PERF-TEST(1)                      perf Manual                     PERF-TEST(1)

NAME
       perf-test - Runs sanity tests.

SYNOPSIS
       perf test [<options>] [{list <test-name-fragment>|[<test-name-fragments>|<test-numbers>]}]

DESCRIPTION
       This command does assorted sanity tests, initially through linked
       routines but also will look for a directory with more tests in the form
       of scripts.

       To get a list of available tests use perf test list, specifying a test
       name fragment will show all tests that have it.

       To run just specific tests, inform test name fragments or the numbers
       obtained from perf test list.

OPTIONS
       -s, --skip
           Tests to skip (comma separated numeric list).

       -v, -vv, -vvv, --verbose
           With a single -v, verbose level 1, only failing test output is
           displayed. With -vv and higher all test output is shown.

       -S, --sequential
           Run all tests one after the other. By default "exclusive" tests are
           run sequentially, but other tests are run in parallel to speed
           execution.

       -r, --runs-per-test
           Run each test the given number of times, by default once. This
           option can be useful to determine if a test is flaky.

       -F, --dont-fork
           Do not fork child for each test, run all tests within single
           process, this sets sequential mode.

       --dso
           Specify a DSO for the "Symbols" test.

       -w, --workload=
           Run a built-in workload, to list them use --list-workloads, current
           ones include: noploop, thloop, leafloop, sqrtloop, brstack,
           datasym, context_switch_loop, deterministic, named_threads and
           landlock.

               Used with the shell script regression tests.

               Some accept an extra parameter:

               seconds: leafloop, noploop, sqrtloop, thloop
               nrloops: brstack, context_switch_loop

               'named_threads' accepts the number of threads and the number of loops to
               do in each thread.

               The datasym, landlock and deterministic workloads don't accept any.

       --list-workloads
           List the available workloads to use with -w/--workload.

       --record-ctl=fifo:ctl-fifo[,ack-fifo]
           This option is used to communicate with a perf record session in
           order to control the recording scope to only the workload and avoid
           recording setup and teardown code. When specifying this option, the
           same FIFO path must be specified in the record session via:

               perf record -D -1 --control=fifo:ctl-fifo[,ack-fifo] ...

               Perf test sends 'enable' and 'disable' commands through ctl-fifo to
               control event recording. If 'ack-fifo' is provided, the workload runner
               waits for an 'ack' response after each command.

perf                              09/04/2026                      PERF-TEST(1)