Pyflame is a tool for generating flame graphs for Python processes. Pyflame is different from existing Python profilers because it doesn't require explicit instrumentation: it will work with any running Python process! Pyflame works by using the ptrace(2) system call to analyze the currently-executing stack trace for a Python process.
Learn more by reading the Uber Engineering blog post about Pyflame.
You can build Pyflame from source, or install a pre-built release for your distro.
To build Pyflame you will need a C++ compiler with basic C++11 support. Pyflame is known to compile on versions of GCC as old as GCC 4.6. You'll also need GNU Autotools (GNU Autoconf and GNU Automake) if you're building from the Git repository.
- Fedora
# Install build dependencies on Fedora.
sudo dnf install autoconf automake gcc-c++ python-devel libtool- Debian/Ubuntu
# Install build dependencies on Debian or Ubuntu.
sudo apt-get install autoconf automake autotools-dev g++ pkg-config python-dev libtool makeFrom git you would then compile like so:
./autogen.sh
./configure # Plus any options like --prefix.
make
make installIf you'd like to build a Debian package there's already a debian/ directory at
the root of this project. We'd like to remove this, as per the
upstream Debian packaging guidelines.
If you can help get this project packaged in Debian please let us know.
The community has setup a PPA for all current Ubuntu releases: PPA.
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:trevorjay/pyflame
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install pyflameYou can install pyflame from AUR.
After compiling Pyflame you'll get a small executable called pyflame (which
will be in the src/ directory if you haven't run make install). The most
basic usage is:
# Profile PID for 1s, sampling every 1ms.
pyflame PIDThe pyflame command will send data to stdout that is suitable for using with
Brendan Gregg's flamegraph.pl tool (which you can
get here). Therefore a typical
command pipeline might be like this:
# Generate flame graph for pid 12345; assumes flamegraph.pl is in your $PATH.
pyflame 12345 | flamegraph.pl > myprofile.svgYou can also change the sample time and sampling frequency:
# Profile PID for 60 seconds, sampling every 10ms.
pyflame -s 60 -r 0.10 PIDSometimes you want to trace a process from start to finish. An example would be tracing the run of a test suite. Pyflame supports this use case. To use it, you invoke Pyflame like this:
# Trace a given command until completion.
pyflame [regular pyflame options] -t command arg1 arg2...Frequently the value of command will actually be python, but it could be
something else like uwsgi or py.test. For instance, here's how Pyflame can
be used to trace its own test suite:
# Trace the Pyflame test suite, a.k.a. pyflameception!
pyflame -t py.test tests/Beware that when using the trace mode the stdout/stderr of the pyflame process
and the traced process will be mixed. This means if the traced process sends
data to stdout you may need to filter it somehow before sending the output to
flamegraph.pl.
Pyflame can also generate data with timestamps which can be used to
generate "flame charts"
that can be viewed in Chrome. These are a type of inverted flamegraph that can
more readable in some cases. Output in this data format is controlled with the
-T option.
Use utils/flame-chart-json to generate the JSON data required for viewing
Flame Charts using the Chrome CPU profiler.
Usage: cat <pyflame_output_file> | flame-chart-json > <fc_output>.cpuprofile
(or) pyflame [regular pyflame options] | flame-chart-json > <fc_output>.cpuprofile
Then load the resulting .cpuprofile file into the Chrome CPU profiler to view
flame chart.
On some platforms Pyflame can't profile code that doesn't hold the Global Interpreter Lock (such as I/O and native libraries like NumPy). In this case Pyflame will report the time as "idle".
If you don't want to include this time you can use the invocation pyflame -x.
No, these aren't supported. Someone who is proficient with low-level C programming can probably get BSD to work, as described in issue #3. It is probably much more difficult (although not impossible) to adapt this code to work on OS X/macOS, since the current code assumes that the host uses ELF files as the executable file format for the Python interpreter.
Because it's so powerful, the ptrace(2) system call is locked down by default
in various situations by different Linux distributions. In order to use ptrace
these conditions must be met:
- You must have the
SYS_PTRACEcapability (which is denied by default within Docker images). - The kernel must not have
kernel.yama.ptrace_scopeset to a value that is too restrictive.
In both scenarios you'll also find that strace and gdb do not work as
expected.
