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authorDan Gudmundsson <[email protected]>2011-12-08 14:29:58 +0100
committerDan Gudmundsson <[email protected]>2011-12-09 12:08:53 +0100
commit9a4f23a450541fe5ed9dc1cd35b32b8621736949 (patch)
treee57436e7e9c3789436deabca0ef96417ea4e40d3
parent67786a7b962a4f71ae42b1db2c800f5bd414305e (diff)
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[observer] Add basic documentation
-rw-r--r--lib/observer/doc/src/Makefile2
-rw-r--r--lib/observer/doc/src/observer.xml58
-rw-r--r--lib/observer/doc/src/observer_ug.xml190
-rw-r--r--lib/observer/doc/src/part.xml3
-rw-r--r--lib/observer/doc/src/ref_man.xml3
-rw-r--r--lib/observer/src/observer_wx.erl12
6 files changed, 262 insertions, 6 deletions
diff --git a/lib/observer/doc/src/Makefile b/lib/observer/doc/src/Makefile
index f82a49abbe..cd9f9466ca 100644
--- a/lib/observer/doc/src/Makefile
+++ b/lib/observer/doc/src/Makefile
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ RELSYSDIR = $(RELEASE_PATH)/lib/$(APPLICATION)-$(VSN)
XML_APPLICATION_FILES = ref_man.xml
XML_REF3_FILES = \
crashdump.xml \
+ observer.xml \
etop.xml \
ttb.xml
XML_REF6_FILES = observer_app.xml
@@ -48,6 +49,7 @@ XML_PART_FILES = \
XML_CHAPTER_FILES = \
crashdump_ug.xml \
etop_ug.xml \
+ observer_ug.xml \
ttb_ug.xml \
notes.xml \
notes_history.xml
diff --git a/lib/observer/doc/src/observer.xml b/lib/observer/doc/src/observer.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..03830f2b1c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/observer/doc/src/observer.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="latin1" ?>
+<!DOCTYPE erlref SYSTEM "erlref.dtd">
+
+<erlref>
+ <header>
+ <copyright>
+ <year>2011</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.
+
+ The Initial Developer of the Original Code is Ericsson AB.
+ </legalnotice>
+
+ <title>Observer</title>
+ <prepared>Dan Gudmundsson</prepared>
+ <responsible></responsible>
+ <docno>1</docno>
+ <approved></approved>
+ <checked></checked>
+ <date>2011-12-08</date>
+ <rev>PA1</rev>
+ <file>observer.xml</file>
+ </header>
+ <module>observer</module>
+ <modulesummary>A GUI tool for observing an erlang system.</modulesummary>
+ <description>
+ <p>The observer is gui frontend containing various tools to
+ inspect a system. It displays system information, application
+ structures, process information, ets or mnesia tables and a frontend
+ for tracing with <seealso marker="ttb">ttb</seealso>.
+ </p>
+
+ <p>See the <seealso marker="observer_ug">user's guide</seealso>
+ for more information about how to get started.</p>
+ </description>
+ <funcs>
+ <func>
+ <name>start() -> ok</name>
+ <fsummary>Start the observer gui</fsummary>
+ <desc>
+ <p>This function starts the <c>observer</c> gui.
+ Close the window to stop the application.
+ </p>
+ </desc>
+ </func>
+ </funcs>
+</erlref>
diff --git a/lib/observer/doc/src/observer_ug.xml b/lib/observer/doc/src/observer_ug.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..569d72e71e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/observer/doc/src/observer_ug.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,190 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="latin1" ?>
+<!DOCTYPE chapter SYSTEM "chapter.dtd">
+
+<chapter>
+ <header>
+ <copyright>
+ <year>2011</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>Observer</title>
+ <prepared></prepared>
+ <docno></docno>
+ <date></date>
+ <rev></rev>
+ <file>observer_ug.xml</file>
+ </header>
+
+ <section>
+ <title>Introduction</title>
+ <p>Observer, is a graphical tool for observing the characteristics of
+ erlang systems. Observer displays system information, application
+ supervisor trees, process information, ets or mnesia tables and contains
+ a frontend for erlang tracing.
