<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<!DOCTYPE chapter SYSTEM "chapter.dtd">
<chapter>
<header>
<copyright>
<year>2003</year><year>2013</year>
<holder>Ericsson AB. All Rights Reserved.</holder>
</copyright>
<legalnotice>
The contents of this file are subject to the Erlang Public License,
Version 1.1, (the "License"); you may not use this file except in
compliance with the License. You should have received a copy of the
Erlang Public License along with this software. If not, it can be
retrieved online at http://www.erlang.org/.
Software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS"
basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See
the License for the specific language governing rights and limitations
under the License.
</legalnotice>
<title>Crashdump Viewer</title>
<prepared></prepared>
<docno></docno>
<date></date>
<rev></rev>
<file>crashdump_ug.xml</file>
</header>
<section>
<title>Introduction</title>
<p>The Crashdump Viewer is a WxWidgets based tool for browsing
Erlang crashdumps.
</p>
</section>
<section>
<title>Getting Started</title>
<p>The easiest way to start Crashdump Viewer is to use the
provided shell script named <c>cdv</c> with the full path to the
erlang crashdump as an argument. The script can be found in the
priv directory of the <c>observer</c> application. This starts the
Crashdump Viewer GUI and loads the given file. If no file name is
given, a file dialog will be opened where the file can be
selected.</p>
<p>Under Windows the batch file <c>cdv.bat</c> can be used.</p>
<p>It is also possible to start the Crashdump Viewer from within
an erlang node by calling <seealso
marker="crashdump_viewer#start/0">crashdump_viewer:start/0</seealso>
or <seealso
marker="crashdump_viewer#start/1">crashdump_viewer:start/1</seealso>.</p>
</section>
<section>
<title>The graphical interface</title>
<p>The main window is opened when Crashdump Viewer has loaded a
crashdump. It contains a title bar, a menu bar, a number of
information panels and a status bar.</p>
<p>The title bar shows the name of the currently loaded
crashdump.</p>
<p>The menu bar contains a <em>File</em> menu and a <em>Help</em>
menu. From the File menu a new crashdump can be loaded or the tool
can be terminated. From the Help menu this user's guide and the
chapter "How to interpret the Erlang crash dumps" from the user's
guide for Erlang runtime system can be opened. "How to interpret
the Erlang crash dumps" describes the raw crashdumps in
detail. Here you will also find information about each single
field in the different information pages. This document can also
be found directly in the OTP online documentation, via the Erlang
runtime system user's guide.</p>
<p>The status bar at the bottom of the window will show a warning
if the currently loaded dump is truncated.</p>
<p>The centre area of the main window contains the information
panels. Each panel displays information about a specific item or a
list of items. A panel is selected by clicking the title of the
tab.</p>
<p>From panels that display lists of items, for example the
Processes- or the Ports panel, a new window with further
information can be opened by double clicking a row or by right
clicking the row and selecting an item from the drop down
menu. The new window is called a detail window. Detail windows can
be opened for processes, ports, nodes and modules.</p>
<p>The various information shown in a detail window might contain
links to processes or ports. Clicking one of these links will open
the detail window for the process or port in question. If the
process or port resided on a remote node, there will be no
information available. Clicking the link will then pop up a dialog
where you can choose whether to open the detail window for the
remote node or not.
