Here is my proposed interface for DBI::ProfileDumper. Any and all comments welcome. I would like to begin implementation on Monday, if possible. -sam =head1 NAME DBI::ProfileDumper - profile DBI usage and output data to a file =head1 SYNOPSIS use DBI; # profile with default path (2) and output file (dbi.prof) $dbh->{Profile} = "DBI::ProfileDumper"; # same thing, spelled out $dbh->{Profile} = "2/DBI::ProfileDumper/File/dbi.prof"; # another way to say it use DBI::Profile; $dbh->{Profile} = DBI::ProfileDumper->new( { Path => [ DBIprofile_Statement ] File => 'dbi.prof' }); # using a custom path $dbh->{Profile} = DBI::ProfileDumper->new({ Path => [ "foo", "bar" ], File => 'dbi.prof' }); =head1 DESCRIPTION DBI::ProfileDumper is a subclass of L<DBI::Profile|DBI::Profile> that dumps profile data to disk instead of printing a summary to your screen. You can then use dbi_prof to analyze the data in a number of interesting ways, or you can roll your own analysis using L<DBI::ProfileData|DBI::ProfileData>. =head1 USAGE The normal way to use this module is just to enable it in your C<$dbh>: $dbh->{Profile} = "DBI::ProfileDumper"; This will write out profile data by statement into a file called dbi.prof. If you want to modify either of these properties, you can construct the DBI::ProfileDumper object yourself: use DBI::Profile qw(DBIprofile_Statement); $dbh->{Profile} = DBI::ProfileDumper->new( { Path => [ DBIprofile_Statement ] File => 'dbi.prof' }); The C<Path> option takes the same values as in L<DBI::Profile|DBI:Profile>. The C<File> option gives the name of the file where results will be collected. If it already exists it will be overwritten. To collect data before the process ends, you can call the C<format()> method: $dbh->{Profile}->format(); Calling this methods will empty the currently held profile data and flush it to disk. =head1 DATA FORMAT The data format written by DBI::ProfileDumper starts with a header containing the version number of the module used to generate it. After two newlines, the profile data forms the body of the file. For example: DBI::ProfileDumper 1.0 + SELECT name FROM users WHERE id = ? ++ prepare 1 0.0312958955764771 0.000490069389343262 0.000176072120666504 0.00140702724456787 1023115819.83019 1023115819.86576 ++ execute 1 0.0312958955764771 0.000490069389343262 0.000176072120666504 0.00140702724456787 1023115819.83019 1023115819.86576 ++ fetchrow_hashref 1 0.0312958955764771 0.000490069389343262 0.000176072120666504 0.00140702724456787 1023115819.83019 1023115819.86576 + UPDATE users SET name = ? WHERE id = ? ++ prepare 1 0.0312958955764771 0.000490069389343262 0.000176072120666504 0.00140702724456787 1023115819.83019 1023115819.86576 ++ execute 1 0.0312958955764771 0.000490069389343262 0.000176072120666504 0.00140702724456787 1023115819.83019 1023115819.86576 The lines beginning with C<+> signs signify keys. The number of C<+> signs shows the nesting level of the key. Lines of numbers are the actual profile data, in the same order as in DBI::Profile. Note that the same path may be present multiple times in the data file since C<format()> may be called more than once. When read by DBI::ProfileData the data points will be merged to produce a single set for each distinct set of keys. The key strings are transformed in two ways. First, all backslashes are doubled. Then all newlines are transformed into C<\n>. When DBI::ProfileData reads the file these transformations will be reversed. =cutThread Next