1) perf build ============= The perf build process consists of several separated building blocks, which are linked together to form the perf binary: - libperf library (static) - perf builtin commands - traceevent library (static) - GTK ui library Several makefiles govern the perf build: - Makefile top level Makefile working as a wrapper that calls the main Makefile.perf with a -j option to do parallel builds. - Makefile.perf main makefile that triggers build of all perf objects including installation and documentation processing. - tools/build/Makefile.build main makefile of the build framework - tools/build/Build.include build framework generic definitions - Build makefiles makefiles that defines build objects Please refer to tools/build/Documentation/Build.txt for more information about build framework. 2) perf build ============= The Makefile.perf triggers the build framework for build objects: perf, libperf, gtk resulting in following objects: $ ls *-in.o gtk-in.o libperf-in.o perf-in.o Those objects are then used in final linking: libperf-gtk.so <- gtk-in.o libperf-in.o perf <- perf-in.o libperf-in.o NOTE this description is omitting other libraries involved, only focusing on build framework outcomes