A path profile determines how many times each acyclic path in a routine executes. This type of profiling subsumes the more common basic block and edge profiling, which only approximate path frequencies. Path profiles have many potential uses in program performance tuning, profile-directed compilation, and software test coverage. This paper describes a new algorithm for path profiling. This simple, fast algorithm selects and places profile instrumentation to minimize run-time overhead.
Instrumented programs run with overhead comparable to the best previous profiling techniques.
Moreover, profiling shows that the SPEC95 train input datasets covered most of the paths executed in the ref datasets. Inc. All rights reserved.