Unable to profile in WSL1

[LoganDark]

Environment

• IntelliJ Rust plugin version: 0.4.171.4611-221-nightly
• Rust toolchain version: 1.62.0-nightly (ea92b0838 2022-05-07) x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
• IDE name and version: CLion 2022.1 (CL-221.5080.224)
• Operating system: Windows 10 2004 build 19041.928 (x64)
• Macro expansion engine: new
• Name resolution engine: new
• Additional experimental features: org.rust.cargo.emulate.terminal

Problem description

IntelliJ-Rust seems to only support using Perf on WSL2 for profiling, which runs in a virtual machine (i.e. lazy, bad performance, bad integration). WSL 1 runs much closer to the bare metal and is tied much more closely to the OS, but IntelliJ-Rust doesn't seem to support it yet.

It seems like this is a known limitation because IntelliJ-Rust contains this error message:

Perf profiler is not available for selected WSL distribution
Try updating WSL to the newer one

It would help me get more accurate profiles if I were able to profile in WSL 1 without the overhead of Hyper-V. Windows builds above 18342 support dtrace, maybe that supports WSL processes?

Steps to reproduce

Try to profile in WSL1.

[mili-l]

Hi @LoganDark,
Profiler is supported only for WSL2
#7857

[LoganDark]

Hi @LoganDark, Profiler is supported only for WSL2 #7857

That's why I opened this issue

[AlyoshaVasilieva]

IIRC WSL1 doesn't support kernel performance counters, so profiling on it is impossible

[LoganDark]

IIRC WSL1 doesn't support kernel performance counters, so profiling on it is impossible

Are kernel performance counters required to profile code? I thought you just took a bunch of samples of the stack/whatever and then built a flame graph out of that. Isn't that what perf is doing?

[mili-l]

@LoganDark
It is limitation from WSL side, Perf is not supported on WSL1.
microsoft/WSL#329

[LoganDark]

@LoganDark It is limitation from WSL side, Perf is not supported on WSL1. microsoft/WSL#329

At this time we are focusing on providing the Bash on Ubuntu environment and some of the developer tools (i.e. node). Tools like perf have taken a lower priority. For future releases we'll be using our User Voice page to help inform us on the priorities of the community.

Doesn't seem like a definitive answer to me, just corporate garbage.