path: root/docs/users_guide/profiling.rst

.. _profiling:

Profiling
=========

.. index::
   single: profiling
   single: cost-centre profiling
   single: -p; RTS option

GHC comes with a time and space profiling system, so that you can answer
questions like "why is my program so slow?", or "why is my program using
so much memory?".

Profiling a program is a three-step process:

1. Re-compile your program for profiling with the :ghc-flag:`-prof` option, and
   probably one of the options for adding automatic annotations:
   :ghc-flag:`-fprof-auto` is the most common [1]_.

   If you are using external packages with :command:`cabal`, you may need to
   reinstall these packages with profiling support; typically this is
   done with ``cabal install -p package --reinstall``.

2. Having compiled the program for profiling, you now need to run it to
   generate the profile. For example, a simple time profile can be
   generated by running the program with ``+RTS -p`` (see :rts-flag:`-p`), which
   generates a file named :file:`{prog}.prof` where ⟨prog⟩ is the name of your
   program (without the ``.exe`` extension, if you are on Windows).

   There are many different kinds of profile that can be generated,
   selected by different RTS options. We will be describing the various
   kinds of profile throughout the rest of this chapter. Some profiles
   require further processing using additional tools after running the
   program.

3. Examine the generated profiling information, use the information to
   optimise your program, and repeat as necessary.

.. _cost-centres:

Cost centres and cost-centre stacks
-----------------------------------

GHC's profiling system assigns costs to cost centres. A cost is simply
the time or space (memory) required to evaluate an expression. Cost
centres are program annotations around expressions; all costs incurred
by the annotated expression are assigned to the enclosing cost centre.
Furthermore, GHC will remember the stack of enclosing cost centres for
any given expression at run-time and generate a call-tree of cost
attributions.

Let's take a look at an example: ::

    main = print (fib 30)
    fib n = if n < 2 then 1 else fib (n-1) + fib (n-2)

Compile and run this program as follows:

.. code-block:: none

    $ ghc -prof -fprof-auto -rtsopts Main.hs
    $ ./Main +RTS -p
    121393
    $

When a GHC-compiled program is run with the :rts-flag:`-p` RTS option, it
generates a file called :file:`prog.prof`. In this case, the file will contain
something like this:

.. code-block:: none

            Wed Oct 12 16:14 2011 Time and Allocation Profiling Report  (Final)

               Main +RTS -p -RTS

            total time  =        0.68 secs   (34 ticks @ 20 ms)
            total alloc = 204,677,844 bytes  (excludes profiling overheads)

    COST CENTRE MODULE  %time %alloc

    fib         Main    100.0  100.0


                                                          individual     inherited
    COST CENTRE MODULE                  no.     entries  %time %alloc   %time %alloc

    MAIN        MAIN                    102           0    0.0    0.0   100.0  100.0
     CAF        GHC.IO.Handle.FD        128           0    0.0    0.0     0.0    0.0
     CAF        GHC.IO.Encoding.Iconv   120           0    0.0    0.0     0.0    0.0
     CAF        GHC.Conc.Signal         110           0    0.0    0.0     0.0    0.0
     CAF        Main                    108           0    0.0    0.0   100.0  100.0
      main      Main                    204           1    0.0    0.0   100.0  100.0
       fib      Main                    205     2692537  100.0  100.0   100.0  100.0

The first part of the file gives the program name and options, and the
total time and total memory allocation measured during the run of the
program (note that the total memory allocation figure isn't the same as
the amount of *live* memory needed by the program at any one time; the
latter can be determined using heap profiling, which we will describe
later in :ref:`prof-heap`).

The second part of the file is a break-down by cost centre of the most
costly functions in the program. In this case, there was only one
significant function in the program, namely ``fib``, and it was
responsible for 100% of both the time and allocation costs of the
program.

The third and final section of the file gives a profile break-down by
cost-centre stack. This is roughly a call-tree profile of the program.
In the example above, it is clear that the costly call to ``fib`` came
from ``main``.

The time and allocation incurred by a given part of the program is
displayed in two ways: “individual”, which are the costs incurred by the
code covered by this cost centre stack alone, and “inherited”, which
includes the costs incurred by all the children of this node.

The usefulness of cost-centre stacks is better demonstrated by modifying
the example slightly: ::

    main = print (f 30 + g 30)
      where
        f n  = fib n
        g n  = fib (n `div` 2)

    fib n = if n < 2 then 1 else fib (n-1) + fib (n-2)

Compile and run this program as before, and take a look at the new
profiling results:

.. code-block:: none

    COST CENTRE MODULE                  no.     entries  %time %alloc   %time %alloc

    MAIN        MAIN                    102           0    0.0    0.0   100.0  100.0
     CAF        GHC.IO.Handle.FD        128           0    0.0    0.0     0.0    0.0
     CAF        GHC.IO.Encoding.Iconv   120           0    0.0    0.0     0.0    0.0
     CAF        GHC.Conc.Signal         110           0    0.0    0.0     0.0    0.0
     CAF        Main                    108           0    0.0    0.0   100.0  100.0
      main      Main                    204           1    0.0    0.0   100.0  100.0
       main.g   Main                    207           1    0.0    0.0     0.0    0.1
        fib     Main                    208        1973    0.0    0.1     0.0    0.1
       main.f   Main                    205           1    0.0    0.0   100.0   99.9
        fib     Main                    206     2692537  100.0   99.9   100.0   99.9

Now although we had two calls to ``fib`` in the program, it is
immediately clear that it was the call from ``f`` which took all the
time. The functions ``f`` and ``g`` which are defined in the ``where``
clause in ``main`` are given their own cost centres, ``main.f`` and
``main.g`` respectively.

The actual meaning of the various columns in the output is:

    The number of times this particular point in the call tree was
    entered.

    The percentage of the total run time of the program spent at this
    point in the call tree.

    The percentage of the total memory allocations (excluding profiling
    overheads) of the program made by this call.

    The percentage of the total run time of the program spent below this
    point in the call tree.

    The percentage of the total memory allocations (excluding profiling
    overheads) of the program made by this call and all of its
    sub-calls.

In addition you can use the :rts-flag:`-P` RTS option to get the
following additional information:

``ticks``
    The raw number of time “ticks” which were attributed to this
    cost-centre; from this, we get the ``%time`` figure mentioned above.

``bytes``
    Number of bytes allocated in the heap while in this cost-centre;
    again, this is the raw number from which we get the ``%alloc``
    figure mentioned above.

What about recursive functions, and mutually recursive groups of
functions? Where are the costs attributed? Well, although GHC does keep
information about which groups of functions called each other
recursively, this information isn't displayed in the basic time and
allocation profile, instead the call-graph is flattened into a tree as
follows: a call to a function that occurs elsewhere on the current stack
does not push another entry on the stack, instead the costs for this
call are aggregated into the caller [2]_.

.. _scc-pragma:

Inserting cost centres by hand
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cost centres are just program annotations. When you say ``-fprof-auto``
to the compiler, it automatically inserts a cost centre annotation
around every binding not marked INLINE in your program, but you are
entirely free to add cost centre annotations yourself.

