When code is being profiled, the Lisp process is interrupted regularly at a specified time interval. At each interruption, the Profiler scans the execution stack and records the name of every function found. A special note is made of which function is at the top of the stack. When profiling stops (that is, when the code being profiled has stopped execution) the Profiler presents aggregated information about each function that includes the following information:
The Profiler gives you an easy way of choosing which functions you wish to profile, which code you want to run while profiling, and provides you with a straightforward display of the results of each profile.