proc_profile(5)

💖 proc_profile(5) — the File Formats Manual glow-up 💖

okay so real talk, this is a page from the File Formats Manual section, and it's all about /proc/profile. it's short, it's sweet, it's giving "niche kernel lore that only the girls who compile their own kernels know about" ✨

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🌸 NAME 🌸

/proc/profile — kernel profiling, bestie. that's it, that's the whole vibe 💅

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

✨ /proc/profile (since Linux 2.4) ✨

so this file? not always here. it's only present if the kernel was booted with the profile=1 command-line option. no profile=1, no file. it's an exclusive club and you gotta boot your way in, no cap 💀

when it is there, it exposes kernel profiling information in a binary format, specifically so readprofile(1) can go do its thing with it. it's literally handing the data to readprofile(1) like "here girl, take it" 🫶

now, the fun part. writing to this file — like, even just an empty string, literally nothing — resets the profiling counters. bye bye numbers, fresh start, main character energy 🌈

and on some architectures, writing a binary integer "profiling multiplier" of size sizeof(int) sets the profiling interrupt frequency. yep, you heard that right. that's not a typo, that's not me being dramatic, that's just what it does. sizeof(int), exactly, don't come at me 🙈

⚠️ heads up queen: this is a binary file format, not some cute little text file you can just cat and read. it's for readprofile(1) to parse. respect the binary, it's doing its job 💜

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🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

• proc(5) — the main /proc hub, go read that one too, it's the mothership 👑

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that's the whole page, bestie, we ate and left no crumbs 🍓

this was brought to you by Linux man-pages 6.20, dated 2026-02-08 — yeah, 6.20, February 8th 2026, iconic behavior from the man-pages girlies fr fr 🎀

stay profiled, stay slaying, ily, bye 💖✨🧚