; j < lim; j++)
getppid();
}
void
x2(void)
{
for (unsigned int j = 0; j < 1000; j++)
consumeCpu2(10000);
}
Now we construct the shared object with the real name libdemo.so.1.0.1, and the soname libdemo.so.1:
$ cc -g -fPIC -shared -Wl,-soname,libdemo.so.1 \
-o libdemo.so.1.0.1 libdemo.c;
Then we construct symbolic links for the library soname and the library linker name:
$ ln -sf libdemo.so.1.0.1 libdemo.so.1;
$ ln -sf libdemo.so.1 libdemo.so;
Next, we compile the main program, linking it against the shared object, and then list the dynamic dependencies of
the program:
$ cc -g -o prog prog.c -L. -ldemo;
$ ldd prog;
linux-vdso.so.1 => (0x00007fff86d66000)
libdemo.so.1 => not found
libc.so.6 => /lib64/libc.so.6 (0x00007fd4dc138000)
/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007fd4dc51f000)
In order to get profiling information for the shared object, we define the environment variable LD_PROFILE with the
soname of the library:
$ export LD_PROFILE=libdemo.so.1;
We then define the environment variable LD_PROFILE_OUTPUT with the pathname of the directory where profile output
should be written, and create that directory if it does not exist already:
$ export LD_PROFILE_OUTPUT=$(pwd)/prof_data;
$ mkdir -p $LD_PROFILE_OUTPUT;
LD_PROFILE causes profiling output to be appended to the output file if it already exists, so we ensure that there is
no preexisting profiling data:
$ rm -f $LD_PROFILE_OUTPUT/$LD_PROFILE.profile;
We then run the program to produce the profiling output, which is written to a file in the directory specified in
LD_PROFILE_OUTPUT:
$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. ./prog;
$ ls prof_data;
libdemo.so.1.profile
We then use the sprof -p option to generate a flat profile with counts and ticks:
$ sprof -p libdemo.so.1 $LD_PROFILE_OUTPUT/libdemo.so.1.profile;
Flat profile:
Each sample counts as 0.01 seconds.
% cumulative self self total
time seconds seconds calls us/call us/call name
60.00 0.06 0.06 100 600.00 consumeCpu1
40.00 0.10 0.04 1000 40.00 consumeCpu2
0.00 0.10 0.00 1 0.00 x1
0.00 0.10 0.00 1 0.00 x2
The sprof -q option generates a call graph:
$ sprof -q libdemo.so.1 $LD_PROFILE_OUTPUT/libdemo.so.1.profile;
index % time self children called name
0.00 0.00 100/100 x1 [1]
[0] 100.0 0.00 0.00 100 consumeCpu1 [0]
-----------------------------------------------
0.00 0.00 1/1
[1] 0.0 0.00 0.00 1 x1 [1]
0.00 0.00 100/100 consumeCpu1 [0]
-----------------------------------------------
0.00 0.00 1000/1000 x2 [3]
[2] 0.0 0.00 0.00 1000 consumeCpu2 [2]
-----------------------------------------------
0.00 0.00 1/1
[3] 0.0 0.00 0.00 1 x2 [3]
0.00 0.00 1000/1000 consumeCpu2 [2]
-----------------------------------------------
Above and below, the "" strings represent identifiers that are outside of the profiled object (in this exam‐
ple, these are instances of main()).
The sprof -c option generates a list of call pairs and the number of their occurrences:
$ sprof -c libdemo.so.1 $LD_PROFILE_OUTPUT/libdemo.so.1.profile;
x1 1
x1 consumeCpu1 100
x2 1
x2 consumeCpu2 1000
SEE ALSO
gprof(1), ldd(1), ld.so(8)
Linux man-pages 6.17 2026-02-08 sprof(1)