cabal-version: 3.8
name: ghc-stack-profiler
version: 0.1.0.0
license: BSD-3-Clause
author: Hannes Siebenhandl, Wen Kokke, Matthew Pickering
maintainer: hannes@well-typed.com
build-type: Simple
synopsis: RTS Callstack profiler for GHC.
description:
RTS Callstack profiler for GHC.
The main idea is to periodically sample the Haskell callstack and use IPE and [stack annotation](https://www.well-typed.com/blog/2025/09/better-haskell-stack-traces/) information in order to understand the source locations which
correspond to the stack frames.
To profile a program it needs to be compiled and instrumented with the 'ghc-stack-profiler' package via:
@
import GHC.Stack.Profiler.Sampler
main :: IO ()
main = 'withStackProfilerForMyThread' ('SampleIntervalMs' 10) $ do
...
@
This will spawn a profiling thread that will periodically take a snapshot of the current RTS callstack of your program and serialises it to the eventlog.
To improve readability of the profile, compile the program with @-finfo-table-map@ and @-fdistinct-constructor-tables@.
Using @cabal@, this can be achieved with an appropriate @cabal.project@ file:
@
packages: ...
...
package *
ghc-options: -finfo-table-map -fdistinct-constructor-tables
@
To emit the eventlog messages by the profiler, you need to run your program with the @-l@ RTS flag, for example via:
@
./\<program\> ... +RTS -l -RTS
@
This will write out an eventlog to @\<program\>.eventlog@ which can be transformed for [speedscope.app](https://www.speedscope.app/) via the script 'ghc-stack-profiler-speedscope'.
@
ghc-stack-profiler-speedscope \<program\>.eventlog
@
The resulting profile @\<program\>.eventlog.json@ can be viewed and further analysed in [speedscope.app](https://www.speedscope.app/).
Note that the results are affected by compilation optimisation options, such as @-fno-omit-yields@.
extra-doc-files: CHANGELOG.md
category: Profiling, Benchmarking, Development
tested-with: ghc ==9.14 || ==9.12 || ==9.10
common warnings
ghc-options:
-Wall
-Wunused-packages
common exts
default-extensions:
DeriveGeneric
DerivingStrategies
DuplicateRecordFields
LambdaCase
NamedFieldPuns
PatternSynonyms
ViewPatterns
flag use-ghc-trace-events
description:
Use the package 'ghc-trace-events'. Disabling this flag makes it much easier to use @ghc-stack-profiler@ on the @ghc@ codebase, as
we don't have to package 'ghc-trace-events' for hadrian. Always enabled on GHC <9.12.
manual: True
default: True
library
import:
warnings, exts
exposed-modules:
Debug.Trace.Binary.Compat
GHC.Internal.ClosureTypes.Compat
GHC.Internal.Heap.Closures.Compat
GHC.Internal.InfoProv.Types.Compat
GHC.Internal.Stack.Constants.Compat
GHC.Internal.Stack.Decode.Compat
GHC.Stack.Annotation.Experimental.Compat
GHC.Stack.Profiler.Decode
GHC.Stack.Profiler.Sampler
GHC.Stack.Profiler.Stack.Compat
GHC.Stack.Profiler.Stack.Decode
GHC.Stack.Profiler.Util
build-depends:
base >=4.20 && <4.23,
binary >=0.8.9.3 && <0.11,
bytestring >=0.11 && <0.13,
ghc-heap >=9.10.1 && <9.16,
ghc-internal >=9.1001 && <9.1600,
ghc-stack-profiler-core ^>=0.1,
text >=2 && <2.2,
if impl(ghc >=9.14)
build-depends: ghc-experimental >=9.1400 && <9.1600
if flag(use-ghc-trace-events) || impl(ghc <9.12)
cpp-options:
-DUSE_GHC_TRACE_EVENTS
build-depends:
ghc-trace-events ^>=0.1.2.10
else
build-depends:
ghc-prim
if impl(ghc <9.14)
cmm-sources:
cbits/Stack.cmm
c-sources:
cbits/Stack_c.c
hs-source-dirs:
src
default-language: GHC2021