profiler-level-reference.md

Profiler Level Reference

This note complements bk_profiler and focuses on the shared level names used by BenchKit.

Shared Levels

• single
  • minimal profile coverage
• simple
  • lightweight profile coverage
• standard
  • standard profile coverage
• detailed
  • detailed profile coverage

These names are BenchKit-level presets. Each profiler adapter defines the concrete behavior behind them. For example, fapp maps these levels to multiple event-set runs, while ncu maps them to Nsight Compute options such as section set, launch count, and NVTX filtering.

Current fapp Mapping

• single
  • event set pa1
• simple
  • event set pa1..pa5
• standard
  • event set pa1..pa11
• detailed
  • event set pa1..pa17

Default report behavior for fapp is:

• single
  • text
• simple
  • both
• standard
  • both
• detailed
  • both

Here both means text summaries plus CSV reports.

Current ncu Mapping

• single
  • --set basic --launch-count 1
• simple
  • --set basic --launch-count 5
• standard
  • --set full --launch-count 1
• detailed
  • --set full --nvtx

Default report behavior for ncu is text. BenchKit stores the Nsight Compute raw report under bk_profiler_artifact/raw/rep1/ and, when import succeeds, a text details page under bk_profiler_artifact/reports/ncu_import_rep1.txt.

Portal Summary

BenchKit stores profiler metadata in bk_profiler_artifact/meta.json inside padata.tgz, and also copies a compact summary into result.json as profile_data.

This makes it possible to inspect profiler coverage without downloading the archive first.

• Results list
  • Profiler shows tool / level
  • the secondary line shows report_format and run count
• Result detail
  • PA Data Summary shows tool-specific details, explicit events when applicable, NCU options when present, and report kinds

Why This Helps

The summary is compact enough for portal browsing, while meta.json remains rich enough for future estimation packages to judge applicability from:

• tool
• level
• report_kinds