Sun Studio 12: Performance Analyzer

Analyzing a Kernel Profile

A few of the recorded fields in kernel experiments have a different meaning from the same fields in user-mode experiments. A user-mode experiment contains data for a single process ID only; a kernel experiment has data that may apply to many different process IDs. To better present that information, some of the field labels in the Analyzer have different meanings in the two types of experiments, as shown in the following table.

Table 5–1 Field Label Meanings for Kernel Experiments in the Analyzer

Analyzer Label 

Meaning in User-mode Experiments 

Meaning in Kernel Experiments 

LWP 

User process LWP ID 

Process PID; 0 for kernel threads 

Thread 

Thread ID within process 

Kernel TID; kernel DID for kernel threads 

For example, in an kernel experiment, if you want to filter only a few process IDs, enter the PID(s) of interest in the LWP filter field in the Filter Data dialog box.