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9.2 Setting up the profiler

Before a profiling session can start several parameters must be set, using the function set-up-profiler . This function is introduced here and the full syntax is given in the LispWorks Reference Manual . There are three main areas to consider: the symbols to be profiled, the time interval between samples, and the kind of profiling required.

The time the Lisp process is actually executing plus the time that the system is executing on behalf of the process. This is called profile time .

Just the time that the process is actually executing. This is called virtual time .

The actual elapsed time, called real time .

Below is an example of setting up the profiler:

(set-up-profiler :symbols '(car cdr))

Here the functions car and cdr are going to be profiled.

The function set-up-profiler adds symbols to the *profile-symbol-list* . The functions add-symbol-profiler and remove-symbol-profiler can also be used to change the symbols profiled.

The function set-profiler-threshold can be used with reset-profiler to control the effects of repeated profiler runs.


LispWorks User Guide - 18 Feb 2003

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