Laptop mode profiler
/usr/sbin/lm-profiler
This manual page documents briefly the /usr/sbin/lm-profiler command. lm-profiler is a tool for profiling disk operations. It is a part of laptop mode tools and is useful only in relation to rest of laptop mode tools. It helps you to detect programs and services that use up system resources and that cause disk activity, and it allows you to disable them when laptop mode is active.
When you start lm-profiler, it will execute a "profiling run", which can take some time. Start lm-profiler when you are working on batteries, preferably, because that will allow it to analyze the actual situation that it is supposed to optimize. During the profiling run, you can use your system normally; however, any disk activity caused by your actions will end up in the profiler's results. When the profiling run is finished, you will be presented with a list of programs that deserve your attention, either because they listen on a network (which is not usually useful when you are working offline) or because they caused disk activity in a disk-spindown-unfriendly pattern. When lm-profiler can guess an init script that belongs to a program, it presents you with the opportunity to disable the program when you are working on battery. It does this by placing a link to the init script in /etc/laptop-mode/batt-stop. Any programs that lm-profiler cannot find an init script for is simply reported, so that you can stop the program manually if you want to.
WARNING ABOUT DISABLING PROGRAMS: It may not be safe to disable some programs. They may be needed for proper operation of your system. Disable services only if you know what they do and why you don't need them.
lm-profiler retrieves its profiling rules from this file.
This manual page was written by Bart Samwel ([email protected]) and Jan Polacek ([email protected]) for the Debian system (but may be used by others). Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Version 2 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.
On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public License can be found in /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL.