NAME
scons-time - generate and display SCons timing information
SYNOPSIS
scons-time subcommand [ options... ] [ arguments... ]
Generating Timing Information
scons-time run [-hnqv] [--aegis=PROJECT] [-f FILE] [--number=NUMBER]
[--outdir=OUTDIR] [-p STRING] [--python=PYTHON] [-s DIR]
[--scons=SCONS] [--svn=URL] [ARGUMENTS]
Extracting Function Timings
scons-time func [-h] [--chdir=DIR] [-f FILE] [--fmt=FORMAT]
[--func=NAME] [-p STRING] [-t NUMBER] [--title= TITLE] [ARGUMENTS]
Extracting Memory Statistics
scons-time mem [-h] [--chdir=DIR] [-f FILE] [--fmt=FORMAT] [-p STRING]
[--stage=STAGE] [-t NUMBER] [--title=TITLE] [ARGUMENTS]
Extracting Object Counts
scons-time obj [-h] [--chdir=DIR] [-f FILE] [--fmt=FORMAT] [-p STRING]
[--stage=STAGE] [-t NUMBER] [--title=TITLE] [ARGUMENTS]
Extracting Execution Times
scons-time time [-h] [--chdir=DIR] [-f FILE] [--fmt=FORMAT] [-p STRING]
[-t NUMBER] [--title=TITLE] [--which=WHICH] [ARGUMENTS]
Help Text
scons-time help SUBCOMMAND [...]
DESCRIPTION
The scons-time command runs an SCons configuration through a standard
set of profiled timings and can extract and graph information from the
resulting profiles and log files of those timings. The action to be
performed by the scons-time script is specified by a subcommand, the
first argument on the command line. See the SUBCOMMANDS section below
for information about the operation of specific subcommands.
The basic way to use scons-time is to run the scons-time run subcommand
(possibly multiple times) to generate profile and log file output, and
then use one of the other subcommands to display the results captured
in the profiles and log files for a particular kind of information:
function timings (the scons-time func subcommand), total memory used
(the scons-time mem subcommand), object counts (the scons-time obj
subcommand) and overall execution time (the scons-time time
subcommand). Options exist to place and find the profiles and log
files in separate directories, to generate the output in a format
suitable for graphing with the gnuplot(1) program, and so on.
There are two basic ways the scons-time run subcommand is intended to
be used to gather timing statistics for a configuration. One is to use
the --svn= option to test a configuration against a list of revisions
from the SCons Subversion repository. This will generate a profile and
timing log file for every revision listed with the --number= option,
and can be used to look at the impact of commited changes to the SCons
code base on a particular configuration over time.
The other way is to profile incremental changes to a local SCons code
base during a development cycle--that is, to look at the performance
impact of changes you’re making in the local tree. In this mode, you
run the scons-time run subcommand without the --svn= option, in which
case it simply looks in the profile/log file output directory (the
current directory by default) and automatically figures out the next
run number for the output profile and log file. Used in this way, the
development cycle goes something like: make a change to SCons; run
scons-time run to profile it against a specific configuration; make
another change to SCons; run scons-time run again to profile it; etc.
OPTIONS
The scons-time command only supports a few global options:
-h, --help
Displays the global help text and exits, identical to the scons-
time help subcommand.
-V, --version
Displays the scons-time version and exits.
Most functionality is controlled by options to the individual
subcommands. See the next section for information about individual
subcommand options.
SUBCOMMANDS
The scons-time command supports the following individual subcommands.
The func Subcommand
scons-time func [-h] [--chdir=DIR] [-f FILE] [--fmt=FORMAT]
[--func=NAME] [-p STRING] [-t NUMBER] [--title= TITLE] [ARGUMENTS]
The scons-time func subcommand displays timing information for a
specific Python function within SCons. By default, it extracts
information about the _main() function, which includes the Python
profiler timing for all of SCons.
The scons-time func subcommand extracts function timing information
from all the specified file arguments, which should be Python profiler
output files. (Normally, these would be *.prof files generated by the
scons-time run subcommand, but they can actually be generated by any
Python profiler invocation.) All file name arguments will be globbed
for on-disk files.
If no arguments are specified, then function timing information will be
extracted from all *.prof files, or the subset of them with a prefix
specified by the -p option.
Options include:
-C DIRECTORY, --chdir=DIRECTORY
Changes to the specified DIRECTORY before looking for the
specified files (or files that match the specified patterns).
-f FILE, --file=FILE
Reads configuration information from the specified FILE.
-fmt=FORMAT, --format=FORMAT
Reports the output in the specified FORMAT. The formats
currently supported are ascii (the default) and gnuplot.
--func=NAME
Extracts timings for the specified function NAME. The default
is to report cumulative timings for the _main() function, which
contains the entire SCons run.
-h, --help
Displays help text for the scons-time func subcommand.
-p STRING, --prefix=STRING
Specifies the prefix string for profiles from which to extract
function timing information. This will be used to search for
profiles if no arguments are specified on the command line.
-t NUMBER, --tail=NUMBER
Only extracts function timings from the last NUMBER files.
The help Subcommand
scons-time help SUBCOMMAND [...] The help subcommand prints help text
for any other subcommands listed as later arguments on the command
line.
The mem Subcommand
scons-time mem [-h] [--chdir=DIR] [-f FILE] [--fmt=FORMAT] [-p STRING]
[--stage=STAGE] [-t NUMBER] [--title=TITLE] [ARGUMENTS]
The scons-time mem subcommand displays how much memory SCons uses.
The scons-time mem subcommand extracts memory use information from all
the specified file arguments, which should be files containing output
from running SCons with the --debug=memory option. (Normally, these
would be *.log files generated by the scons-time run subcommand.) All
file name arguments will be globbed for on-disk files.
If no arguments are specified, then memory information will be
extracted from all *.log files, or the subset of them with a prefix
specified by the -p option.
-C DIR, --chdir=DIR
Changes to the specified DIRECTORY before looking for the
specified files (or files that match the specified patterns).
-f FILE, --file=FILE
Reads configuration information from the specified FILE.
-fmt=FORMAT, --format=FORMAT
Reports the output in the specified FORMAT. The formats
currently supported are ascii (the default) and gnuplot.
-h, --help
Displays help text for the scons-time mem subcommand.
-p STRING, --prefix=STRING
Specifies the prefix string for log files from which to extract
memory usage information. This will be used to search for log
files if no arguments are specified on the command line.
--stage=STAGE
Prints the memory used at the end of the specified STAGE: pre-
read (before the SConscript files are read), post-read , (after
the SConscript files are read), pre-build (before any targets
are built) or post-build (after any targets are built). If no
--stage option is specified, the default behavior is post-build,
which reports the final amount of memory used by SCons during
each run.
-t NUMBER, --tail=NUMBER
Only reports memory statistics from the last NUMBER files.
The obj Subcommand
scons-time obj [-h] [--chdir=DIR] [-f FILE] [--fmt=FORMAT] [-p STRING]
[--stage=STAGE] [-t NUMBER] [--title=TITLE] [ARGUMENTS]
The scons-time obj subcommand displays how many objects of a specific
named type are created by SCons.
The scons-time obj subcommand extracts object counts from all the
specified file arguments, which should be files containing output from
running SCons with the --debug=count option. (Normally, these would be
*.log files generated by the scons-time run subcommand.) All file name
arguments will be globbed for on-disk files.
If no arguments are specified, then object counts will be extracted
from all *.log files, or the subset of them with a prefix specified by
the -p option.
-C DIR, --chdir=DIR
Changes to the specified DIRECTORY before looking for the
specified files (or files that match the specified patterns).
-f FILE, --file=FILE
Reads configuration information from the specified FILE.
-fmt=FORMAT, --format=FORMAT
Reports the output in the specified FORMAT. The formats
currently supported are ascii (the default) and gnuplot.
-h, --help
Displays help text for the scons-time obj subcommand.
-p STRING, --prefix=STRING
Specifies the prefix string for log files from which to extract
object counts. This will be used to search for log files if no
arguments are specified on the command line.
--stage=STAGE
Prints the object count at the end of the specified STAGE: pre-
read (before the SConscript files are read), post-read , (after
the SConscript files are read), pre-build (before any targets
are built) or post-build (after any targets are built). If no
--stage option is specified, the default behavior is post-build,
which reports the final object count during each run.
-t NUMBER, --tail=NUMBER
Only reports object counts from the last NUMBER files.
The run Subcommand
scons-time run [-hnqv] [--aegis=PROJECT] [-f FILE] [--number=NUMBER]
[--outdir=OUTDIR] [-p STRING] [--python=PYTHON] [-s DIR]
[--scons=SCONS] [--svn=URL] [ARGUMENTS] The scons-time run subcommand
is the basic subcommand for profiling a specific configuration against
a version of SCons.
