C++ Performance Profiler GitHub Action

Automatically run Valgrind memcheck, callgrind, and gperftools on your C/C++ binaries in every PR.

Features

• Memory-leak detection with source-line annotations (::error file=…)
• CPU hotspot reporting (callgrind & gperftools)
• Configurable per-run (memcheck / callgrind / gperftools)
• Fail the job on leaks (optional)
• Uploads raw .out files as artifacts
• Uploads flamegraph .pngfiles as artifacts

Quick start

- name: Run C++ Profiler (Experimental)
  uses: boxtob/cpp-perf-action@v1.0.1
  with:
    binaries: build/test
    apt-packages: libgl1-mesa-dev libglfw3-dev
    ld-library-path: /workspace/libs
    valgrind-memcheck: true
    gperftools: true
    fail-on-leak: true
    run-args: --verbose

- name: Upload Artifacts
  if: always()
  uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
  with:
    name: profiling-results
    path: ${{ steps.profiler.outputs.artifacts }}

Binary Compatibility

This Action runs in an Ubuntu 24.04 Docker container (glibc 2.39).

Your binary will work if built on:

• Ubuntu 20.04+
• Debian 11+
• Fedora 34+
• Arch Linux, Manjaro, openSUSE, etc.
• WSL2 (Ubuntu/Debian)
• Any cross-compile targeting x86_64-linux-gnu with glibc ≤ 2.39

Will NOT work:

• Alpine Linux (uses musl)
• macOS / Windows binaries
• ARM binaries
• Very old distros (e.g., CentOS 7)

Best practice: Build your binary in the same GitHub Actions job (ubuntu-latest) — guaranteed compatibility.