+ </p>
+ </section>
+
+ <section>
+ <title>General</title>
+ <p>Normally observer should be run from a standalone node to minimize
+ the impact of the system being observed. Example:
+ </p>
+ <code>
+ > erl -sname observer -hidden -setcookie MyCookie -run observer
+ </code>
+ <p>
+ Choose which node to observe via <c>Nodes</c> menu. The <c>View/Refresh
+ Interval</c> controls how frequent the view should be updated.
+ The refresh interval is set per viewer so you can
+ have different settings for each viewer. To minimize the system
+ impact only the active viewer is updated and the other
+ views will be updated when activated.
+ </p>
+ <note>
+ <p>Only R15B nodes can be observed.</p>
+ </note>
+
+ <p> In general the mouse buttons behaves as expected, use left click
+ to select objects, right click to pop up a menu with most used
+ choices and double click to bring up information about the
+ selected object. In most viewers with several columns you can change
+ sort order by left clicking on column header.
+ </p>
+ </section>
+
+ <section>
+ <title>Applications</title>
+ <p>The <c>Applications</c> view lists application information.
+ Select an application in the left list to display its supervisor
+ tree.
+ </p>
+ <p><c>Trace process</c> will add the selected process identifier
+ to <c>Trace Overview</c> view and the node the process resides on
+ will be added as well.
+ </p>
+ <p><c>Trace named process</c> will add the
+ registered name of the process. This can be useful when tracing on
+ several nodes, then processes with that name will be traced on all traced
+ nodes.
+ </p>
+ <p><c>Trace process tree</c> and <c>Trace named process
+ tree</c> will add the selected process and all processes below,
+ right of, it to the <c>Trace Overview</c> view.
+ </p>
+ </section>
+
+ <section>
+ <title>Processes</title>
+ <p>The <c>Processes</c> view lists process information.
+ For each process the following information is presented:
+ </p>
+ <taglist>
+ <tag>Pid</tag>
+ <item>The process identifier.</item>
+ <tag>Reds</tag>
+ <item>This is the number of reductions that has been executed
+ on the process</item>
+ <tag>Memory</tag>
+ <item>This is the size of the process in bytes, obtained by a
+ call to <c>process_info(Pid,memory)</c>.</item>
+ <tag>MsgQ</tag>
+ <item>This is the length of the message queue for the process.</item>
+ </taglist>
+ <note>
+ <p><em>Reds</em> can be presented as accumulated values or as values since last update.</p>
+ </note>
+ <p><c>Trace Processes</c> will add the selected process identifiers to the <c>Trace Overview</c> view and the
+ node the processes reside on will be added as well.
+ <c>Trace Named Processes</c> will add the registered name of processes. This can be useful
+ when tracing is done on several nodes, then processes with that name will be traced on all traced nodes.
+ </p>
+ </section>
+
+ <section>
+ <title>Table Viewer</title>
+ <p>The <c>Table Viewer</c> view lists tables. By default ets tables
+ are visible and unreadable, private ets, tables and tables created by the OTP
+ applications are not visible. Use <c>View</c> menu to view "system"
+ ets tables, unreadable ets tables or mnesia tables.
+ </p>
+ <p>Double click to view the content of the table. Select table and activate <c>View/Table Information</c>
+ menu to view table information.
+ </p>
+ <p>In the table viewer you can regexp search for objects, edit and delete objects.
+ </p>
+ </section>
+
+ <section>
+ <title>Trace Overview</title>
+ <p>The <c>Trace Overview</c> view handles tracing. Tracing is done
+ by selecting which processes to be traced and how to trace
+ them. You can trace messages, function calls and events, where
+ events are process related events such as <c>spawn</c>,
+ <c>exit</c> and several others.
+ </p>
+
+ <p>When you want to trace function calls, you also need to setup
+ <c>trace patterns</c>. Trace patterns selects the function calls
+ that will be traced. The number of traced function calls can be
+ further reduced with <c>match specifications</c>. Match
+ specifications can also be used to trigger additional information
+ in the trace messages.
+ </p>
+ <note><p>Trace patterns only applies to the traced processes.</p></note>
+
+ <p>
+ Processes are added from the <c>Applications</c> or <c>Processes</c> views.
+ A special <c>new</c> identifier, meaning all processes spawned after trace start,
+ can be added with the <c>Add 'new' Process</c> button.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ When adding processes, a window with trace options will pop up. The chosen options will
+ be set for the selected processes.
