LIKWID-PERFSCOPE(1)

NAME
likwid-perfscope - Frontend for the timeline mode of likwid-perfctr(1) that generates pictures on-the-fly from the measurements

SYNOPSIS
likwid-perfscope [-hvadp] [-c <cpu_list>] [-C <cpu_list>] [-t <frequency>] [-r <value>] [-g <eventset_and_plotconfig>] [--host <hostname>] <executable>

DESCRIPTION
likwid-perfscope is a command line application written in Lua that uses the timeline daemon mode of likwid-perfctr(1) to create on-the-fly pictures with the current measurements. It uses the feedGnuplot(1) script to send the current data to gnuplot. Since the plot windows are normally closed directly after the execution of the monitored applications, likwid-perfscope waits until Ctrl+c is pressed.

OPTIONS

-h,--help
    Prints a help message to standard output, then exits.

-v,--version
    Prints version information to standard output, then exits.

-C  <cpu_list>
    Measures on given CPUs in <cpu_list>. See likwid-pin(1) for further information about the syntax.

-C  <cpu_list>
    Measures the given group on given CPUs in <cpu_list>. See likwid-pin(1) for further information about the syntax. The application is pinned to that hardware threads.

-a,--all
    List preconfigured event and plot configurations

-d,--dump
    Print the measurements of likwid-perfctr(1) to stdout.

-t,--time  <frequency>
    Reads the current performance values every <frequency>. Available suffixes are 's', 'ms' or 'us, e.g. 500ms. Default value is 1s.

-g,--group  <eventset_and_plotconfig>
    Defines the events and counters that should be read. Possible values can be gathered from likwid-perfctr(1). You can give multiple -g options on the commandline. They will be measured in a round-robin fashion and one plot generated per option. Moreover, the -g option accepts config options for feedGnuplot(1), see section EVENTSETS

-r,--range  <value>
    Plot only the last <value> values. Often referred to as sliding window.

-p,--plotdump
    Use the dumping feature of feedGnuplot to print out the plot configuration and its data at each timestep. Can be used to create file-based plots afterwards.

--host  <hostname>
    Instead of performing likwid-perfctr on the local machine, execute it on a remote machine and plot data locally. Uses ssh and you probably need to enter the password before starting. You can also give something like user@host.

EVENTSETS
In contrast to the -g option for likwid-perfctr the -g option for likwid-perfscope is extended to accept configuration options for feedGnuplot. There are some predefined plot configurations embedded into likwid-perfscope which can be listed with the -a command line option. They are filtered to show only configs that are available for your current system. If you need to measure and plot custom events you can set the plotting options as last entry in your eventset. The plotting config options can be set as a ':' separated list. If you select preconfigured group, you can overwrite single fields in the config like changing the title or the matching. The folling options are available:

1.  title=<string>, TITLE=<string>

Use the given title for the plot, use "" to enclose text with spaces and escape characters which could be interpreted by the shell. ':' are not allowed!

2.  xtitle=<string>, XTITLE=<string>

Use the given title for the x-axis of the plot, use "" to enclose text with spaces and escape characters which could be interpreted by the shell. ':' are not allowed!

3.  ytitle=<string>, YTITLE=<string>

Use the given title for the left y-axis of the plot, use "" to enclose text with spaces and escape characters which could be interpreted by the shell. ':' are not allowed!

4.  <string>=<string>

All option string items that is not recognized as keyword like TITLE are used as formulas for the output. You can set multiple of those items in one option string. Each is calculated and integrated in the output plot. The first <string> is used as legend entry. The second <string> is the formula for the function.

5.  y2title=<string>, Y2TITLE=<string>, y2title=<id-string>, Y2TITLE=<id-string>

Use the given title for the right y-axis of the plot. If no id is set, the last y2-axis is related to the last formula. If id is set, the formula with the id is used for the y2-axis. The id starts with index 1 for the first formula. Use "" to enclose text with spaces and escape characters which could be interpreted by the shell with ''. ':' are not allowed!

EXAMPLE

1.  Measure and print a preconfigured plotting configuration:

likwid-perfscope -g L3 -C 0-2 -t 1s ./a.out

This measures the L3 bandwidth with likwid-perfctr every second on hardware threads 0,1,2 and use the plotting configuration L3. The plot will have a title and the axes are labeled properly.

2.  Measure and print a preconfigured plotting configuration:

likwid-perfscope -g L2:TITLE="My Title" -C 0 -t 1s ./a.out

This measures the L2 bandwidth with likwid-perfctr every second on hardware thread 0 and use the plotting configuration L2. The title of the output plot is changed to the custom title "My Title".

3.  Custom event set with plotting configuration:

likwid-perfscope -g INSTR_RETIRED_ANY:FIXC0,CPU_CLK_UNHALTED_CORE:FIXC1,
    CPI=FIXC0/FIXC1:YTITLE="Cycles per Instruction" -C 0 --time 500ms ./a.out

Executes likwid-perfctr on the first hardware thread. The values for the events INSTR_RETIRED_ANY and CPU_CLK_UNHALTED_CORE are read every 500ms. The raw values are transformed using the formula FIXC0/FIXC1 and forwarded to gnuplot using the feedGnuplot(1) script with the curve name 'CPI' in the legend. The y-axis is labeled with the string "Cycles per Instruction". IP 4. 5 Custom event set with plotting configuration:

likwid-perfscope -g L3,CPI=FIXC0/FIXC1:Y2TITLE="2-Cycles per Instruction" -C 0 --time 500ms ./a.out

This measures the L3 bandwidth for CPU 0 every 500 ms. Additionally, a second curve is plotted with the function FIXC0/FIXC1 with the legend entry CPI. The right y-axis is labeled with 'Cycles per Instruction' and is associated to the second formula. The first formula is hidden in the L3 plot group. Since the CPI formula is the last in the list, the curve id is not needed in the Y2TITLE as this is the default behavior.

AUTHOR
Written by Thomas Gruber <thomas.roehl@googlemail.com>.

BUGS
Report Bugs on <https://github.com/RRZE-HPC/likwid/issues>.

SEE ALSO
likwid-perfctr(1), feedGnuplot(1)