The following are additional notes on the dtruss program,


* Can I trust the elapsed and on-cpu times?

Firstly, lets see dtruss do something cool,

   # dtruss -eo -n bash
   PID/LWP    ELAPSD    CPU SYSCALL(args)           = return
    6215/1:       57     37 write(0x2, "h\0", 0x1)          = 1 0
    6215/1:   357210     45 read(0x0, "e\0", 0x1)           = 1 0
    6215/1:       53     37 write(0x2, "e\0", 0x1)          = 1 0
    6215/1:   359510     46 read(0x0, "l\0", 0x1)           = 1 0
    6215/1:       57     42 write(0x2, "l\0", 0x1)          = 1 0
    6215/1:   166495     47 read(0x0, "l\0", 0x1)           = 1 0
    6215/1:       56     40 write(0x2, "l\0", 0x1)          = 1 0
    6215/1:   346076     44 read(0x0, "o\0", 0x1)           = 1 0
    6215/1:       54     38 write(0x2, "o\0", 0x1)          = 1 0
    6215/1:   349852     45 read(0x0, " \0", 0x1)           = 1 0
    6215/1:       54     39 write(0x2, " \0", 0x1)          = 1 0

In the above, the slow elapsed times for reads are due to the process context
switching off the CPU while we wait for the next keystroke. For example,
the second line shows an on-CPU time of 45 us and an elapsed time of 357210 us.
In fact, the elapsed times are equal to the inter-keystroke delays.


What about the writes? Their elapsed times are longer than the on-CPU times 
also. Did we context switch off for them too? ... Lets run a different demo,

   # dtruss -eo date
    ELAPSD    CPU SYSCALL(args)             = return
   Mon Jul 25 21:41:40 EST 2005
        44     23 resolvepath("/usr/bin/date\0", 0x80476CC, 0x3FF)          = 13 0
        10      1 sysconfig(0x6, 0xB25A1, 0xFEC1D444)               = 4096 0
        36     28 resolvepath("/usr/lib/ld.so.1\0", 0x80476CC, 0x3FF)              = 12 0
        18      9 xstat(0x2, 0x8047FEB, 0x8047AF8)          = 0 0
        25     16 open("/var/ld/ld.config\0", 0x0, 0x0)             = -1 Err#2
        27     18 xstat(0x2, 0xD27FBF38, 0x80473B0)                 = 0 0
        17      9 resolvepath("/lib/libc.so.1\0", 0x8047438, 0x3FF)                = 14 0
        21     13 open("/lib/libc.so.1\0", 0x0, 0x0)                = 3 0
        30     22 mmap(0x10000, 0x1000, 0x5)                = -763559936 0
        15      6 mmap(0x10000, 0xCE000, 0x0)               = -764411904 0
        24     16 mmap(0xD2700000, 0xB5A45, 0x5)            = -764411904 0
        21     12 mmap(0xD27C6000, 0x5EB3, 0x3)             = -763600896 0
        18      9 mmap(0xD27CC000, 0x15C0, 0x3)             = -763576320 0
        14      5 munmap(0xD27B6000, 0x10000)               = 0 0
       186    176 memcntl(0xD2700000, 0x1B8D8, 0x4)                 = 0 0
        17      7 close(0x3)                = 0 0
   [...]

For every syscall, the elapsed time is around 10 us (microseconds) slower
than the on-cpu time. These aren't micro context switches, this is due to
DTrace slowing down the program! The more closely we measure something the
more we effect it. (See Heisenberg's uncertainty principle).

Ok, so for the above output we can tell that each elapsed time is around 10 us
longer than it should be. That's fine, since it's fairly consistant and not
a huge difference. This is an x86 server with a 867 MHz CPU. 


Now lets try the same on an Ultra 5 with a 360 MHz CPU,

   # dtruss -eo date
    ELAPSD    CPU SYSCALL(args)             = return
       216    142 resolvepath("/usr/bin/date\0", 0xFFBFF338, 0x3FF)                = 13 0
       234    187 resolvepath("/usr/lib/ld.so.1\0", 0xFFBFF338, 0x3FF)             = 12 0
       113     67 stat("/usr/bin/date\0", 0xFFBFF818, 0xFFBFFFEB)           = 0 0
       136     90 open("/var/ld/ld.config\0", 0x0, 0x0)             = -1 Err#2
       107     61 stat("/opt/onbld/lib/libc.so.1\0", 0xFFBFF330, 0xFFBFF55C)       = -1 Err#2
        98     54 stat("/opt/SUNWspro/lib/libc.so.1\0", 0xFFBFF330, 0xFFBFF55C)    = -1 Err#2
        96     53 stat("/opt/SUNWmlib/lib/libc.so.1\0", 0xFFBFF330, 0xFFBFF55C)    = -1 Err#2
        97     54 stat("/usr/sfw/lib/libc.so.1\0", 0xFFBFF330, 0xFFBFF55C)         = -1 Err#2
        96     53 stat("/lib/libc.so.1\0", 0xFFBFF330, 0xFFBFF55C)          = 0 0
       134     92 resolvepath("/lib/libc.so.1\0", 0xFFBFEF30, 0x3FF)               = 14 0
       109     69 open("/lib/libc.so.1\0", 0x0, 0x0)                = 3 0
       177    132 mmap(0x10000, 0x2000, 0x5)                = -12976128 0
   [...]

Now the time difference is around 40 us, and fairly consistant.


This difference is find so long as we bear it in mind. Or, run DTrace
on faster servers where the difference is much less.



* The output appears shuffled?

Read the answer to this in ALLsnoop_notes.txt.