</p>
<p>Some of the panels contain a left hand menu where sub items of
the panel's information area can be selected. Click on one of the
rows, and the information will be displayed in the right hand
information area.</p>
</section>
<section>
<title>Data content</title>
<p>Each panel in the main window contains an information
page. If no information is found for an item, the page will be
empty. The reason for not finding any information about an item
can be that the dump is truncated, that it is a dump from an old
OTP release in which this item was not written or that the item
simply wasn't present in the system at the point of failure.</p>
<p>If the dump was truncated, a warning is displayed in the
status bar of the main window.</p>
<p>Even if some information about an item exists, there might be
empty fields if the dump originates from an old OTP release.</p>
<p>The value "-1" in any field means "unknown", and in most
cases it means that the dump was truncated somewhere around this
field.</p>
<p>The sections below describe some of the fields in the
different information panels. These are fields that do not exist
in the raw crashdump, or in some way differ from the fields in
the raw crashdump. Details about other fields can be found in
the user's guide for the Erlang runtime system, in the chapter
"How to interpret the Erlang crash dumps". That chapter can also
be opened from the Help menu in the Crashdump Viewer's main
window, and there are also direct links from the specific
sections below to related information in "How to interpret the
Erlang crash dumps".</p>
</section>
<section>
<marker id="general_info"/>
<title>General information</title>
<p>The <em>General information</em> panel shows a short overview
of the dump.</p>
<p>The following fields are not described in the Erlang runtime
system user's guide:</p>
<taglist>
<tag><em>Crashdump created on</em></tag>
<item>Time of failure.</item>
<tag><em>Memory allocated</em></tag>
<item>The total number of bytes allocated, equivalent to
<c>c:memory(total)</c>.</item>
<tag><em>Memory maximum</em></tag>
<item>The maximum number of bytes that has been allocated during
the lifetime of the originating node. This will only be shown if
the Erlang runtime system was run instrumented.</item>
<tag><em>Atoms</em></tag>
<item>If available in the dump, this is the total number of
atoms in the atom table. If the size of the atom table is not
available, the number of atoms visible in the dump is
presented.</item>
<tag><em>Processes, ETS tables and Funs</em></tag>
<item>The number of processes, ETS tables and funs visible in
the dump.</item>
</taglist>
<p>
<seealso marker="erts:crash_dump#general_info">More...</seealso>
</p>
</section>
<section>
<marker id="processes"/>
<title>Processes</title>
<p>The <em>Processes</em> panel shows a list of all processes
found in the crashdump, including some short information about
each process. By default the processes are sorted by their
pids. To sort by other topic, click the desired column
heading.</p>
<p>The <em>Memory</em> column shows the 'Memory' field which was
added to crashdumps in R16B01. This is the total amount of memory
used by the process. For crashdumps from earlier releases, this
column shows the 'Stack+heap' field. The value shown is always in
bytes.</p>
<p>To view detailed information about a specific process, double
click the row in the list or right click the row and select
"Properties for <pid>".</p>
<p>
<seealso marker="erts:crash_dump#processes">More...</seealso>
</p>
</section>
<section>
<marker id="ports"/>
<title>Ports</title>
<p>The <em>Ports</em> panel is similar to the <em>Processes</em>
panel, except it lists all ports found in the crashdump.</p>
<p>To see more details about a specific port, dobule click the row
or right click it and select "Properties for <port>". From
the right click menu you can also select "Properties for
<pid>", where <pid> is the process connected to the
port.</p>
<p>
<seealso marker="erts:crash_dump#ports">
More...</seealso>
</p>
</section>
<section>
<marker id="ets_tables"/><marker id="internal_ets_tables"/>
<title>ETS tables</title>
<p>The <em>ETS Tables</em> panel shows all ETS table information
found in the dump. The 'Id' is the same as the 'Table' field found
in the raw crashdump, and 'Memory' is the 'Words' field from the
raw crashdump translated into bytes. For tree tables there will
be no value in the 'Objects' field.</p>
<p>To open the detailed information page about the table, double
click or right click the row and select "Properties for
'Identifier'".</p>
<p>To open the detailed information page about the owner process
of an ETS table, right click the row and select "Properties for
