C++ Profiling on mac

Question

I'm writing STL-only C++ application on mac(OS X Lion / XCode 4.1). I need to answer a simple question: which parts of code must be optimized? Gprof does empty output, XCode's Instruments doesn't help. Which tool I need to use?

What do you mean by "empty output"? I think maybe your question should be "How do I get gprof to work?" — Oliver Charlesworth, Aug 07 '11 at 19:35

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 07 '11 at 22:37

4

Use Shark. It's in /Developer/Applications/Performance Tools

Very easy to use. More here: http://developer.apple.com/tools/sharkoptimize.html

answered Aug 07 '11 at 22:37

koan

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This solution is obsolete, unfortunately. Shark has been replaced with Instruments (http://stackoverflow.com/a/8349036/130427). Instruments does not appear to be able to reference specific function calls the way Shark could. – Chris Redford May 04 '12 at 22:32

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:58

Even if gprof were working, it would probably not be much help.

The method I rely on, for any language and OS, is random pausing.

Here's how it works. If you take several random-time samples of the stack, wasteful function calls or I/O appear in proportion to the fraction of time they waste. It has the advantage that problematic statements are pinpointed, as opposed to making you hunt within costly routines.

C++ Profiling on mac

2 Answers2