What does frame_dummy mean in the context of profiling?

Question

In the process of using gprof to profile a C++ program I\'ve written, I\'ve noticed that the vast majority of execution time is spent in the function \"frame_dummy\". More preci

Answer 1

I encountered the same issue, here is my output from gprof:

  %   cumulative   self              self     total
 time   seconds   seconds    calls  ms/call  ms/call  name
 52.00     16.27    16.27   204000     0.08     0.08  frame_dummy
 47.46     31.12    14.85   418000     0.04     0.07  f2
  0.51     31.28     0.16    21800     0.01     1.42  f1
  0.03     31.29     0.01     1980     0.01    14.21  f5

In my case, it got resolved when I compiled with gcc -Os instead of gcc -O3:

Each sample counts as 0.01 seconds.
  %   cumulative   self              self     total
 time   seconds   seconds    calls  ms/call  ms/call  name
 53.12     22.24    22.24   200000     0.11     0.11  f4
 45.65     41.36    19.11   598000     0.03     0.03  f2
  0.69     41.65     0.29    20000     0.01     1.45  f3
  0.45     41.84     0.19    39800     0.00     0.32  f1
  0.10     41.88     0.04                             evaluate

That is, gprof mistook f4 for frame_dummy.