The syntax of a cost centre annotation for expressions is ::

    {-# SCC "name" #-} <expression>

where ``"name"`` is an arbitrary string, that will become the name of
your cost centre as it appears in the profiling output, and
``<expression>`` is any Haskell expression. An ``SCC`` annotation extends as
far to the right as possible when parsing, having the same precedence as lambda
abstractions, let expressions, and conditionals. Additionally, an annotation
may not appear in a position where it would change the grouping of
subexpressions::

  a = 1 / 2 / 2                          -- accepted (a=0.25)
  b = 1 / {-# SCC "name" #-} / 2 / 2     -- rejected (instead of b=1.0)

This restriction is required to maintain the property that inserting a pragma,
just like inserting a comment, does not have unintended effects on the
semantics of the program, in accordance with `GHC Proposal #176
<https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/blob/master/proposals/0176-scc-parsing.rst>`__.

SCC stands for "Set Cost Centre". The double quotes can be omitted if ``name``
is a Haskell identifier, for example: ::

    {-# SCC id #-} <expression>

Cost centre annotations can also appear in the top-level or in a
declaration context. In that case you need to pass a function name
defined in the same module or scope with the annotation. Example: ::

    f x y = ...
      where
        g z = ...
        {-# SCC g #-}

    {-# SCC f #-}

If you want to give a cost centre different name than the function name,
you can pass a string to the annotation ::

    f x y = ...
    {-# SCC f "cost_centre_name" #-}

Here is an example of a program with a couple of SCCs: ::

    main :: IO ()
    main = do let xs = [1..1000000]
              let ys = [1..2000000]
              print $ {-# SCC last_xs #-} last xs
              print $ {-# SCC last_init_xs #-} last (init xs)
              print $ {-# SCC last_ys #-} last ys
              print $ {-# SCC last_init_ys #-} last (init ys)

which gives this profile when run:

.. code-block:: none

    COST CENTRE     MODULE                  no.     entries  %time %alloc   %time %alloc

    MAIN            MAIN                    102           0    0.0    0.0   100.0  100.0
     CAF            GHC.IO.Handle.FD        130           0    0.0    0.0     0.0    0.0
     CAF            GHC.IO.Encoding.Iconv   122           0    0.0    0.0     0.0    0.0
     CAF            GHC.Conc.Signal         111           0    0.0    0.0     0.0    0.0
     CAF            Main                    108           0    0.0    0.0   100.0  100.0
      main          Main                    204           1    0.0    0.0   100.0  100.0
       last_init_ys Main                    210           1   25.0   27.4    25.0   27.4
       main.ys      Main                    209           1   25.0   39.2    25.0   39.2
       last_ys      Main                    208           1   12.5    0.0    12.5    0.0
       last_init_xs Main                    207           1   12.5   13.7    12.5   13.7
       main.xs      Main                    206           1   18.8   19.6    18.8   19.6
       last_xs      Main                    205           1    6.2    0.0     6.2    0.0

.. _prof-rules:

Rules for attributing costs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While running a program with profiling turned on, GHC maintains a
cost-centre stack behind the scenes, and attributes any costs (memory
allocation and time) to whatever the current cost-centre stack is at the
time the cost is incurred.

The mechanism is simple: whenever the program evaluates an expression
with an SCC annotation, ``{-# SCC c -#} E``, the cost centre ``c`` is
pushed on the current stack, and the entry count for this stack is
incremented by one. The stack also sometimes has to be saved and
restored; in particular when the program creates a thunk (a lazy
suspension), the current cost-centre stack is stored in the thunk, and
restored when the thunk is evaluated. In this way, the cost-centre stack
is independent of the actual evaluation order used by GHC at runtime.

At a function call, GHC takes the stack stored in the function being
called (which for a top-level function will be empty), and *appends* it
to the current stack, ignoring any prefix that is identical to a prefix
of the current stack.

We mentioned earlier that lazy computations, i.e. thunks, capture the
current stack when they are created, and restore this stack when they
are evaluated. What about top-level thunks? They are "created" when the
program is compiled, so what stack should we give them? The technical
name for a top-level thunk is a CAF ("Constant Applicative Form"). GHC
assigns every CAF in a module a stack consisting of the single cost
centre ``M.CAF``, where ``M`` is the name of the module. It is also
possible to give each CAF a different stack, using the option
:ghc-flag:`-fprof-cafs`. This is especially useful when
compiling with :ghc-flag:`-ffull-laziness` (as is default with :ghc-flag:`-O`
and higher), as constants in function bodies will be lifted to the top-level
and become CAFs. You will probably need to consult the Core
(:ghc-flag:`-ddump-simpl`) in order to determine what these CAFs correspond to.

.. index::
   single: -fprof-cafs

.. _prof-compiler-options:

Compiler options for profiling
------------------------------

.. index::
   single: profiling; options
   single: options; for profiling

.. ghc-flag:: -prof
    :shortdesc: Turn on profiling
    :type: dynamic
    :category:

    To make use of the profiling system *all* modules must be compiled
    and linked with the :ghc-flag:`-prof` option. Any ``SCC`` annotations you've
    put in your source will spring to life.

    Without a :ghc-flag:`-prof` option, your ``SCC``\ s are ignored; so you can
    compile ``SCC``-laden code without changing it.

There are a few other profiling-related compilation options. Use them
*in addition to* :ghc-flag:`-prof`. These do not have to be used consistently
for all modules in a program.

.. ghc-flag:: -fprof-auto
    :shortdesc: Auto-add ``SCC``\\ s to all bindings not marked INLINE
    :type: dynamic
    :reverse: -fno-prof-auto
    :category:

    *All* bindings not marked INLINE, whether exported or not, top level
    or nested, will be given automatic ``SCC`` annotations. Functions
    marked INLINE must be given a cost centre manually.

.. ghc-flag:: -fprof-auto-top
    :shortdesc: Auto-add ``SCC``\\ s to all top-level bindings not marked INLINE
    :type: dynamic
    :reverse: -fno-prof-auto
    :category:

    .. index::
       single: cost centres; automatically inserting

    GHC will automatically add ``SCC`` annotations for all top-level
    bindings not marked INLINE. If you want a cost centre on an INLINE
    function, you have to add it manually.

.. ghc-flag:: -fprof-auto-exported
    :shortdesc: Auto-add ``SCC``\\ s to all exported bindings not marked INLINE
    :type: dynamic
    :reverse: -fno-prof-auto
    :category:

    .. index::
       single: cost centres; automatically inserting

    GHC will automatically add ``SCC`` annotations for all exported
    functions not marked INLINE. If you want a cost centre on an INLINE
    function, you have to add it manually.

.. ghc-flag:: -fprof-auto-calls
    :shortdesc: Auto-add ``SCC``\\ s to all call sites
    :type: dynamic
    :reverse: -fno-prof-auto-calls
    :category:

    Adds an automatic ``SCC`` annotation to all *call sites*. This is
    particularly useful when using profiling for the purposes of
    generating stack traces; see the function :base-ref:`Debug.Trace.traceShow`,
    or the :rts-flag:`-xc` RTS flag (:ref:`rts-options-debugging`) for more
    details.

.. ghc-flag:: -fprof-cafs
    :shortdesc: Auto-add ``SCC``\\ s to all CAFs
    :type: dynamic
    :reverse: -fno-prof-cafs
    :category:

    The costs of all CAFs in a module are usually attributed to one
    "big" CAF cost-centre. With this option, all CAFs get their own
    cost-centre. An “if all else fails” option…

.. ghc-flag:: -fno-prof-auto
    :shortdesc: Disables any previous :ghc-flag:`-fprof-auto`,
        :ghc-flag:`-fprof-auto-top`, or :ghc-flag:`-fprof-auto-exported` options.
    :type: dynamic
    :reverse: -fprof-auto
    :category:

    Disables any previous :ghc-flag:`-fprof-auto`, :ghc-flag:`-fprof-auto-top`, or
    :ghc-flag:`-fprof-auto-exported` options.

.. ghc-flag:: -fno-prof-cafs
    :shortdesc: Disables any previous :ghc-flag:`-fprof-cafs` option.
    :type: dynamic
    :reverse: -fprof-cafs
    :category:

    Disables any previous :ghc-flag:`-fprof-cafs` option.

.. ghc-flag:: -fno-prof-count-entries
    :shortdesc: Do not collect entry counts
    :type: dynamic
    :reverse: -fprof-count-entries
    :category:

    Tells GHC not to collect information about how often functions are
    entered at runtime (the "entries" column of the time profile), for
    this module. This tends to make the profiled code run faster, and
    hence closer to the speed of the unprofiled code, because GHC is
    able to optimise more aggressively if it doesn't have to maintain
    correct entry counts. This option can be useful if you aren't
    interested in the entry counts (for example, if you only intend to
    do heap profiling).

.. _prof-time-options:

Time and allocation profiling
-----------------------------

To generate a time and allocation profile, give one of the following RTS
options to the compiled program when you run it (RTS options should be
enclosed between ``+RTS ... -RTS`` as usual):

.. rts-flag:: -p
              -P
              -pa

    .. index::
       single: time profile

    The :rts-flag:`-p` option produces a standard *time profile* report. It is
    written into the file :file:`<stem>.prof`; the stem is taken to be the
    program name by default, but can be overridden by the :rts-flag:`-po
    ⟨stem⟩` flag.

    The :rts-flag:`-P` option produces a more detailed report containing the
    actual time and allocation data as well. (Not used much.)

    The :rts-flag:`-pa` option produces the most detailed report containing all
    cost centres in addition to the actual time and allocation data.

.. rts-flag:: -pj

    The :rts-flag:`-pj` option produces a time/allocation profile report in JSON
    format written into the file :file:`<program>.prof`.

.. rts-flag:: -po ⟨stem⟩

    The :rts-flag:`-po ⟨stem⟩` option overrides the stem used to form the
    output file paths for the cost-centre profiler (see :rts-flag:`-p` and
    :rts-flag:`-pj` flags above) and heap profiler (see :rts-flag:`-h`).

    For instance, running a program with ``+RTS -h -p -pohello-world`` would
    produce a heap profile named :file:`hello-world.hp` and a cost-centre
    profile named :file:`hello-world.prof`.

.. rts-flag:: -V ⟨secs⟩

    :default: 0.02

    Sets the interval that the RTS clock ticks at, which is also the sampling
    interval of the time and allocation profile. The default is 0.02 seconds.
    The runtime uses a single timer signal to count ticks; this timer signal is
    used to control the context switch timer (:ref:`using-concurrent`) and the
    heap profiling timer :ref:`rts-options-heap-prof`. Also, the time profiler
    uses the RTS timer signal directly to record time profiling samples.

    Normally, setting the :rts-flag:`-V ⟨secs⟩` option directly is not
    necessary: the resolution of the RTS timer is adjusted automatically if a
    short interval is requested with the :rts-flag:`-C ⟨s⟩` or :rts-flag:`-i
    ⟨secs⟩` options. However, setting :rts-flag:`-V ⟨secs⟩` is required in
    order to increase the resolution of the time profiler.

    Using a value of zero disables the RTS clock completely, and has the
    effect of disabling timers that depend on it: the context switch
    timer and the heap profiling timer. Context switches will still
    happen, but deterministically and at a rate much faster than normal.
    Disabling the interval timer is useful for debugging, because it
    eliminates a source of non-determinism at runtime.


.. rts-flag:: -xc

    This option causes the runtime to print out the current cost-centre
    stack whenever an exception is raised. This can be particularly
    useful for debugging the location of exceptions, such as the
    notorious ``Prelude.head: empty list`` error. See
    :ref:`rts-options-debugging`.


JSON profile format
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When invoked with the :rts-flag:`-pj` flag the runtime will emit the cost-centre
profile in a machine-readable JSON format. The top-level object of this format
has the following properties,

``program`` (string)
    The name of the program
``arguments`` (list of strings)
    The command line arguments passed to the program
``rts_arguments`` (list of strings)
    The command line arguments passed to the runtime system
``initial_capabilities`` (integral number)
    How many capabilities the program was started with (e.g. using the
    :rts-flag:`-N ⟨x⟩` option). Note that the number of capabilities may change
    during execution due to the ``setNumCapabilities`` function.
``total_time`` (number)
    The total wall time of the program's execution in seconds.
``total_ticks`` (integral number)
    How many profiler "ticks" elapsed over the course of the program's execution.
``end_time`` (number)
    The approximate time when the program finished execution as a UNIX epoch timestamp.
``tick_interval`` (float)
    How much time between profiler ticks.
``total_alloc`` (integer)
    The cumulative allocations of the program in bytes.
``cost_centres`` (list of objects)
    A list of the program's cost centres
``profile`` (object)
    The profile tree itself

Each entry in ``cost_centres`` is an object describing a cost-centre of the
program having the following properies,

``id`` (integral number)
    A unique identifier used to refer to the cost-centre
``is_caf`` (boolean)
    Whether the cost-centre is a Constant Applicative Form (CAF)
``label`` (string)
    A descriptive string roughly identifying the cost-centre.
``src_loc`` (string)
    A string describing the source span enclosing the cost-centre.

The profile data itself is described by the ``profile`` field, which contains a
tree-like object (which we'll call a "cost-centre stack" here) with the
following properties,

``id`` (integral number)
    The ``id`` of a cost-centre listed in the ``cost_centres`` list.
``entries`` (integral number)
    How many times was this cost-centre entered?
``ticks`` (integral number)
    How many ticks was the program's execution inside of this cost-centre? This
    does not include child cost-centres.
``alloc`` (integral number)
    How many bytes did the program allocate while inside of this cost-centre?
    This does not include allocations while in child cost-centres.
``children`` (list)
    A list containing child cost-centre stacks.