The configuration to be tested is specified as a list of files or
directories that will be unpacked or copied into a temporary directory
in which SCons will be invoked. The scons-time run subcommand
understands file suffixes like .tar, .tar.gz, .tgz and .zip and will
unpack their contents into a temporary directory. If more than one
argument is specified, each one will be unpacked or copied into the
temporary directory "on top of" the previous archives or directories,
so the expectation is that multiple specified archives share the same
directory layout.
Once the file or directory arguments are unpacked or copied to the
temporary directory, the scons-time run subcommand runs the requested
version of SCons against the configuration three times:
Startup
SCons is run with the --help option so that just the SConscript
files are read, and then the default help text is printed. This
profiles just the perceived "overhead" of starting up SCons and
processing the SConscript files.
Full build
SCons is run to build everything specified in the configuration.
Specific targets to be passed in on the command l ine may be
specified by the targets keyword in a configuration file; see
below for details.
Rebuild
SCons is run again on the same just-built directory. If the
dependencies in the SCons configuration are correct, this should
be an up-to-date, "do nothing" rebuild.
Each invocation captures the output log file and a profile.
The scons-time run subcommand supports the following options:
--aegis=PROJECT
Specifies the Aegis PROJECT from which the version(s) of scons
being timed will be extracted. When --aegis is specified, the
--number=NUMBER option specifies delta numbers that will be
tested. Output from each invocation run will be placed in file
names that match the Aegis delta numbers. If the --number=
option is not specified, then the default behavior is to time
the tip of the specified PROJECT.
-f FILE, --file=FILE
Reads configuration information from the specified FILE. This
often provides a more convenient way to specify and collect
parameters associated with a specific timing configuration than
specifying them on the command line. See the CONFIGURATION FILE
section below for information about the configuration file
parameters.
-h, --help
Displays help text for the scons-time run subcommand.
-n, --no-exec
Do not execute commands, just printing the command-line
equivalents of what would be executed. Note that the scons-time
script actually executes its actions in Python, where possible,
for portability. The commands displayed are UNIX equivalents of
what it’s doing.
--number=NUMBER
Specifies the run number to be used in the names of the log
files and profile outputs generated by this run.
When used in conjuction with the --aegis=PROJECT option, NUMBER
specifies one or more comma-separated Aegis delta numbers that
will be retrieved automatically from the specified Aegis
PROJECT.
When used in conjuction with the --svn=URL option, NUMBER
specifies one or more comma-separated Subversion revision
numbers that will be retrieved automatically from the Subversion
repository at the specified URL. Ranges of delta or revision
numbers may be specified be separating two numbers with a hyphen
(-).
Example:
% scons-time run --svn=http://scons.tigris.org/svn/trunk --num=1247,1249-1252 .
-p STRING, --prefix=STRING
Specifies the prefix string to be used for all of the log files
and profiles generated by this run. The default is derived from
the first specified argument: if the first argument is a
directory, the default prefix is the name of the directory; if
the first argument is an archive (tar or zip file), the default
prefix is the the base name of the archive, that is, what
remains after stripping the archive suffix (.tgz, .tar.gz or
.zip).
--python=PYTHON
Specifies a path to the Python executable to be used for the
timing runs. The default is to use the same Python executable
that is running the scons-time command itself.
-q, --quiet
Suppresses display of the command lines being executed.
-s DIR, --subdir=DIR
Specifies the name of directory or subdirectory from which the
commands should be executed. The default is XXX
--scons=SCONS
Specifies a path to the SCons script to be used for the timing
runs. The default is XXX
--svn=URL, --subversion=URL
Specifies the URL of the Subversion repository from which the
version(s) of scons being timed will be extracted. When --svn
is specified, the --number=NUMBER option specifies revision
numbers that will be tested. Output from each invocation run
will be placed in file names that match the Subversion revision
numbers. If the --number= option is not specified, then the
default behavior is to time the HEAD of the specified URL.
-v, --verbose
Displays the output from individual commands to the screen (in
addition to capturing the output in log files).
The time Subcommand
scons-time time [-h] [--chdir=DIR] [-f FILE] [--fmt=FORMAT] [-p STRING]
[-t NUMBER] [--title=TITLE] [--which=WHICH] [ARGUMENTS]
The scons-time time subcommand displays SCons execution times as
reported by the scons --debug=time option.
The scons-time time subcommand extracts SCons timing from all the
specified file arguments, which should be files containing output from
running SCons with the --debug=time option. (Normally, these would be
*.log files generated by the scons-time run subcommand.) All file name
arguments will be globbed for on-disk files.
