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profile
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profile /n./ 1. A control file for a program, esp. a text
file automatically read from each user's home directory and
intended to be easily modified by the user in order to customize
the program's behavior. Used to avoid hardcoded choices (see
also dot file, rc file). 2. [techspeak] A report on the
amounts of time spent in each routine of a program, used to find
and tune away the hot spots in it. This sense is often
verbed. Some profiling modes report units other than time (such as
call counts) and/or report at granularities other than per-routine,
but the idea is similar. 3.[techspeak] A subset of a standard used
for a particular purpose. This sense confuses hackers who wander
into the weird world of ISO standards no end!
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