scons-time - Online in the Cloud

PROGRAM:

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 committed 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 conjunction 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 conjunction 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.

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