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(gprof.info)Executing

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Executing the Program
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   Once the program is compiled for profiling, you must run it in order
to generate the information that `gprof' needs.  Simply run the program
as usual, using the normal arguments, file names, etc.  The program
should run normally, producing the same output as usual.  It will,
however, run somewhat slower than normal because of the time spent
collecting and the writing the profile data.

   The way you run the program--the arguments and input that you give
it--may have a dramatic effect on what the profile information shows.
The profile data will describe the parts of the program that were
activated for the particular input you use.  For example, if the first
command you give to your program is to quit, the profile data will show
the time used in initialization and in cleanup, but not much else.

   Your program will write the profile data into a file called
`gmon.out' just before exiting.  If there is already a file called
`gmon.out', its contents are overwritten.  There is currently no way to
tell the program to write the profile data under a different name, but
you can rename the file afterward if you are concerned that it may be
overwritten.

   In order to write the `gmon.out' file properly, your program must
exit normally: by returning from `main' or by calling `exit'.  Calling
the low-level function `_exit' does not write the profile data, and
neither does abnormal termination due to an unhandled signal.

   The `gmon.out' file is written in the program's _current working
directory_ at the time it exits.  This means that if your program calls
`chdir', the `gmon.out' file will be left in the last directory your
program `chdir''d to.  If you don't have permission to write in this
directory, the file is not written, and you will get an error message.

   Older versions of the GNU profiling library may also write a file
called `bb.out'.  This file, if present, contains an human-readable
listing of the basic-block execution counts.  Unfortunately, the
appearance of a human-readable `bb.out' means the basic-block counts
didn't get written into `gmon.out'.  The Perl script `bbconv.pl',
included with the `gprof' source distribution, will convert a `bb.out'
file into a format readable by `gprof'.