Introduction to Low-Level Profiling and Tracing

Explore low-level profiling and tracing techniques in this 45-minute talk from EuroPython 2019. Dive into the limitations of Python's built-in tracing and profiling tools, and discover more efficient alternatives for analyzing code performance. Learn about modern operating system and CPU APIs that enable tracing of system calls, kernel space code, and hardware events. Compare various low and high-level tools including ptrace, perf, SystemTap, and BCC/eBPF, understanding their strengths and use cases. Gain insights into visualization techniques like flame graphs for better performance analysis. Understand the potential of tools that can create and run code in kernel space for advanced profiling. Get introduced to basic concepts of low-level tracing and profiling on Linux, equipping yourself with knowledge to choose the right tool for your performance analysis needs.