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  1. Documentation
  2. Continuous Profiling Cookbooks
  3. Configuring Blackfire Continuous Profiler for Go

Configuring Blackfire Continuous Profiler for Go
Requires Production

The GO continuous profiling is currently made accross 6 dimensions:

  • Allocations: Number of objects allocated
  • Allocated Memory: Number of bytes allocated
  • CPU: Time spent running on the CPU
  • Goroutines: Number of goroutines (both on-CPU and off-CPU)
  • Heap Live Objects: Number of objects allocated that are not yet garbage collected.
  • Heap Live Size: Number of bytes allocated that are not yet garbage collected.
  • Go >=1.18
  • Blackfire Agent >= 2.13.0

Get the Blackfire Continuous Profiler Go library:

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go get github.com/blackfireio/go-continuous-profiling

The Go continuous profiler API has two functions:

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func Start(opts ...Option) error {}
func Stop() {}

Start starts the continuous profiler probe. It collects profiling information and uploads it to the Blackfire Agent periodically.

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profiler.Start(
    profiler.WithCPUDuration(3 * time.Second),
    profiler.WithCPUProfileRate(1000),
    profiler.WithProfileTypes(profiler.CPUProfile, profiler.HeapProfile, profiler.GoroutineProfile),
    profiler.WithLabels(map[string]string{
            "key1": "value1",
            "key2": "value2",
    }),
    profiler.WithUploadTimeout(5 * time.Second),
)
defer profiler.Stop()

The Start function accepts the following options:

  • WithCPUDuration: specifies the length at which to collect CPU profiles. The default is 45 seconds. Can also be set via the environment variable BLACKFIRE_CONPROF_CPU_DURATION.
  • WithCPUProfileRate: sets the CPU profiling rate to Hz samples per second. The default is defined by the Go runtime as 100 Hz. Can also be set via the environment variable BLACKFIRE_CONPROF_CPU_PROFILERATE.
  • WithProfileTypes: sets the profiler types. Multiple profile types can be set (profiler.CPUProfile, profiler.HeapProfile, profiler.GoroutineProfile). The default is Profiler.CPUProfile.
  • WithLabels: sets custom labels specific to the profile payload that is sent.
  • WithUploadTimeout: sets the upload timeout of the message that is sent to the Blackfire Agent. The default is 10 seconds. Can also be set via the environment variable BLACKFIRE_CONPROF_UPLOAD_TIMEOUT.

If the same parameter is set by both an environment variable and a Start call, the explicit parameter in the Start call takes precedence.

There is also some additional configuration that can be done using environment variables:

  • BLACKFIRE_LOG_FILE: Sets the log file. The default is logging to stderr.
  • BLACKFIRE_LOG_LEVEL: Sets the log level. The default is logging only errors.

Stops the continuous profiling probe.

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go get github.com/blackfireio/go-continuous-profiling
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# main.go

package main

import (
    "crypto/md5"
    "encoding/hex"
    "io"
    "time"

    profiler "github.com/blackfireio/go-continuous-profiling"
)

func doSomethingCpuIntensive() {
    md5Hash := func(s string) string {
        h := md5.New()
        io.WriteString(h, s)
        return hex.EncodeToString(h.Sum(nil))
    }
    for i := 0; i < 1_000_000; i++ {
        md5Hash("UpsunIsCoolAndSoAreYou")
    }
}

func main() {
    err := profiler.Start(
        profiler.WithAppName("my-app"),
    )
    if err != nil {
        panic("Error while starting Profiler")
    }
    defer profiler.Stop()

    for i := 0; i < 15; i++ {
        doSomethingCpuIntensive()

        time.Sleep(1 * time.Second)
    }
}
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go run main.go