perf

Perf stands for "performance" and is a powerful command line tool for analyzing and profiling the performance of a Linux system. It is a part of the Linux kernel and is available on most Linux distributions. Perf enables developers and system administrators to gather detailed information about various aspects of system performance.

With Perf, users can collect data about CPU usage, cache misses, context switches, and other system events. It provides a wide range of features such as sampling, tracing, and profiling, making it a versatile tool for performance analysis. Perf can be used to investigate application bottlenecks, identify performance issues, and optimize system performance.

One of the key features of Perf is its ability to generate reports and visualizations using the collected data. It can generate text-based reports or export data to visualize with tools like Graphviz, FlameGraphs, or Perf-UI. This makes it easier to analyze and understand the performance characteristics of a system.

Perf supports various profiling modes, including CPU profiling, memory profiling, and event-based profiling. It can also be used for hardware event sampling, enabling users to track events such as cache misses, instructions retired, or page faults.

Moreover, Perf has a user-friendly command line interface with various options and parameters, allowing users to customize their profiling and analysis sessions. It is a valuable tool for performance engineering, debugging, and optimizing Linux systems.