gputrace

gputrace parses and analyzes Apple Metal GPU trace files (.gputrace bundles).

Installation

go install github.com/tmc/gputrace/cmd/gputrace@latest

Verify installation:

gputrace version

Quick Start

# Show trace statistics (dispatch counts, kernel names, timing)
gputrace stats trace.gputrace

# Full profiler breakdown (timing, pipelines, execution cost)
gputrace profiler trace.gputrace

# Export to pprof format for use with go tool pprof
gputrace pprof trace.gputrace -o trace.pb
go tool pprof -http=:8080 trace.pb

# Export Chrome/Perfetto timeline
gputrace timeline trace.gputrace -o trace.json

# Compare two traces
gputrace diff A.gputrace B.gputrace --explain

Commands

Group	Command	Description
Overview	stats	Comprehensive trace statistics
	api-calls	API call sequences
	dump	Raw API call dump
Kernel & Shader	shaders	Shader performance metrics
	kernels	Kernel functions and pipeline mappings
	shader-source	Source-level performance attribution
Timing & Profiling	timing	Timing metrics export
	profiler	GPU profiler data extraction
	pprof	pprof format export
	correlate	Correlate timing with hardware metrics
Command Buffers	command-buffers	Command buffer analysis
	encoders	Compute encoder listing
Buffer Analysis	buffers	Buffer listing and properties
	buffer-access	Buffer access patterns
	buffer-timeline	Buffer allocation timeline
Visualization	timeline	Chrome/Perfetto timeline export
	graph	Graph visualization
	tree	Execution tree view
	diff	Compare two traces
	insights	Actionable performance insights
Capture	capture	Capture GPU trace from a command
	xcode-profile	Xcode GPU profiler automation
Utilities	serve	Web server for trace browsing
	mtlb	Metal Library Binary inspection
	clear-buffers	Zero out buffers to reduce trace size
	version	Print build version

Run gputrace [command] --help for details on any command.

Trace Diff

Compare two profiled traces and explain performance deltas at dispatch, kernel, encoder, and timeline-window levels:

# Human-readable summary
gputrace diff A.gputrace B.gputrace --explain

# Function and encoder views
gputrace diff A.gputrace B.gputrace --by function,encoder --limit 25

# Dispatch outliers (with source indices)
gputrace diff A.gputrace B.gputrace --by dispatch --min-delta-us 30 --limit 50

# JSON or CSV output
gputrace diff A.gputrace B.gputrace --json > diff.json
gputrace diff A.gputrace B.gputrace --csv --by function > function_deltas.csv

# Auto-discover newest trace pair and run quick triage
gputrace diff --bench-dir /path/to/bench-traces --quick

# Write markdown report
gputrace diff A.gputrace B.gputrace --md-out /tmp/report.md

See docs/TRACE_DIFF_WORKFLOW.md for the full workflow and sample output.

Testing

go test ./...

The repository includes a small canonical fixture set under testdata/traces:

• 01-single-encoder for basic parsing and diff smoke tests
• 06-six-encoders for multi-encoder parsing and shader/debug coverage

Some success paths require capabilities that are not shipped in the small in-repo fixtures:

• profiler requires traces with .gpuprofiler_raw
• shader-source requires traces with source attribution data

Documentation

Detailed format and workflow documentation lives in docs/:

• README.md -- docs index
• TRACE_DIFF_WORKFLOW.md -- trace diff workflow and output interpretation
• STREAMDATA_FORMAT.md -- streamData plist format
• trace-format.md -- trace format overview

Reverse-engineering notes and implementation status documents live in docs/research/.

GPU Timing Methodology

.gputrace files do not contain pre-computed timing percentages. Xcode Instruments derives shader cost by replaying captured GPU workloads with performance counters enabled. This library extracts timing from profiler streamData (dispatch/kernel duration, execution cost sampling, and GPRWCNTR encoder profiles) when a .gpuprofiler_raw directory is present. For traces without profiler data, only structural information (kernels, encoders, buffers) is available.

Developer Convenience

For local macOS reinstall and permission setup:

make reinstall

License

MIT License. See LICENSE for details.