mohitmishra786/low-level-dev-skills

flamegraphs

Flamegraph generation and interpretation skill.

소스 보기

사용 방법

  1. 설치 명령을 복사하고 자신의 에이전트 환경에 설치하기 전에 소스 패키지를 확인하세요.
  2. 필요한 도구, 인증 정보, 지원 환경은 원본 문서에서 확인하세요.
  3. 입력과 원하는 산출물을 설명하고 출처와 결과를 대조하세요.
npx skills add https://github.com/mohitmishra786/low-level-dev-skills --skill flamegraphs

시작 전 확인

  • 설치에는 모델 구독, API 한도, 파일 접근 권한이 포함되지 않습니다.
  • 별점 수와 설치 수는 활동 지표이며 독립적인 품질·보안 검증이 아닙니다.
원본 Skill 문서

원본 저장소의 제목, 예시, 코드, 표, 링크, 이미지를 유지해 표시합니다.

Flamegraphs

Purpose

Guide agents through the pipeline from profiler data to SVG flamegraph, and teach interpretation of flamegraphs to drive concrete optimisation decisions.

Triggers

  • "How do I generate a flamegraph from perf data?"
  • "How do I read a flamegraph?"
  • "The flamegraph shows a wide frame — what does that mean?"
  • "How do I generate a flamegraph from Callgrind?"
  • "I want to compare two flamegraphs (before/after)"

Workflow

1. Install FlameGraph tools

bash
git clone https://github.com/brendangregg/FlameGraph
# No install needed; scripts are in the repo
export PATH=$PATH:/path/to/FlameGraph

2. perf → flamegraph (most common path)

bash
# Step 1: record
perf record -F 999 -g -o perf.data ./prog

# Step 2: generate script output
perf script -i perf.data > out.perf

# Step 3: collapse stacks
stackcollapse-perf.pl out.perf > out.folded

# Step 4: generate SVG
flamegraph.pl out.folded > flamegraph.svg

# Step 5: view
xdg-open flamegraph.svg     # Linux
open flamegraph.svg          # macOS

One-liner:

bash
perf record -F 999 -g ./prog && perf script | stackcollapse-perf.pl | flamegraph.pl > fg.svg

3. Differential flamegraph (before/after)

bash
# Collect two profiles
perf record -g -o before.data ./prog_old
perf record -g -o after.data ./prog_new

# Collapse
perf script -i before.data | stackcollapse-perf.pl > before.folded
perf script -i after.data  | stackcollapse-perf.pl > after.folded

# Diff (red = regressed, blue = improved)
difffolded.pl before.folded after.folded | flamegraph.pl > diff.svg

4. Callgrind → flamegraph

bash
valgrind --tool=callgrind --callgrind-out-file=cg.out ./prog
stackcollapse-callgrind.pl cg.out | flamegraph.pl > fg.svg

5. Other profiler inputs

bash
# Go pprof
go tool pprof -raw -output=prof.txt prog
stackcollapse-go.pl prof.txt | flamegraph.pl > fg.svg

# DTrace
dtrace -x ustackframes=100 -n 'profile-99 /execname=="prog"/ { @[ustack()] = count(); }' \
  -o out.stacks sleep 10
stackcollapse.pl out.stacks | flamegraph.pl > fg.svg

# Java (async-profiler)
async-profiler -d 30 -f out.collapsed PID
flamegraph.pl out.collapsed > fg.svg

6. Reading flamegraphs

A flamegraph is a call-stack visualisation:

  • X axis: time on CPU (not time sequence) — wider = more time
  • Y axis: call stack depth — taller = deeper call chain
  • Color: random (no significance) — unless using differential mode

What to look for:

PatternMeaningAction
Wide frame near bottomFunction itself is hotOptimise that function
Wide frame with tall narrow towersCalling many different calleesHot dispatch; reduce call overhead
Very tall stack with wide baseDeep recursionCheck recursion depth; consider iterative approach
Plateau at the topLeaf function with no calleesThis leaf is the actual hotspot
Many narrow identical stacksMany threads doing the same workConsider parallelism or batching

Identifying the actionable hotspot:

  1. Find the widest top frame (a frame with no or narrow children above it)
  2. That is where CPU time is actually spent
  3. Trace down to understand what called it and why

Differential flamegraph:

  • Red frames: more time in new profile (regression)
  • Blue frames: less time in new profile (improvement)
  • Frames only in one profile appear solid colored

7. flamegraph.pl options

bash
flamegraph.pl --title "My App" \
              --subtitle "Release build, workload X" \
              --width 1600 \
              --height 16 \
              --minwidth 0.5 \
              --colors java \
              out.folded > fg.svg
OptionEffect
--titleSVG title
--widthWidth in pixels
--heightFrame height in pixels
--minwidthOmit frames < N% (reduces clutter)
--colorsPalette: hot (default), mem, io, java, js, perl, red, green, blue
--invertedIcicle chart (roots at top)
--reverseReverse stacks
--cpConsistent palette (same frame = same color across SVGs)

References

For tool installation, stackcollapse scripts, and palette options, see references/tools.md.

Related skills

  • Use skills/profilers/linux-perf to collect perf data
  • Use skills/profilers/valgrind to collect Callgrind data
  • Use skills/compilers/clang for LLVM PGO from sampling profiles

관련 작업

같은 저장소의 Skills

더 많은 Skills

모든 Skills
mohitmishra786
커뮤니티

core-dumps

Core dump analysis skill for production crash triage. Use when loading core files in GDB or LLDB, enabling core dump generation on Linux/macOS, mapping symbols with debuginfo or debuginfod, or extracting backtraces from crashes without re-running the program. Activates on queries about core files, ulimit, coredumpctl, debuginfod, crash triage, or analyzing segfaults from production binaries.

설치 수
2
GitHub Stars
267
업데이트
6월 27일
mohitmishra786
커뮤니티

custom-allocators

Custom allocator skill for memory allocation strategies. Use when implementing pool/slab/arena allocators, tuning jemalloc/mimalloc, writing Rust GlobalAlloc, or benchmarking allocator performance. Activates on queries about jemalloc, mimalloc, tcmalloc, arena allocator, GlobalAlloc, or fragmentation.

설치 수
2
GitHub Stars
267
업데이트
6월 27일
mohitmishra786
커뮤니티

ebpf

eBPF skill for Linux observability and networking. Use when writing eBPF programs with libbpf or bpftrace, attaching kprobes/tracepoints/XDP hooks, debugging verifier errors, working with eBPF maps, or achieving CO-RE portability across kernel versions. Activates on queries about eBPF, bpftool, bpftrace, XDP programs, libbpf, verifier errors, eBPF maps, or kernel tracing with BPF.

설치 수
2
GitHub Stars
267
업데이트
6월 27일
mohitmishra786
커뮤니티

gdb

GDB debugger skill for C/C++ programs. Use when starting a GDB session, setting breakpoints, stepping through code, inspecting variables, debugging crashes, using reverse debugging (record/replay), remote debugging with gdbserver, or loading core dumps. Activates on queries about GDB commands, segfaults, hangs, watchpoints, conditional breakpoints, pretty-printers, Python GDB scripting, or multi-threaded debugging.

설치 수
2
GitHub Stars
267
업데이트
6월 27일