Re: [patch 0/4] perf_counter tools: support annotation of live kernel modules

[Mike Galbraith <efault@gmx.de>]

On Fri, 2009-07-03 at 10:15 +0200, Ingo Molnar wrote:
> * Mike Galbraith <efault@gmx.de> wrote:
> 
> > > We need to calculate and cache the objdump annotation output 
> > > once, but after that it should be pretty fast as we just display 
> > > updated counts with the same lines over and over again. No 
> > > repeated objdump runs are needed.
> > 
> > But active files follow symbols, which change on the fly.
> > 
> > Besides, as mentioned previously, while displayed annotation was 
> > very cool, it took a lot of display space.  For me, top with the 
> > ability to emit bic-disposable mini-reports would be my primary 
> > perf tools usage. I'd only use big brothers when I needed their 
> > power/detail.
> 
> Ok, then how about putting some sort of interactivity into perf top?
> 
> Up and down arrows would allow the walking of the histogram, and 
> hitting enter on a symbol would show the annotated function? It 
> would be way cool and more usable and more flexible than some 
> side-channel for mini-reports.
> 
> PowerTop has a lot of good text interactivity code that might be 
> reused. (assuming it's under a kernel compatible license?)
> 
> There's also the 'tig' tool - an interactive tool to walk Git 
> trees/commits. If it's under a compatible license that would be a 
> nice place to look for clues too - it has a very mature and 
> well-thought-out TUI in my opinion.

Cool.  I love free samples to bend/spindle/mutilate :)

	-Mike