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fprof is a flow and time profiler. Currently, there is no support for C++; this will be available in a subsequent release. It reports when each function was called and when the function exited. This information can be displayed to the programmer or fed back directly to the compilation system.
The programmer can read statistical information about how much time was spent in (and the number of calls to) each function during the profiled execution of the program. This statistical information also includes caller/callee data. The programmer can also query the profiler to see the actual flow of control through the profiled execution.
The compilation system can use flow profiles to perform Locality of Reference Tuning. Locality of Reference Tuning is a process by which code is relocated within an object such that code that belongs together is located together. This makes programs run faster because it reduces paging and increases the number of cache hits.