To start Performance Analyzer , type the following command in a terminal window:
% analyzer [control-options] [experiment | experiment-list]
You can specify an experiment name or a list. The experiment-list command argument is a space-separated list of experiment names, experiment group names, or both. If you do not provide an experiment list, Performance Analyzer starts and opens the Welcome page.
You can specify multiple experiments or experiment groups on the command line. If you specify an experiment that has descendant experiments inside it, all descendant experiments are automatically loaded and the data is aggregated. To load individual descendant experiments, you must specify each experiment explicitly or create an experiment group.
In reading experiments with descendants, any sub-experiments that contain little or no performance data are ignored by Performance Analyzer and er_print.
To create an experiment group, you can use the –g argument to the collect utility. To manually create an experiment group, create a plain text file whose first line is as follows:
#analyzer experiment group
Then add the names of the experiments on subsequent lines. The file extension must be erg.
When Performance Analyzer displays multiple experiments, data from all the experiments is aggregated by default. The data is combined and viewed as if the data is from one experiment. However, you can also choose to compare the experiments instead of aggregating the data if you specify the –c option. See Comparing Experiments.
You can preview an experiment or experiment group by clicking its name in the Open Experiment dialog box.
You can also start Performance Analyzer from the command line to record an experiment as follows:
% analyzer [Java-options] [control-options] target [target-arguments]
Performance Analyzer starts up with the Profile Application window showing the named target and its arguments and settings for profiling an application and collecting an experiment. See Profiling Applications From Performance Analyzer for details.
You can also open a “live” experiment – an experiment that is still being collected. When you open a live experiment, you see only the data that had already been collected when you opened the experiment. The experiment is not automatically updated as new data comes in. To update, you can open the experiment again.
These analyzer command options control the behavior of Performance Analyzer and are divided into the following groups:
Experiment options
Java options
Control options
Information options
These options specify how to handle experiments that you specify on the command line.
Start Performance Analyzer and compare the specified experiments.
The base-group is either a single experiment or a groupname.erg file which specifies multiple experiments. The compare-group is one or more experiments that you want to compare to the base group.
To specify multiple experiments in the compare group, separate the experiment names with spaces. You can also specify a groupname.erg file which specifies multiple experiments in the compare group.
Example 4 Sample Commands for Opening Experiments in Comparison ModeOpen the experiment test.1.er and compare it to test.4.er:
% analyzer -c test.1.er test.4.er
Open the experiment group demotest.erg and compare it to test.4.er:
% analyzer -c demotest.erg test.4.er
These options specify settings for the JVM that runs Performance Analyzer.
Specify the path to the Java software for running Performance Analyzer. When the –j option is not specified, the default path is taken first by examining environment variables for a path to the JVM, in the order JDK_HOME and then JAVA_PATH. If neither environment variable is set, the JVM found on your PATH is used. Use the –j option to override all the default paths.
Specify the JVM options. You can specify multiple options. For example:
To run the 64–bit Performance Analyzer, type:
analyzer -J-d64
To run Performance Analyzer with a maximum of JVM memory of 2 Gbytes, type:
analyzer -J-Xmx2G
To run the 64–bit Performance Analyzer with a maximum JVM memory of 8 Gbytes, type:
analyzer -J-d64 -J-Xmx8G
These analyzer command options control the location of the user directory where your settings are stored, set the font size of the user interface. and display the version and runtime information before starting Performance Analyzer.
Specify the font size to be used in the Performance Analyzer user interface..
To start Performance Analyzer and display the menus in 14-point font, type the following:
analyzer -f 14
Display version information and Java runtime arguments and then start Performance Analyzer.
These options print information about analyzer to standard output. The individual options below are stand-alone options. They cannot be combined with other analyzer options nor combined with target or experiment-list arguments.
Display version information only and do not start Performance Analyzer.
Print usage information and exit.