# Overview

OProfile is a system-wide Linux profiler, capable of running at low overhead. It consists of a kernel driver and a daemon for collecting raw sample data, along with a suite of tools for parsing that data into meaningful information. OProfile is generally used by developers to determine which sections of code consume the most amount of CPU time, and why.

The OProfile plug-in allows Eclipse users to seamlessly include OProfile capabilities into their development workflow, regardless of their experience in using OProfile. Users with little experience in OProfile can use the One-Click Launch to run a default OProfile view. Experienced users can perform the same OProfile functions they would on the command line, but with a much richer visualization of the results.

For more details on OProfile, visit the project homepage at http://oprofile.sourceforge.net/news/.

Note : The following steps in Installation and Set-Up may not be necessary if installing the Eclipse OProfile plugin from a distribution specific package (eg. .deb, .rpm, etc.). These packages may perform the necessary setup on behalf of the user eliminating the need for steps 1-4. For example, on Fedora, the 'eclipse-oprofile' package automatically configures support for PolicyKit. These steps are also not necessary if using the operf binary for profiling instead of legacy opcontrol.