kernel profiling artifact: Xspllower the leaf function

[David Young <dyoung%pobox.com@localhost>]

I am profiling a 6-ish kernel with kgmon/gprof.  I find that Xspllower
is quite prominent in my profiles *and* that it looks like a
"leaf"---that is, like it doesn't call anything.

I suspect that the reason for Xspllower's prominence and "leafiness"
is that it enters handlers for deferred interrupts in some "funny"
way that does not create the type of stack frame that the profiler
recognizes.  So gprof ascribes to Xspllower time that is in fact spent
running handlers for the deferred interrupts.  Could that be?  More to
the point, is there an easy way to produce a more reliable profile?

Dave

-- 
David Young
dyoung%pobox.com@localhost    Urbana, IL    (217) 721-9981