Python in a Nutshell

Name

calibrate

Synopsis

                           p.calibrate(N)

Loops N times, then returns a number that is the profiling overhead per call on your machine. N must be large if your machine is fast. Call p .calibrate(10000) a few times and check that the various numbers it returns are very close to each other, then pick the smallest one of them. If the numbers exhibit substantial variation, try again with larger values of N.

The calibration procedure can be time consuming. However, you need to perform it only once, repeating it only when you make changes that could alter your machine’s characteristics, such as applying patches to your operating system, adding memory, or changing Python version. Once you know your machine’s overhead, you can tell profile about it each time you import it, right before using profile.run. The simplest way to do this is as follows:

import profile
profile.Profile.bias = ...the overhead you measured...
profile.run('main( )', 'somefile')