For instance, a simple profile might look like this,

.. code-block:: json

    {
      "program": "Main",
      "arguments": [
        "nofib/shootout/n-body/Main",
        "50000"
      ],
      "rts_arguments": [
        "-pj",
        "-hy"
      ],
      "end_time": "Thu Feb 23 17:15 2017",
      "initial_capabilities": 0,
      "total_time": 1.7,
      "total_ticks": 1700,
      "tick_interval": 1000,
      "total_alloc": 3770785728,
      "cost_centres": [
        {
          "id": 168,
          "label": "IDLE",
          "module": "IDLE",
          "src_loc": "<built-in>",
          "is_caf": false
        },
        {
          "id": 156,
          "label": "CAF",
          "module": "GHC.Integer.Logarithms.Internals",
          "src_loc": "<entire-module>",
          "is_caf": true
        },
        {
          "id": 155,
          "label": "CAF",
          "module": "GHC.Integer.Logarithms",
          "src_loc": "<entire-module>",
          "is_caf": true
        },
        {
          "id": 154,
          "label": "CAF",
          "module": "GHC.Event.Array",
          "src_loc": "<entire-module>",
          "is_caf": true
        }
      ],
      "profile": {
        "id": 162,
        "entries": 0,
        "alloc": 688,
        "ticks": 0,
        "children": [
          {
            "id": 1,
            "entries": 0,
            "alloc": 208,
            "ticks": 0,
            "children": [
              {
                "id": 22,
                "entries": 1,
                "alloc": 80,
                "ticks": 0,
                "children": []
              }
            ]
          },
          {
            "id": 42,
            "entries": 1,
            "alloc": 1632,
            "ticks": 0,
            "children": []
          }
        ]
      }
    }





.. _prof-heap:

Profiling memory usage
----------------------

In addition to profiling the time and allocation behaviour of your
program, you can also generate a graph of its memory usage over time.
This is useful for detecting the causes of space leaks, when your
program holds on to more memory at run-time that it needs to. Space
leaks lead to slower execution due to heavy garbage collector activity,
and may even cause the program to run out of memory altogether.

To generate a heap profile from your program:

1. Compile the program for profiling (:ref:`prof-compiler-options`).

2. Run it with one of the heap profiling options described below (eg.
   :rts-flag:`-h` for a basic producer profile). This generates the file
   :file:`{prog}.hp`.

   If the :ref:`event log <rts-eventlog>` is enabled (with the :rts-flag:`-l ⟨flags⟩`
   runtime system flag) heap samples will additionally be emitted to the GHC
   event log (see :ref:`heap-profiler-events` for details about event format).

3. Run :command:`hp2ps` to produce a Postscript file, :file:`{prog}.ps`. The
   :command:`hp2ps` utility is described in detail in :ref:`hp2ps`.

4. Display the heap profile using a postscript viewer such as Ghostview,
   or print it out on a Postscript-capable printer.

For example, here is a heap profile produced for the ``sphere`` program
from GHC's ``nofib`` benchmark suite,

.. image:: images/prof_scc.*

You might also want to take a look at
`hp2any <http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Hp2any>`__, a more advanced
suite of tools (not distributed with GHC) for displaying heap profiles.

.. _rts-options-heap-prof:

RTS options for heap profiling
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There are several different kinds of heap profile that can be generated.
All the different profile types yield a graph of live heap against time,
but they differ in how the live heap is broken down into bands. The
following RTS options select which break-down to use:

.. rts-flag:: -hT

    Breaks down the graph by heap closure type.

.. rts-flag:: -hc
              -h

    *Requires* :ghc-flag:`-prof`. Breaks down the graph by the cost-centre stack
    which produced the data.

    .. note:: The meaning of the shortened :rts-flag:`-h` is dependent on whether
              your program was compiled for profiling. When compiled for profiling,
              :rts-flag:`-h` is equivalent to :rts-flag:`-hc`, but otherwise is
              equivalent to :rts-flag:`-hT` (see :ref:`rts-profiling`).

.. rts-flag:: -hm

    *Requires* :ghc-flag:`-prof`. Break down the live heap by the module
    containing the code which produced the data.

.. rts-flag:: -hd

    *Requires* :ghc-flag:`-prof`. Breaks down the graph by closure description.
    For actual data, the description is just the constructor name, for other
    closures it is a compiler-generated string identifying the closure.

.. rts-flag:: -hy

    *Requires* :ghc-flag:`-prof`. Breaks down the graph by type. For closures
    which have function type or unknown/polymorphic type, the string will
    represent an approximation to the actual type.

.. rts-flag:: -hr

    *Requires* :ghc-flag:`-prof`. Break down the graph by retainer set. Retainer
    profiling is described in more detail below (:ref:`retainer-prof`).

.. rts-flag:: -hb

    *Requires* :ghc-flag:`-prof`. Break down the graph by biography.
    Biographical profiling is described in more detail below
    (:ref:`biography-prof`).

.. rts-flag:: -l
    :noindex:

    .. index::
       single: eventlog; and heap profiling

    Emit profile samples to the :ref:`GHC event log <rts-eventlog>`.
    This format is both more expressive than the old ``.hp`` format
    and can be correlated with other events over the program's runtime.
    See :ref:`heap-profiler-events` for details on the produced event structure.

In addition, the profile can be restricted to heap data which satisfies
certain criteria - for example, you might want to display a profile by
type but only for data produced by a certain module, or a profile by
retainer for a certain type of data. Restrictions are specified as
follows:

.. comment

    The flags below are marked with ``:noindex:`` to avoid duplicate
    ID warnings from Sphinx.

.. rts-flag:: -hc ⟨name⟩
    :noindex:

    Restrict the profile to closures produced by cost-centre stacks with
    one of the specified cost centres at the top.

.. rts-flag:: -hC ⟨name⟩
    :noindex:

    Restrict the profile to closures produced by cost-centre stacks with
    one of the specified cost centres anywhere in the stack.

.. rts-flag:: -hm ⟨module⟩
    :noindex:

    Restrict the profile to closures produced by the specified modules.

.. rts-flag:: -hd ⟨desc⟩
    :noindex:

    Restrict the profile to closures with the specified description
    strings.

.. rts-flag:: -hy ⟨type⟩
    :noindex:

    Restrict the profile to closures with the specified types.

.. rts-flag:: -hr ⟨cc⟩
    :noindex:

    Restrict the profile to closures with retainer sets containing
    cost-centre stacks with one of the specified cost centres at the
    top.

.. rts-flag:: -hb ⟨bio⟩
    :noindex:

    Restrict the profile to closures with one of the specified
    biographies, where ⟨bio⟩ is one of ``lag``, ``drag``, ``void``, or
    ``use``.

For example, the following options will generate a retainer profile
restricted to ``Branch`` and ``Leaf`` constructors:

.. code-block:: none

    prog +RTS -hr -hdBranch,Leaf

There can only be one "break-down" option (eg. :rts-flag:`-hr` in the example
above), but there is no limit on the number of further restrictions that
may be applied. All the options may be combined, with one exception: GHC
doesn't currently support mixing the :rts-flag:`-hr` and :rts-flag:`-hb` options.

There are three more options which relate to heap profiling:

.. rts-flag:: -i ⟨secs⟩

    Set the profiling (sampling) interval to ⟨secs⟩ seconds (the default
    is 0.1 second). Fractions are allowed: for example ``-i0.2`` will
    get 5 samples per second. This only affects heap profiling; time
    profiles are always sampled with the frequency of the RTS clock. See
    :ref:`prof-time-options` for changing that.

.. rts-flag:: -xt

    Include the memory occupied by threads in a heap profile. Each
    thread takes up a small area for its thread state in addition to the
    space allocated for its stack (stacks normally start small and then
    grow as necessary).

    This includes the main thread, so using :rts-flag:`-xt` is a good way to see
    how much stack space the program is using.

    Memory occupied by threads and their stacks is labelled as “TSO” and
    “STACK” respectively when displaying the profile by closure
    description or type description.

.. rts-flag:: -L ⟨num⟩

    Sets the maximum length of a cost-centre stack name in a heap
    profile. Defaults to 25.

.. _retainer-prof:

Retainer Profiling
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Retainer profiling is designed to help answer questions like “why is
this data being retained?”. We start by defining what we mean by a
retainer:

    A retainer is either the system stack, an unevaluated closure
    (thunk), or an explicitly mutable object.

In particular, constructors are *not* retainers.

An object ``B`` retains object ``A`` if (i) ``B`` is a retainer object and (ii)
object ``A`` can be reached by recursively following pointers starting from
object ``B``, but not meeting any other retainer objects on the way. Each
live object is retained by one or more retainer objects, collectively
called its retainer set, or its retainer set, or its retainers.

When retainer profiling is requested by giving the program the ``-hr``
option, a graph is generated which is broken down by retainer set. A
retainer set is displayed as a set of cost-centre stacks; because this
is usually too large to fit on the profile graph, each retainer set is
numbered and shown abbreviated on the graph along with its number, and
the full list of retainer sets is dumped into the file ``prog.prof``.

Retainer profiling requires multiple passes over the live heap in order
to discover the full retainer set for each object, which can be quite
slow. So we set a limit on the maximum size of a retainer set, where all
retainer sets larger than the maximum retainer set size are replaced by
the special set ``MANY``. The maximum set size defaults to 8 and can be
altered with the :rts-flag:`-R ⟨size⟩` RTS option:

.. rts-flag:: -R ⟨size⟩

    Restrict the number of elements in a retainer set to ⟨size⟩ (default
    8).

Hints for using retainer profiling
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The definition of retainers is designed to reflect a common cause of
space leaks: a large structure is retained by an unevaluated
computation, and will be released once the computation is forced. A good
example is looking up a value in a finite map, where unless the lookup
is forced in a timely manner the unevaluated lookup will cause the whole
mapping to be retained. These kind of space leaks can often be
eliminated by forcing the relevant computations to be performed eagerly,
using ``seq`` or strictness annotations on data constructor fields.

Often a particular data structure is being retained by a chain of
unevaluated closures, only the nearest of which will be reported by
retainer profiling - for example ``A`` retains ``B``, ``B`` retains ``C``, and
``C`` retains a large structure. There might be a large number of ``B``\s but
only a single ``A``, so ``A`` is really the one we're interested in eliminating.
However, retainer profiling will in this case report ``B`` as the retainer of
the large structure. To move further up the chain of retainers, we can ask for
another retainer profile but this time restrict the profile to ``B`` objects, so
we get a profile of the retainers of ``B``:

.. code-block:: none

    prog +RTS -hr -hcB

This trick isn't foolproof, because there might be other ``B`` closures in
the heap which aren't the retainers we are interested in, but we've
found this to be a useful technique in most cases.

.. _biography-prof:

Biographical Profiling
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A typical heap object may be in one of the following four states at each
point in its lifetime:

-  The lag stage, which is the time between creation and the first use
   of the object,

-  the use stage, which lasts from the first use until the last use of
   the object, and

-  The drag stage, which lasts from the final use until the last
   reference to the object is dropped.

-  An object which is never used is said to be in the void state for its
   whole lifetime.

A biographical heap profile displays the portion of the live heap in
each of the four states listed above. Usually the most interesting
states are the void and drag states: live heap in these states is more
likely to be wasted space than heap in the lag or use states.

It is also possible to break down the heap in one or more of these
states by a different criteria, by restricting a profile by biography.
For example, to show the portion of the heap in the drag or void state
by producer:

.. code-block:: none

    prog +RTS -hc -hbdrag,void

Once you know the producer or the type of the heap in the drag or void
states, the next step is usually to find the retainer(s):

.. code-block:: none

    prog +RTS -hr -hccc...

.. note::
    This two stage process is required because GHC cannot currently
    profile using both biographical and retainer information simultaneously.

.. _mem-residency:

Actual memory residency
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How does the heap residency reported by the heap profiler relate to the
actual memory residency of your program when you run it? You might see a
large discrepancy between the residency reported by the heap profiler,
and the residency reported by tools on your system (eg. ``ps`` or
``top`` on Unix, or the Task Manager on Windows). There are several
reasons for this:

-  There is an overhead of profiling itself, which is subtracted from
   the residency figures by the profiler. This overhead goes away when
   compiling without profiling support, of course. The space overhead is
   currently 2 extra words per heap object, which probably results in
   about a 30% overhead.

-  Garbage collection requires more memory than the actual residency.  The
   factor depends on the kind of garbage collection algorithm in use: a major GC
   in the standard generation copying collector will usually require :math:`3L`
   bytes of memory, where :math:`L` is the amount of live data. This is because
   by default (see the RTS :rts-flag:`-F ⟨factor⟩` option) we allow the old
   generation to grow to twice its size (:math:`2L`) before collecting it, and
   we require additionally :math:`L` bytes to copy the live data into. When
   using compacting collection (see the :rts-flag:`-c` option), this is reduced
   to :math:`2L`, and can further be reduced by tweaking the :rts-flag:`-F
   ⟨factor⟩` option. Also add the size of the allocation area (see :rts-flag:`-A
   ⟨size⟩`).

-  The stack isn't counted in the heap profile by default. See the
   RTS :rts-flag:`-xt` option.

-  The program text itself, the C stack, any non-heap data (e.g. data
   allocated by foreign libraries, and data allocated by the RTS), and
   ``mmap()``\'d memory are not counted in the heap profile.

.. _hp2ps:

``hp2ps`` -- Rendering heap profiles to PostScript
--------------------------------------------------

.. index::
   single: hp2ps
   single: heap profiles
   single: postscript, from heap profiles
   single: -h⟨break-down⟩

Usage:

.. code-block:: none

    hp2ps [flags] [<file>[.hp]]

The program :command:`hp2ps` program converts a ``.hp`` file produced
by the ``-h<break-down>`` runtime option into a PostScript graph of the
heap profile. By convention, the file to be processed by :command:`hp2ps` has a
``.hp`` extension. The PostScript output is written to :file:`{file}@.ps`.
If ``<file>`` is omitted entirely, then the program behaves as a filter.

:command:`hp2ps` is distributed in :file:`ghc/utils/hp2ps` in a GHC source
distribution. It was originally developed by Dave Wakeling as part of
the HBC/LML heap profiler.

The flags are:

.. program:: hp2ps

.. option:: -d

    In order to make graphs more readable, ``hp2ps`` sorts the shaded
    bands for each identifier. The default sort ordering is for the
    bands with the largest area to be stacked on top of the smaller
    ones. The ``-d`` option causes rougher bands (those representing
    series of values with the largest standard deviations) to be stacked
    on top of smoother ones.

