NetBSD/usr.bin/pmc/pmc.1

.\"	$NetBSD: pmc.1,v 1.6 2002/09/30 11:09:08 grant Exp $
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.\" Copyright (c) 2000 Zembu Labs, Inc.
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.\" Author: Jason R. Thorpe <thorpej@zembu.com>
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.Dd October 24, 2000
.Dt PMC 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm pmc
.Nd performance-monitoring counter interface for command execution
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm ""
.Fl h
.Nm ""
.Fl C
.Nm ""
.Fl c
.Ar event
.Ar command
.Oo
.Ar options
.Ar ...
.Oc
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm
is a means of using a processor's performance-monitoring counter (PMC)
facility to measure various aspects of a program's execution.
It is
meant to be used in a fashion similar to
.Xr time 1 .
.Pp
The arguments are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Fl h
Display a list of performance counter events available on
the system.
.It Fl C
Cancel any performance counters that are currently running.
.It Fl c Ar event
Count the event specified by
.Ar event
while running the command.
.El
.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
.Bl -diag
.It PMC support is not compiled into the kernel
Performance-monitoring counter support has not been compiled into the
kernel.
It may be included using the
.Em PERFCTRS
option.
See
.Xr options 4
for details.
.It PMC counters are not supported by CPU
Performance-monitoring counters are not available for the CPU.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr time 1 ,
.Xr options 4
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
command first appeared in
.Nx 1.6 .
.Sh AUTHORS
The
.Nm
command was written by
.An Frank van der Linden Aq fvdl@wasabisystems.com .
The kernel support for reading performance counters on the i386
architecture was written by
.An Jason R. Thorpe Aq thorpej@zembu.com .
.Sh BUGS
The
.Nm
command currently only supports performance-monitoring counters
on the i386 architecture.