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How to: Instrument a native stand-alone component and collect timing data with the profiler from the command line

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Applies to: yesVisual Studio noVisual Studio for Mac

Note

This article applies to Visual Studio 2017. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here

This topic describes how to use Visual Studio Profiling Tools command-line tools to instrument a native component such as a C++ .exe or .dll file, and to collect detailed timing data.

Note

To get the path to the profiling tools, see Specify the path to command line tools. On 64-bit computers, both 64-bit and 32-bit versions of the tools are available. To use the profiler command-line tools, you must add the tools path to the PATH environment variable of the Command Prompt window or add it to the command itself.

To collect detailed timing data from a component by using the instrumentation method, you use the VSInstr.exe tool to generate an instrumented version of the component. You then start the profiler. When the instrumented component is executed, timing data is automatically collected to a data file. You can pause and resume data collection during the profiling session.

To end a profiling session, you close the target application and then explicitly shut down the profiler.

Start the profiling session

To start profiling by using the instrumentation method

  1. Open a Command Prompt window.

  2. Use the VSInstr tool to generate an instrumented version of the target application.

  3. Start the profiler. Type:

    VSPerfCmd /start:trace /output: OutputFile [Options]

    • The /start:trace option initializes the profiler.

    • The /output:OutputFile option is required with /start. OutputFile specifies the name and location of the profiling data (.vsp) file.

      You can use one or more of the following options with the /start:trace option.

    Option Description
    /user :[Domain\]UserName Specifies the domain and user name of the account that owns the profiled process. This option is required only if the process is running as a user other than the logged-on user. The process owner is listed in the User Name column on the Processes tab of Windows Task Manager.
    /crosssession Enables profiling of processes in other sessions. This option is required if the application is running in a different session. The session identifier is listed in the Session ID column on the Processes tab of Windows Task Manager. /CS can be specified as an abbreviation for /crosssession.
    /globaloff Starts the profiler with data collection paused. Use /globalon to resume profiling.
    /counter : Config Collects information from the processor performance counter that is specified in Config. Counter information is added to the data that is collected at each profiling event.
    /wincounter : WinCounterPath Specifies a Windows performance counter to be collected during profiling.
    /automark : Interval Use with /wincounter only. Specifies the number of milliseconds between Windows performance counter collection events. Default is 500 ms.
    /events : Config Specifies an Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) event to be collected during profiling. ETW events are collected in a separate (.etl) file.

  4. Start the target application in the typical way.

Control data collection

When the target application is running, you can control data collection by starting and stopping the writing of data to the file by using VSPerfCmd.exe options. Controlling data collection enables you to collect data for a specific part of program execution, such as starting or shutting down the application.

To start and stop data collection

  • The following pairs of options start and stop data collection. Specify each option on a separate command line. You can turn data collection on and off multiple times.

    Option Description
    /globalon /globaloff Starts (/globalon) or stops (/globaloff) data collection for all processes.
    /processon : PID /processoff : PID Starts (/processon) or stops (/processoff) data collection for the process that is specified by the process ID (PID).
    /threadon : TID /threadoff : TID Starts (/threadon) or stops (/threadoff) data collection for the thread that is specified by the thread ID (TID).

End the profiling session

To end a profiling session, close the application that is running the instrumented component, and then call the VSPerfCmd /shutdown option to turn off the profiler and close the profiling data file.

To end a profiling session

  1. Close the target application.

  2. Shut down the profiler. Type:

    VSPerfCmd /shutdown

See also