When I wanted to run perf under WSL, I met the follow question:
WARNING: perf not found for kernel 4.4.0-18362
You may need to install the following packages for this specific kernel:
linux-tools-4.4.0-18362-Microsoft
linux-cloud-tools-4.4.0-18362-Microsoft
You may also want to install one of the following packages to keep up to date:
linux-tools-Microsoft
linux-cloud-tools-Microsoft
But I can't find packages called linux-tools-4.4.0-18362-Microsoft or linux-cloud-tools-4.4.0-18362-Microsoft. I guess the package names are generated automatically.
I also tried to use perf in docker container. However, docker container use the same kernel as the hosts.
Is there any method to run perf under WSL?
I heard that perf can be used in WSL2. But after I upgraded to WSL2, it shows the similar error message:
WARNING: perf not found for kernel 4.19.84-microsoft
You may need to install the following packages for this specific kernel:
linux-tools-4.19.84-microsoft-standard linux-cloud-tools-4.19.84-microsoft-standardYou may also want to install one of the following packages to keep up to date:
linux-tools-standard linux-cloud-tools-standard
WARNING: perf not found for kernel 4.19.84-microsoft
Because WSL2 uses custom Linux kernel. Its source code can be found here microsoft/WSL2-Linux-Kernel. We have to compile perf tools from it.
sudo apt install build-essential flex bison libssl-dev libelf-dev
git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/microsoft/WSL2-Linux-Kernel.git
cd WSL2-Linux-Kernel/tools/perf
make
perf executable file will be in that folder.
If you follow the accepted answer, make sure you read the complains the make command prints at the start, as it might be missing some headers and disables functionality.
For me it disabled tui, gtk and demangling to name a few features.
You can install linux-tools-generic.
apt install linux-tools-generic
Then run perf using the install path /usr/lib/linux-tools/<linux-version>-generic/perf.
Some tools, like flamegraph, will use environment variable PERF as the perf path.
PERF=/usr/lib/linux-tools/<linux-version>-generic/perf flamegraph -- my_program
The accepted answer works. However, some features are missing.
In order to get useful and demangled information, I had to install the following libs and then run make again.
libbabeltrace-devlibunwind-devlibdw-devbinutils-devlibiberty-devI'm not sure if all of them are necessary. However, those are adequate for cargo-flamegraph (my usecase) to work.