[Python-announce] ANN: Austin -- CPython frame stack sampler v3.2.0 is now available

[Gabriele Tornetta]

I am delighted to announce the release 3.2.0 of Austin. If you haven't heard of Austin before, it is an open-source frame stack sampler for CPython, distributed under the GPLv3 license. It can be used to obtain statistical profiling data out of a running Python application without a single line of instrumentation. This means that you can start profiling a Python application straight away, even while it's running in a production environment, with minimal impact on performance.

https://github.com/P403n1x87/austin

The best way to leverage Austin is to use the new extension for VS Code, which brings interactive flame graphs straight into the text editor to allow you to quickly jump to the source code with a simple click. You can find the extension on the Visual Studio Marketplace and install it directly from VS Code:

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=p403n1x87.austin-vscode

To see how to make the best of Austin with VS Code to find and fix performance issues, check out this blog post, which shows you the editor extension in action on a real Python project:

https://p403n1x87.github.io/how-to-bust-python-performance-issues.html

The latest release comes with improved support on all supported platforms, but more importantly with increased accuracy, thanks to a double-heap mechanism. To find out more about the details, check out this blog post:

https://p403n1x87.github.io/increasing-austin-accuracy-with-a-dobule-heap-trick.html

The 3.2 release also marks the official introduction of the `austinp` variant into the main branch. The `austinp` variant is a special build of Austin for Linux that adds `ptrace` support and leverages `libunwind` to unwind native call stacks. The additional option `-k` allows you to sample even at the Linux kernel level. The special `austinp` builds are available from the GitHub Releases area of the Austin repository:

https://github.com/P403n1x87/austin/releases/latest

Austin is a pure C application that has no dependencies other than the C standard library. Its source code is hosted on GitHub at

https://github.com/P403n1x87/austin

The README contains installation and usage details, as well as some examples of Austin in action. Details on how to contribute to Austin's development can be found at the bottom of the page.

Austin can be installed easily on the following platforms and from the following sources:

Linux:
- Snap Store
- AUR
- Conda Forge

macOS:
- Homebrew
- Conda Forge

Windows:
- Chocolatey
- Scoop

An Austin docker image, based on Ubuntu 20.04, is also available from Docker Hub:

https://hub.docker.com/r/p403n1x87/austin

Austin is also simple to compile from sources as it only depends on the standard C library, if you don't have access to the above-listed sources.

You can stay up-to-date with the project's development by following Austin on Twitter (https://twitter.com/AustinSampler).

All the best,
Gabriele <phoenix1987 (at) gmail.com>


<p><a href="https://github.com/P403n1x87/austin">Austin 3.2.0</a> - frame stack sampler for CPython. (17-Dec-21)</p>