README

This is a very simple python script to grab the barest of details from a
process being run from a script in order to collect performance information.

This data is collected into a file in CSV format, perfectly prepared to import
into Excel, or OpenOffice Calc, or any other CSV-happy processor (sqlite?)

Example usage:

export PERFEROUTPUT=`mktemp`
export PERFERENVIRON="PATH:PERL5LIB"
export PERFERCWD=TRUE
export PERFERCMD=TRUE
perfer --header

perfer <command to be monitored>
perfer <command to be monitored>
perfer <command to be monitored>
perfer <command to be monitored>
perfer <command to be monitored>
perfer <command to be monitored>
perfer <command to be monitored>
perfer <command to be monitored>
perfer <command to be monitored>
perfer <command to be monitored>
perfer <command to be monitored>


In the above example, the environment variables set the context for perfer to
run.  The first call creates the performance data file, including the headers.
The subsequent times perfer is called, it appends to the existing file the 
stats of the command called.

Once this data is collected, you can, for example, determine where most of the
CPU or wall clock time is spent, you can see the exact commands executed and
when, you can see how much memory or I/O is performed.

With this information you can start to identify bottlenecks in your processes
so that you can begin to make improvements.