Time consumption profiling

asked 2012-02-23 22:48:36 -0600

alfa_80
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I would like to know, is there such a tool in ROS that I can use it to profile the total duration of time taken (or time-complexity) by each node that I'm running.

Thanks in advance.

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answered 2012-02-24 03:02:23 -0600

DimitriProsser

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If you're looking to perform more in-depth timing analysis of your nodes, you can run the node in Valgrind. This will allow you to see the time usage of each function in your program, step by step. A node can be run in Valgrind by using a launch-prefix.

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If I run Valgrind by using a launch-prefix, where do I check the output?

alfa_80 ( 2012-02-24 03:56:49 -0600 )edit

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Use launch-prefix="valgrind --log-file=/home/your_user/valgrind.log to log to that file. I would then suggest you open that file in a valgrind gui of some kind. I use Kcachegrind on Ubuntu.

DimitriProsser ( 2012-02-24 04:22:26 -0600 )edit

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I've got a permission problem to open the file via Kcachegrind. When I check the generated logfile, it not a read-only file. Any hint for this..

alfa_80 ( 2012-02-24 05:08:27 -0600 )edit

Are you running ROS as a different user?

DimitriProsser ( 2012-02-24 05:21:02 -0600 )edit

No, the same user.

alfa_80 ( 2012-02-24 06:02:59 -0600 )edit

You could just do chmod 775 valgrind.log to change the permissions.

DimitriProsser ( 2012-02-24 06:54:55 -0600 )edit

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It's not the case of having permission problem, I think, could be something else. Any other possibilities I can open that via Kcachegrind?

alfa_80 ( 2012-02-24 07:26:26 -0600 )edit

Valgrind is not a good solution unfortunately because it's effectively a virtual machine that runs a single thread. It greatly affects the way a process runs distorting the costs. @Thomas_D's suggestion of sysprof avoids this issue though.

Asomerville ( 2013-04-02 08:50:30 -0600 )edit

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answered 2012-02-24 04:21:36 -0600

Thomas D

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While Valgrind is nice I tend to use sysprof more often. You can install it with:

sudo apt-get install sysprof

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This avoids valgrind's vm & single thread distortions, and so in many cases is a much better option.

Asomerville ( 2013-04-02 08:51:31 -0600 )edit

I am trying to use sysprof with my ros code, but unfortunately I don't get it to run on ubuntu 12.04 x64. Do you know if it is possible?

Roberto ( 2013-08-23 07:44:09 -0600 )edit

I used sysprof yesterday when running ROS nodes and it worked when I used sudo.

Thomas D ( 2013-08-23 11:21:50 -0600 )edit

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answered 2012-02-24 01:53:38 -0600

Felix Endres

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Are you looking for the runtime of an executable? In this case start the node using the unix-tool "time" (see "man time"). If you are using launch files, have a look at the launch-prefix attribute of the "node" tag:

<node pkg="somepkg" type="somename" name="somename" launch-prefix="time">

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With the above line, I won't be able to know how much time is used for each of nodes I've, right? I've tried it, and it gives only one "elapsed"(time elapsed i guess).

alfa_80 ( 2012-02-24 04:35:29 -0600 )edit

I am sorry, but I do not understand your question. What exactly do you want to measure? "time" gives you the duration a program is running from startup until shutdown.