If no arguments are specified, then execution timings will be extracted
from all *.log files, or the subset of them with a prefix specified by
the -p option.
-C DIR, --chdir=DIR
Changes to the specified DIRECTORY before looking for the
specified files (or files that match the specified patterns).
-f FILE, --file=FILE
Reads configuration information from the specified FILE.
-fmt=FORMAT, --format=FORMAT
Reports the output in the specified FORMAT. The formats
currently supported are ascii (the default) and gnuplot.
-h, --help
Displays help text for the scons-time time subcommand.
-p STRING, --prefix=STRING
Specifies the prefix string for log files from which to extract
execution timings. This will be used to search for log files if
no arguments are specified on the command line.
-t NUMBER, --tail=NUMBER
Only reports object counts from the last NUMBER files.
--which=WHICH
Prints the execution time for the specified WHICH value: total
(the total execution time), SConscripts (total execution time
for the SConscript files themselves), SCons (exectuion time in
SCons code itself) or commands (execution time of the commands
and other actions used to build targets). If no --which option
is specified, the default behavior is total, which reports the
total execution time for each run.
CONFIGURATION FILE
Various scons-time subcommands can read information from a specified
configuration file when passed the -f or --file options. The
configuration file is actually executed as a Python script. Setting
Python variables in the configuration file controls the behavior of the
scons-time script more conveniently than having to specify command-line
options or arguments for every run, and provides a handy way to
"shrink-wrap" the necessary information for producing (and reporting)
consistent timing runs for a given configuration.
aegis The Aegis executable for extracting deltas. The default is
simply aegis.
aegis_project
The Aegis project from which deltas should be extracted. The
default is whatever is specified with the --aegis= command-line
option.
archive_list
A list of archives (files or directories) that will be copied to
the temporary directory in which SCons will be invoked. .tar,
.tar.gz, .tgz and .zip files will have their contents unpacked
in the temporary directory. Directory trees and files will be
copied as-is.
initial_commands
A list of commands that will be executed before the actual timed
scons runs. This can be used for commands that are necessary to
prepare the source tree-for example, creating a configuration
file that should not be part of the timed run.
key_location
The location of the key on Gnuplot graphing information
generated with the --format=gnuplot option. The default is
bottom left.
prefix The file name prefix to be used when running or extracting
timing for this configuration.
python The path name of the Python executable to be used when running
or extracting information for this configuration. The default
is the same version of Python used to run the SCons
scons The path name of the SCons script to be used when running or
extracting information for this configuration. The default is
simply scons.
scons_flags
The scons flags used when running SCons to collect timing
information. The default value is --debug=count --debug=memory
--debug=time --debug=memoizer.
scons_lib_dir
scons_wrapper
startup_targets
subdir The subdirectory of the project into which the scons-time script
should change before executing the SCons commands to time.
subversion_url
The Subversion URL from
svn The subversion executable used to check out revisions of SCons
to be timed. The default is simple svn.
svn_co_flag
tar
targets
A string containing the targets that should be added to the
command line of every timed scons run. This can be used to
restrict what’s being timed to a subset of the full build for
the configuration.
targets0
targets1
targets2
title
unzip
verbose
vertical_bars
Example
Here is an example scons-time configuration file for a hypothetical
sample project:
# The project doesn’t use SCons natively (yet), so we’re
# timing a separate set of SConscript files that we lay
# on top of the vanilla unpacked project tarball.
arguments = [’project-1.2.tgz’, ’project-SConscripts.tar’]
# The subdirectory name contains the project version number,
# so tell scons-time to chdir there before building.
subdir = ’project-1.2’
# Set the prefix so output log files and profiles are named:
# project-000-[012].{log,prof}
# project-001-[012].{log,prof}
# etc.
prefix = ’project’
# The SConscript files being tested don’t do any SConf
# configuration, so run their normal ./configure script
# before we invoke SCons.
initial_commands = [
’./configure’,
]
# Only time building the bin/project executable.
targets = ’bin/project’
# Time against SCons revisions of the branches/core branch
subversion_url = ’http://scons.tigris.org/svn/scons/branches/core’
ENVIRONMENT
The scons-time script uses the following environment variables:
PRESERVE
If this value is set, the scons-time script will not remove the
temporary directory or directories in which it builds the
specified configuration or downloads a specific version of
SCons.
SEE ALSO
gnuplot(1), scons(1)
AUTHORS
Steven Knight <knight at baldmt dot com>
June 2010