Closed Bug 1420465 Opened 8 years ago Closed 7 years ago

Consider making --enable-profiling features a run-time pref instead of a build-time pref

Categories

(Core :: Gecko Profiler, enhancement)

Product:
Core
Component:
Gecko Profiler
Type:
enhancement
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
normal

Tracking

()

Status:
RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1451902

People

(Reporter: mconley, Unassigned)

Details

We have users on the release channel of Firefox who sometimes experience bad performance on certain sites. Often times, the first thing we do is ask them to follow the instructions on https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Performance/Reporting_a_Performance_Problem One of the problems with those instructions is that it instructs the user to use Nightly, and to use a new profile / back up their data. I'm reasonably sure that one of the reasons we ask the user to use Nightly is because --enable-profiling (according to my recollection) is not set to true on release builds. If, however, the features flipped on by --enable-profiling were controllable from a runtime pref, we could potentially have the Gecko Profiler add-on itself flip those prefs. That way, we can point users on Release to the Profiler add-on, and can (hopefully) get more actionable profiles from them with less friction on their side.
NI Naveed in case this should be a perf tooling priority.
Flags: needinfo?(nihsanullah)
Clearly review on Naveed as he no longer works at Mozilla.
Flags: needinfo?(nihsanullah)
It looks like `--enable-profiling` flag is for only vtune profiler[1]. We can succesfully capture a profile on a release build with perf-html addon. Markus, is this bug related to gecko profiler component? [1]: https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/721842eed881c7fcdccb9ec0fe79e4e6d4e46604/js/moz.configure#265-287
Flags: needinfo?(mstange)
This looks like a dupe of bug 1451902 which has more context.
I agree. --enable-profiling has the following effects: - Enable frame pointers (which is absolutely a build time effect and cannot be made a "run-time" pref) - Enable VTune instrumentation on Windows - Enable a few built-in JS functions to control profilers: https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/c3fef66a5b211ea8038c1c132706d02db408093a/js/src/builtin/Profilers.cpp#376-382 The reason we ask users to profile Nightly is really only because of the frame pointers. And that's what bug 1451902 covers.
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 7 years ago
Flags: needinfo?(mstange)
Resolution: --- → DUPLICATE
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