.. option:: -b

    Normally, ``hp2ps`` puts the title of the graph in a small box at
    the top of the page. However, if the JOB string is too long to fit
    in a small box (more than 35 characters), then ``hp2ps`` will choose
    to use a big box instead. The ``-b`` option forces ``hp2ps`` to use
    a big box.

.. option:: -e⟨float⟩[in|mm|pt]

    Generate encapsulated PostScript suitable for inclusion in LaTeX
    documents. Usually, the PostScript graph is drawn in landscape mode
    in an area 9 inches wide by 6 inches high, and ``hp2ps`` arranges
    for this area to be approximately centred on a sheet of a4 paper.
    This format is convenient of studying the graph in detail, but it is
    unsuitable for inclusion in LaTeX documents. The ``-e`` option
    causes the graph to be drawn in portrait mode, with float specifying
    the width in inches, millimetres or points (the default). The
    resulting PostScript file conforms to the Encapsulated PostScript
    (EPS) convention, and it can be included in a LaTeX document using
    Rokicki's dvi-to-PostScript converter ``dvips``.

.. option:: -g

    Create output suitable for the ``gs`` PostScript previewer (or
    similar). In this case the graph is printed in portrait mode without
    scaling. The output is unsuitable for a laser printer.

.. option:: -l

    Normally a profile is limited to 20 bands with additional
    identifiers being grouped into an ``OTHER`` band. The ``-l`` flag
    removes this 20 band and limit, producing as many bands as
    necessary. No key is produced as it won't fit!. It is useful for
    creation time profiles with many bands.

.. option:: -m⟨int⟩

    Normally a profile is limited to 20 bands with additional
    identifiers being grouped into an ``OTHER`` band. The ``-m`` flag
    specifies an alternative band limit (the maximum is 20).

    ``-m0`` requests the band limit to be removed. As many bands as
    necessary are produced. However no key is produced as it won't fit!
    It is useful for displaying creation time profiles with many bands.

.. option:: -p

    Use previous parameters. By default, the PostScript graph is
    automatically scaled both horizontally and vertically so that it
    fills the page. However, when preparing a series of graphs for use
    in a presentation, it is often useful to draw a new graph using the
    same scale, shading and ordering as a previous one. The ``-p`` flag
    causes the graph to be drawn using the parameters determined by a
    previous run of ``hp2ps`` on ``file``. These are extracted from
    ``file@.aux``.

.. option:: -s

    Use a small box for the title.

.. option:: -t⟨float⟩

    Normally trace elements which sum to a total of less than 1% of the
    profile are removed from the profile. The ``-t`` option allows this
    percentage to be modified (maximum 5%).

    ``-t0`` requests no trace elements to be removed from the profile,
    ensuring that all the data will be displayed.

.. option:: -c

    Generate colour output.

.. option:: -y

    Ignore marks.

.. option:: -?

    Print out usage information.

.. _manipulating-hp:

Manipulating the ``hp`` file
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Notes kindly offered by Jan-Willem Maessen.)

The ``FOO.hp`` file produced when you ask for the heap profile of a
program ``FOO`` is a text file with a particularly simple structure.
Here's a representative example, with much of the actual data omitted:

.. code-block:: none

    JOB "FOO -hC"
    DATE "Thu Dec 26 18:17 2002"
    SAMPLE_UNIT "seconds"
    VALUE_UNIT "bytes"
    BEGIN_SAMPLE 0.00
    END_SAMPLE 0.00
    BEGIN_SAMPLE 15.07
      ... sample data ...
    END_SAMPLE 15.07
    BEGIN_SAMPLE 30.23
      ... sample data ...
    END_SAMPLE 30.23
    ... etc.
    BEGIN_SAMPLE 11695.47
    END_SAMPLE 11695.47

The first four lines (``JOB``, ``DATE``, ``SAMPLE_UNIT``,
``VALUE_UNIT``) form a header. Each block of lines starting with
``BEGIN_SAMPLE`` and ending with ``END_SAMPLE`` forms a single sample
(you can think of this as a vertical slice of your heap profile). The
hp2ps utility should accept any input with a properly-formatted header
followed by a series of *complete* samples.

Zooming in on regions of your profile
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You can look at particular regions of your profile simply by loading a
copy of the ``.hp`` file into a text editor and deleting the unwanted
samples. The resulting ``.hp`` file can be run through ``hp2ps`` and
viewed or printed.

Viewing the heap profile of a running program
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The ``.hp`` file is generated incrementally as your program runs. In
principle, running :command:`hp2ps` on the incomplete file should produce a
snapshot of your program's heap usage. However, the last sample in the
file may be incomplete, causing :command:`hp2ps` to fail. If you are using a
machine with UNIX utilities installed, it's not too hard to work around
this problem (though the resulting command line looks rather Byzantine):

.. code-block:: sh

    head -`fgrep -n END_SAMPLE FOO.hp | tail -1 | cut -d : -f 1` FOO.hp \
        | hp2ps > FOO.ps

The command ``fgrep -n END_SAMPLE FOO.hp`` finds the end of every
complete sample in ``FOO.hp``, and labels each sample with its ending
line number. We then select the line number of the last complete sample
using :command:`tail` and :command:`cut`. This is used as a parameter to :command:`head`; the
result is as if we deleted the final incomplete sample from :file:`FOO.hp`.
This results in a properly-formatted .hp file which we feed directly to
:command:`hp2ps`.

Viewing a heap profile in real time
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The :command:`gv` and :command:`ghostview` programs have a "watch file" option
can be used to view an up-to-date heap profile of your program as it runs.
Simply generate an incremental heap profile as described in the previous
section. Run :command:`gv` on your profile:

.. code-block:: sh

      gv -watch -orientation=seascape FOO.ps

If you forget the ``-watch`` flag you can still select "Watch file" from
the "State" menu. Now each time you generate a new profile ``FOO.ps``
the view will update automatically.

This can all be encapsulated in a little script:

.. code-block:: sh

      #!/bin/sh
      head -`fgrep -n END_SAMPLE FOO.hp | tail -1 | cut -d : -f 1` FOO.hp \
        | hp2ps > FOO.ps
      gv -watch -orientation=seascape FOO.ps &
      while [ 1 ] ; do
        sleep 10 # We generate a new profile every 10 seconds.
        head -`fgrep -n END_SAMPLE FOO.hp | tail -1 | cut -d : -f 1` FOO.hp \
          | hp2ps > FOO.ps
      done

Occasionally :command:`gv` will choke as it tries to read an incomplete copy of
:file:`FOO.ps` (because :command:`hp2ps` is still running as an update occurs). A
slightly more complicated script works around this problem, by using the
fact that sending a SIGHUP to gv will cause it to re-read its input
file:

.. code-block:: sh

      #!/bin/sh
      head -`fgrep -n END_SAMPLE FOO.hp | tail -1 | cut -d : -f 1` FOO.hp \
        | hp2ps > FOO.ps
      gv FOO.ps &
      gvpsnum=$!
      while [ 1 ] ; do
        sleep 10
        head -`fgrep -n END_SAMPLE FOO.hp | tail -1 | cut -d : -f 1` FOO.hp \
          | hp2ps > FOO.ps
        kill -HUP $gvpsnum
      done

.. _prof-threaded:

Profiling Parallel and Concurrent Programs
------------------------------------------

Combining :ghc-flag:`-threaded` and :ghc-flag:`-prof` is perfectly fine, and
indeed it is possible to profile a program running on multiple processors with
the RTS :rts-flag:`-N ⟨x⟩` option. [3]_

Some caveats apply, however. In the current implementation, a profiled
program is likely to scale much less well than the unprofiled program,
because the profiling implementation uses some shared data structures
which require locking in the runtime system. Furthermore, the memory
allocation statistics collected by the profiled program are stored in
shared memory but *not* locked (for speed), which means that these
figures might be inaccurate for parallel programs.

