cabal-version: 3.8
name: ghc-stack-profiler
version: 0.4.0.0
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
main :: IO ()
main =
'withRootStackProfiler' True $ \ manager ->
'withStackProfilerForMyThread' manager ('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 ==10.1 || ==9.14.1 || ==9.12.2 || ==9.10.3
common warnings
ghc-options:
-Wall
-Wunused-packages
common exts
default-extensions:
DeriveGeneric
DerivingStrategies
DuplicateRecordFields
LambdaCase
NamedFieldPuns
NoImportQualifiedPost
PatternSynonyms
ViewPatterns
default-language: GHC2021
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
flag control
description:
Enable @eventlog-socket@ control commands.
manual: True
default: False
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
GHC.Stack.Profiler.Commands
GHC.Stack.Profiler.Decode
GHC.Stack.Profiler.Eventlog.Socket
GHC.Stack.Profiler.Manager
GHC.Stack.Profiler.Stack.Compat
GHC.Stack.Profiler.Stack.Decode
GHC.Stack.Profiler.SymbolTable
GHC.Stack.Profiler.Util
build-depends:
async >=2.2 && <2.2.6,
base >=4.20 && <4.23,
binary >=0.8.9.3 && <0.11,
bytestring >=0.11 && <0.13,
containers >=0.6.8 && <0.9,
ghc-heap >=9.10.1 && <10.2,
ghc-internal >=9.1001 && <10.200,
ghc-stack-profiler-core >=0.3 && <0.5,
stm ^>=2.5.3.0 || ^>=2.5.0.0,
text >=2 && <2.2,
hs-source-dirs:
src
if impl(ghc >=9.14)
build-depends: ghc-experimental >=9.1400 && <10.200
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 >=0.6.0 && <1
-- Custom stack decoding for GHC <9.14.2
-- Fixes https://github.com/well-typed/ghc-stack-profiler/issues/14
-- See https://gitlab.haskell.org/ghc/ghc/-/issues/27009 for the fix.
if impl(ghc <9.14.2)
cmm-sources:
cbits/Stack.cmm
c-sources:
cbits/Stack_c.c
-- eventlog-socket custom command support
if flag(control) && !os(windows)
cpp-options:
-DEVENTLOG_SOCKET_SUPPORT
build-depends:
eventlog-socket ^>=0.1.3
source-repository head
type: git
location: https://github.com/well-typed/ghc-stack-profiler.git
subdir: ghc-stack-profiler