By default Docker images do not have the SYS_PTRACE capability. When you
invoke docker run try using the --cap-add SYS_PTRACE option:
# Allows processes within the Docker container to use ptrace.
docker run --cap-add SYS_PTRACE ...You can also use capsh(1) to list your current capabilities:
# You should see cap_sys_ptrace in the "Bounding set".
capsh --printFurther note that by design you do not need to run Pyflame from within a Docker container. If you have sufficient permissions (i.e. you are root, or the same UID as the Docker process) Pyflame can be run from outside of the container and inspect a process inside the container. That said, Pyflame will certainly work within containers if that's how you want to use it.
If you're not in a Docker container, or you're not using Docker at all, ptrace
permissions errors are likely related to you having too restrictive a value set
for the kernel.yama.ptrace_scope sysfs knob.
Debian Jessie ships with ptrace_scope set to 1 by default, which will prevent
unprivileged users from attaching to already running processes.
To see the current value of this setting:
# Prints the current value for the ptrace_scope setting.
sysctl kernel.yama.ptrace_scopeIf you see a value other than 0 you may want to change it. Note that by doing this you'll affect the security of your system. Please read the relevant kernel documentation for a comprehensive discussion of the possible settings and what you're changing. If you want to completely disable the ptrace settings and get "classic" permissions (i.e. root can ptrace anything, unprivileged users can ptrace processes with the same user id) then use:
# Use this if you want "classic" ptrace permissions.
sudo sysctl kernel.yama.ptrace_scope=0If you're using SELinux, you may have problems with ptrace. To check if ptrace is disabled:
# Check if SELinux is denying ptrace.
getsebool deny_ptraceIf you'd like to enable it:
# Enable ptrace under SELinux.
setsebool -P deny_ptrace 0Yes, Pyflame supports multithreaded applications. The default behavior is for Pyflame to trace only the currently running thread (if there is one). Normally in Python only one thread can run at a time, due to the GIL, so in some sense this is a more accurate representation of the profile of an application, even when it is multithreaded.
If instead you invoke Pyflame with the --threads option, Pyflame will take a
snapshot of each thread's stack each time it samples the target process. At the
end of the invocation, the profiling data for each thread will be printed to
stdout sequentially. This gives you a more accurate profile in the sense that
you will see what each thread was trying to do, even if it wasn't actually
scheduled to run.
Pyflame may "freeze" the target process if you use this option with older versions of the Linux kernel. In particular, for this option to work you need a kernel built with waitid() ptrace support. This change was landed for Linux kernel 4.7. Most Linux distros also backported this change to older kernels, e.g. this change was backported to the 3.16 kernel series in 3.16.37 (which is in Debian Jessie's kernel patches). For more extensive discussion, see issue #55.
One interesting use of this feature is to get a point-in-time snapshot of what each thread is doing, like so:
# Get a point-in-time snapshot of what each thread is currently running.
pyflame -s 0 --threads PIDThis mostly works: if you have the Python 3 headers installed on your system, the configure script should detect the presence of Python 3 and use it. Please report any bugs related to Python 3 detection if you find them (particularly if you have Python 3 headers installed, but the build system isn't finding them).
There is one known bug: Pyflame can only decode ASCII filenames in Python 3. The issue has more details, if you want to help fix it.
We love getting pull requests and bug reports! This section outlines some ways you can contribute to Pyflame.
This section will explain the Pyflame code for people who are interested in contributing source code patches.
The code style in Pyflame (mostly) conforms to
the Google C++ Style Guide.
Additionally, all of the source code is formatted
with clang-format. There's a
.clang-format file checked into the root of this repository which will make
clang-format do the right thing. Different clang releases may format the
source code slightly differently, as the formatting rules are updated within
clang itself. Therefore you should eyeball the changes made when formatting,
especially if you have an older version of clang.
The Linux-specific code is be mostly restricted to the files src/aslr.*,
src/namespace.*, and src/ptrace.*. If you want to port Pyflame to another
Unix, you will probably only need to modify these files.
You can run the test suite locally like this:
# Run the Pyflame test suite.
make testPatches are not the only way to contribute to Pyflame! Bug reports are very useful as well. If you file a bug, make sure you tell us the exact version of Python you're using, and how to reproduce the issue.
We are also actively looking to learn about how people are using Pyflame. One way to help is to write a blog post about how you used Pyflame. If you do, we may add a link to your blog post here. Some existing blog posts on Pyflame include:
- Pyflame: Uber Engineering's Ptracing Profiler For Python by Evan Klitzke (2016-09)
- Pyflame Dual Interpreter Mode by Evan Klitzke (2016-10)
- Using Uber's Pyflame and Logs to Tackle Scaling Issues by Benoit Bernard (2017-02)
Pyflame is free software licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.