<pid>".</p>
<p>
<seealso marker="erts:crash_dump#ets_tables">
More...</seealso>
</p>
</section>
<section>
<marker id="timers"/>
<title>Timers</title>
<p>The <em>Timers</em> panel shows all timer information found in
the dump.</p>
<p>To open the detailed information page about the owner process
of a timer, right click the row and select "Properties for
<pid>".</p>
<p>Double clicking a row in the Timers panel has no effect.</p>
<p>
<seealso marker="erts:crash_dump#timers">More...</seealso>
</p>
</section>
<section>
<marker id="schedulers"/>
<title>Schedulers</title>
<p>The <em>Schedulers</em> panel shows all scheduler information
found in the dump.</p>
<p>To open the detailed information page about the scheduler,
double click or right click the row and select "Properties for
'Identifier'".</p>
<p>
<seealso marker="erts:crash_dump">More...</seealso>
</p>
</section>
<section>
<marker id="funs"/>
<title>Funs</title>
<p>The <em>Funs</em> panel shows all Fun information found in the
dump.</p>
<p>To open the detailed information page about the module to which
the fun belongs, right click the row and select "Properties for
<mod>".</p>
<p>Double clicking a row in the Funs panel has no effect.</p>
<p>
<seealso marker="erts:crash_dump#funs">More...</seealso>
</p>
</section>
<section>
<marker id="atoms"/>
<title>Atoms</title>
<p>The <em>Atoms</em> panel lists all atoms found in the dump. By
default the atoms are sorted in creation order from first to
last. This is opposite of the raw crashdump where atoms are listed
from last to first, meaning that if the dump was truncated in the
middle of the atom list only the last created atoms will be seen
in the <em>Atoms</em> panel.</p>
<p>
<seealso marker="erts:crash_dump#atoms">More...</seealso>
</p>
</section>
<section>
<marker id="distribution_info"/>
<title>Nodes</title>
<p>The <em>Nodes</em> panel shows a list of all external erlang
nodes which are referenced from the crashdump.</p>
<p>If the page is empty it either means that the crashed node was
not distributed, that it was distributed but had no references to
other nodes or that the dump was truncated.</p>
<p>If the node was distributed, all referenced nodes are
shown. The column named <em>Connection type</em> shows if the node
is visible, hidden or not connected. Visible nodes are alive nodes
with a living connection to the originating node. Hidden nodes are
the same as visible nodes, except they are started with the
<c>-hidden</c> flag. Not connected nodes are nodes that are not
connected to the originating node anymore, but references
(i.e. process or port identifiers) exist.</p>
<p>To see more detailed information about a node, double click the
row or right click the row and select "Properties for node
<node>". From the right click menu you can also select
"Properties for <port>", to open the detailed information
window for the controlling port.</p>
<p>In the detailed information window for a node, any exsisting
links and monitors between processes on the originating node and
the connected node are shown. <em>Extra Info</em> may contain
debug information (i.e. special information written if the
emulator is debug compiled) or error information.</p>
<p>
<seealso marker="erts:crash_dump#distribution_info">
More...</seealso>
</p>
</section>
<section>
<marker id="loaded_modules"/>
<title>Loaded modules</title>
<p>The <em>Modules</em> panel lists all modules that were loaded
on the originating node, and the current size of the code. If old
code exsits, the old size is also shown.</p>
<p>To see detailed information about a specific module, double
click the row or right click it and select "Properties for
<mod>".</p>
<p>
<seealso marker="erts:crash_dump#loaded_modules">
More...</seealso>
</p>
</section>
<section>
<marker id="memory"/>
<title>Memory</title>
<p>The <em>Memory</em> panel shows memory and allocator
information. From the left hand menu you can select:</p>
<p>
<list>
<item><em>Memory</em> <seealso
marker="erts:crash_dump#memory">More...</seealso></item>
<item><em>Allocator Summary</em> - this page presents a
summary of values from all allocators below.</item>
<item><em><Allocator></em> - one entry per allocator
<seealso
marker="erts:crash_dump#allocator">More...</seealso></item>
<item><em>Allocated Areas</em> <seealso
marker="erts:crash_dump#allocated_areas">More...</seealso></item>
</list>
</p>
</section>
<section>
<marker id="internal_tables"/>
<title>Internal tables</title>
<p>On the <em>Internal Tables</em> panel you can choose from the
left hand menu to see hash tables or index tables.</p>
<p>
<seealso marker="erts:crash_dump#internal_tables">More...</seealso>
</p>
</section>
</chapter>