We strongly recommend that you use :ghc-flag:`-fno-prof-count-entries` when
compiling a program to be profiled on multiple cores, because the entry
counts are also stored in shared memory, and continuously updating them
on multiple cores is extremely slow.

We also recommend using
`ThreadScope <http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/ThreadScope>`__ for
profiling parallel programs; it offers a GUI for visualising parallel
execution, and is complementary to the time and space profiling features
provided with GHC.

.. _hpc:

Observing Code Coverage
-----------------------

.. index::
   single: code coverage
   single: Haskell Program Coverage
   single: hpc

Code coverage tools allow a programmer to determine what parts of their
code have been actually executed, and which parts have never actually
been invoked. GHC has an option for generating instrumented code that
records code coverage as part of the Haskell Program Coverage (HPC)
toolkit, which is included with GHC. HPC tools can be used to render the
generated code coverage information into human understandable format.

Correctly instrumented code provides coverage information of two kinds:
source coverage and boolean-control coverage. Source coverage is the
extent to which every part of the program was used, measured at three
different levels: declarations (both top-level and local), alternatives
(among several equations or case branches) and expressions (at every
level). Boolean coverage is the extent to which each of the values True
and False is obtained in every syntactic boolean context (ie. guard,
condition, qualifier).

HPC displays both kinds of information in two primary ways: textual
reports with summary statistics (``hpc report``) and sources with color
mark-up (``hpc markup``). For boolean coverage, there are four possible
outcomes for each guard, condition or qualifier: both True and False
values occur; only True; only False; never evaluated. In hpc-markup
output, highlighting with a yellow background indicates a part of the
program that was never evaluated; a green background indicates an
always-True expression and a red background indicates an always-False
one.

A small example: Reciprocation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For an example we have a program, called :file:`Recip.hs`, which computes
exact decimal representations of reciprocals, with recurring parts
indicated in brackets. ::

    reciprocal :: Int -> (String, Int)
    reciprocal n | n > 1 = ('0' : '.' : digits, recur)
                 | otherwise = error
                  "attempting to compute reciprocal of number <= 1"
      where
      (digits, recur) = divide n 1 []
    divide :: Int -> Int -> [Int] -> (String, Int)
    divide n c cs | c `elem` cs = ([], position c cs)
                  | r == 0      = (show q, 0)
                  | r /= 0      = (show q ++ digits, recur)
      where
      (q, r) = (c*10) `quotRem` n
      (digits, recur) = divide n r (c:cs)

    position :: Int -> [Int] -> Int
    position n (x:xs) | n==x      = 1
                      | otherwise = 1 + position n xs

    showRecip :: Int -> String
    showRecip n =
      "1/" ++ show n ++ " = " ++
      if r==0 then d else take p d ++ "(" ++ drop p d ++ ")"
      where
      p = length d - r
      (d, r) = reciprocal n

    main = do
      number <- readLn
      putStrLn (showRecip number)
      main

HPC instrumentation is enabled with the :ghc-flag:`-fhpc` flag:

.. code-block:: sh

    $ ghc -fhpc Recip.hs

GHC creates a subdirectory ``.hpc`` in the current directory, and puts
HPC index (``.mix``) files in there, one for each module compiled. You
don't need to worry about these files: they contain information needed
by the ``hpc`` tool to generate the coverage data for compiled modules
after the program is run.

.. code-block:: sh

    $ ./Recip
    1/3
    = 0.(3)

Running the program generates a file with the ``.tix`` suffix, in this
case :file:`Recip.tix`, which contains the coverage data for this run of the
program. The program may be run multiple times (e.g. with different test
data), and the coverage data from the separate runs is accumulated in
the ``.tix`` file. To reset the coverage data and start again, just
remove the ``.tix`` file. You can control where the ``.tix`` file
is generated using the environment variable :envvar:`HPCTIXFILE`.

.. envvar:: HPCTIXFILE

    Set the HPC ``.tix`` file output path.

Having run the program, we can generate a textual summary of coverage:

.. code-block:: none

    $ hpc report Recip
     80% expressions used (81/101)
     12% boolean coverage (1/8)
          14% guards (1/7), 3 always True,
                            1 always False,
                            2 unevaluated
           0% 'if' conditions (0/1), 1 always False
         100% qualifiers (0/0)
     55% alternatives used (5/9)
    100% local declarations used (9/9)
    100% top-level declarations used (5/5)

We can also generate a marked-up version of the source.

.. code-block:: none

    $ hpc markup Recip
    writing Recip.hs.html

This generates one file per Haskell module, and 4 index files,
:file:`hpc_index.html`, :file:`hpc_index_alt.html`, :file:`hpc_index_exp.html`,
:file:`hpc_index_fun.html`.

Options for instrumenting code for coverage
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

.. program:: hpc

.. ghc-flag:: -fhpc
    :shortdesc: Turn on Haskell program coverage instrumentation
    :type: dynamic
    :category: coverage

    Enable code coverage for the current module or modules being
    compiled.

    Modules compiled with this option can be freely mixed with modules
    compiled without it; indeed, most libraries will typically be
    compiled without :ghc-flag:`-fhpc`. When the program is run, coverage data
    will only be generated for those modules that were compiled with
    :ghc-flag:`-fhpc`, and the :command:`hpc` tool will only show information about
    those modules.

The hpc toolkit
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The hpc command has several sub-commands:

.. code-block:: none

    $ hpc
    Usage: hpc COMMAND ...

    Commands:
      help        Display help for hpc or a single command
    Reporting Coverage:
      report      Output textual report about program coverage
      markup      Markup Haskell source with program coverage
    Processing Coverage files:
      sum         Sum multiple .tix files in a single .tix file
      combine     Combine two .tix files in a single .tix file
      map         Map a function over a single .tix file
    Coverage Overlays:
      overlay     Generate a .tix file from an overlay file
      draft       Generate draft overlay that provides 100% coverage
    Others:
      show        Show .tix file in readable, verbose format
      version     Display version for hpc

In general, these options act on a ``.tix`` file after an instrumented
binary has generated it.

The hpc tool assumes you are in the top-level directory of the location
where you built your application, and the ``.tix`` file is in the same
top-level directory. You can use the flag ``--srcdir`` to use ``hpc``
for any other directory, and use ``--srcdir`` multiple times to analyse
programs compiled from difference locations, as is typical for packages.

We now explain in more details the major modes of hpc.

hpc report
^^^^^^^^^^

``hpc report`` gives a textual report of coverage. By default, all
modules and packages are considered in generating report, unless include
or exclude are used. The report is a summary unless the ``--per-module``
flag is used. The ``--xml-output`` option allows for tools to use hpc to
glean coverage.

.. code-block:: none

    $ hpc help report
    Usage: hpc report [OPTION] .. <TIX_FILE> [<MODULE> [<MODULE> ..]]

    Options:

        --per-module                  show module level detail
        --decl-list                   show unused decls
        --exclude=[PACKAGE:][MODULE]  exclude MODULE and/or PACKAGE
        --include=[PACKAGE:][MODULE]  include MODULE and/or PACKAGE
        --srcdir=DIR                  path to source directory of .hs files
                                      multi-use of srcdir possible
        --hpcdir=DIR                  append sub-directory that contains .mix files
                                      default .hpc [rarely used]
        --reset-hpcdirs               empty the list of hpcdir's
                                      [rarely used]
        --xml-output                  show output in XML

hpc markup
^^^^^^^^^^

``hpc markup`` marks up source files into colored html.

.. code-block:: none

    $ hpc help markup
    Usage: hpc markup [OPTION] .. <TIX_FILE> [<MODULE> [<MODULE> ..]]

    Options:

        --exclude=[PACKAGE:][MODULE]  exclude MODULE and/or PACKAGE
        --include=[PACKAGE:][MODULE]  include MODULE and/or PACKAGE
        --srcdir=DIR                  path to source directory of .hs files
                                      multi-use of srcdir possible
        --hpcdir=DIR                  append sub-directory that contains .mix files
                                      default .hpc [rarely used]
        --reset-hpcdirs               empty the list of hpcdir's
                                      [rarely used]
        --fun-entry-count             show top-level function entry counts
        --highlight-covered           highlight covered code, rather that code gaps
        --destdir=DIR                 path to write output to

hpc sum
^^^^^^^

``hpc sum`` adds together any number of ``.tix`` files into a single
``.tix`` file. ``hpc sum`` does not change the original ``.tix`` file;
it generates a new ``.tix`` file.

.. code-block:: none

    $ hpc help sum
    Usage: hpc sum [OPTION] .. <TIX_FILE> [<TIX_FILE> [<TIX_FILE> ..]]
    Sum multiple .tix files in a single .tix file

    Options:

        --exclude=[PACKAGE:][MODULE]  exclude MODULE and/or PACKAGE
        --include=[PACKAGE:][MODULE]  include MODULE and/or PACKAGE
        --output=FILE                 output FILE
        --union                       use the union of the module namespace (default is intersection)

hpc combine
^^^^^^^^^^^

``hpc combine`` is the swiss army knife of ``hpc``. It can be used to
take the difference between ``.tix`` files, to subtract one ``.tix``
file from another, or to add two ``.tix`` files. hpc combine does not
change the original ``.tix`` file; it generates a new ``.tix`` file.

.. code-block:: none

    $ hpc help combine
    Usage: hpc combine [OPTION] .. <TIX_FILE> <TIX_FILE>
    Combine two .tix files in a single .tix file

    Options:

        --exclude=[PACKAGE:][MODULE]  exclude MODULE and/or PACKAGE
        --include=[PACKAGE:][MODULE]  include MODULE and/or PACKAGE
        --output=FILE                 output FILE
        --function=FUNCTION           combine .tix files with join function, default = ADD
                                      FUNCTION = ADD | DIFF | SUB
        --union                       use the union of the module namespace (default is intersection)

hpc map
^^^^^^^

hpc map inverts or zeros a ``.tix`` file. hpc map does not change the
original ``.tix`` file; it generates a new ``.tix`` file.

.. code-block:: none

    $ hpc help map
    Usage: hpc map [OPTION] .. <TIX_FILE>
    Map a function over a single .tix file

    Options:

        --exclude=[PACKAGE:][MODULE]  exclude MODULE and/or PACKAGE
        --include=[PACKAGE:][MODULE]  include MODULE and/or PACKAGE
        --output=FILE                 output FILE
        --function=FUNCTION           apply function to .tix files, default = ID
                                      FUNCTION = ID | INV | ZERO
        --union                       use the union of the module namespace (default is intersection)

hpc overlay and hpc draft
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Overlays are an experimental feature of HPC, a textual description of
coverage. hpc draft is used to generate a draft overlay from a .tix
file, and hpc overlay generates a .tix files from an overlay.

.. code-block:: none

    % hpc help overlay
    Usage: hpc overlay [OPTION] .. <OVERLAY_FILE> [<OVERLAY_FILE> [...]]

    Options:

        --srcdir=DIR   path to source directory of .hs files
                       multi-use of srcdir possible
        --hpcdir=DIR                  append sub-directory that contains .mix files
                                      default .hpc [rarely used]
        --reset-hpcdirs               empty the list of hpcdir's
                                      [rarely used]
        --output=FILE  output FILE
    % hpc help draft
    Usage: hpc draft [OPTION] .. <TIX_FILE>

    Options:

        --exclude=[PACKAGE:][MODULE]  exclude MODULE and/or PACKAGE
        --include=[PACKAGE:][MODULE]  include MODULE and/or PACKAGE
        --srcdir=DIR                  path to source directory of .hs files
                                      multi-use of srcdir possible
        --hpcdir=DIR                  append sub-directory that contains .mix files
                                      default .hpc [rarely used]
        --reset-hpcdirs               empty the list of hpcdir's
                                      [rarely used]
        --output=FILE                 output FILE

Caveats and Shortcomings of Haskell Program Coverage
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HPC does not attempt to lock the ``.tix`` file, so multiple concurrently
running binaries in the same directory will exhibit a race condition.
At compile time, there is no way to change the name of the ``.tix`` file generated;
at runtime, the name of the generated ``.tix`` file can be changed
using :envvar:`HPCTIXFILE`; the name of the ``.tix`` file
will also change if you rename the binary.  HPC does not work with GHCi.

.. _ticky-ticky:

Using “ticky-ticky” profiling (for implementors)
------------------------------------------------

.. index::
   single: ticky-ticky profiling

.. ghc-flag:: -ticky
    :shortdesc: :ref:`Turn on ticky-ticky profiling <ticky-ticky>`
    :type: dynamic
    :category:

    Enable ticky-ticky profiling.

Because ticky-ticky profiling requires a certain familiarity with GHC
internals, we have moved the documentation to the GHC developers wiki.
Take a look at its
:ghc-wiki:`overview of the profiling options <commentary/profiling>`,
which includeds a link to the ticky-ticky profiling page.

.. [1]
   :ghc-flag:`-fprof-auto` was known as ``-auto-all`` prior to
   GHC 7.4.1.

.. [2]
   Note that this policy has changed slightly in GHC 7.4.1 relative to
   earlier versions, and may yet change further, feedback is welcome.

.. [3]
   This feature was added in GHC 7.4.1.