+ Process options can be changed by right clicking on a process.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Processes added by process identifiers will add the nodes these
+ processes resides on in the node list. Additional nodes can be added by the <c>Add
+ Nodes</c> button.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ If function calls are traced, trace patterns must be added by <c>Add Trace Pattern</c> button.
+ Select a module, function(s) and a match specification.
+ If no functions are selected, all functions in the module will be traced.
+ A few basic match specifications are provided in the tool, and
+ you can provide your own match specifications. The syntax of match
+ specifications are described in the <seealso
+ marker="erts:match_spec">ERTS User's Guide</seealso>. To simplify
+ the writing of a match specification they can also be written as
+ <c>fun/1</c> see <seealso marker="stdlib:ms_transform">ms_transform manual page</seealso> for
+ further information.
+ </p>
+
+ <p>Use the <c>Start trace</c> button to start the trace.
+ By default trace output is written to a new window, tracing is stopped when the
+ window is closed, or with <c>Stop Trace</c> button.
+ Trace output can be changed via <c>Options/Output</c> menu.
+ The trace settings, including match specifications, can be saved to, or loaded from, a file.
+ </p>
+ <p>More information about tracing can be found in <seealso
+ marker="runtime_tools:dbg">dbg</seealso> and in the chapter "Match
+ specifications in Erlang" in <seealso marker="erts:match_spec">ERTS User's
+ Guide</seealso> and the
+ <seealso marker="stdlib:ms_transform">ms_transform manual page</seealso>.
+ </p>
+ </section>
+</chapter>
diff --git a/lib/observer/doc/src/part.xml b/lib/observer/doc/src/part.xml
index bd6c2b6c77..0d6aad09f2 100644
--- a/lib/observer/doc/src/part.xml
+++ b/lib/observer/doc/src/part.xml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
<part xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
<header>
<copyright>
- <year>2002</year><year>2009</year>
+ <year>2002</year><year>2011</year>
<holder>Ericsson AB. All Rights Reserved.</holder>
</copyright>
<legalnotice>
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@
<p>The <em>Observer</em> application contains tools for tracing
and investigation of distributed systems.</p>
</description>
+ <xi:include href="observer_ug.xml"/>
<xi:include href="ttb_ug.xml"/>
<xi:include href="etop_ug.xml"/>
<xi:include href="crashdump_ug.xml"/>
diff --git a/lib/observer/doc/src/ref_man.xml b/lib/observer/doc/src/ref_man.xml
index 3d37570d2d..c33ce74141 100644
--- a/lib/observer/doc/src/ref_man.xml
+++ b/lib/observer/doc/src/ref_man.xml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
<application xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
<header>
<copyright>
- <year>2002</year><year>2009</year>
+ <year>2002</year><year>2011</year>
<holder>Ericsson AB. All Rights Reserved.</holder>
</copyright>
<legalnotice>
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@
<br></br>
</description>
<xi:include href="observer_app.xml"/>
+ <xi:include href="observer.xml"/>
<xi:include href="ttb.xml"/>
<xi:include href="etop.xml"/>
<xi:include href="crashdump.xml"/>
diff --git a/lib/observer/src/observer_wx.erl b/lib/observer/src/observer_wx.erl
index 89f4afdba0..5a593abf11 100644
--- a/lib/observer/src/observer_wx.erl
+++ b/lib/observer/src/observer_wx.erl
@@ -61,7 +61,10 @@
}).
start() ->
- wx_object:start(?MODULE, [], []).
+ case wx_object:start(?MODULE, [], []) of
+ Err = {error, _} -> Err;
+ _Obj -> ok
+ end.
create_menus(Object, Menus) when is_list(Menus) ->
wx_object:call(Object, {create_menus, Menus}).
@@ -126,6 +129,10 @@ setup(#state{frame = Frame} = State) ->
%% I postpone the creation of the other tabs so they can query/use
%% the window size
+ %% App Viewer Panel
+ AppPanel = observer_app_wx:start_link(Notebook, self()),
+ wxNotebook:addPage(Notebook, AppPanel, "Applications", []),
+
%% Process Panel
ProPanel = observer_pro_wx:start_link(Notebook, self()),
wxNotebook:addPage(Notebook, ProPanel, "Processes", []),
@@ -138,9 +145,6 @@ setup(#state{frame = Frame} = State) ->
TracePanel = observer_trace_wx:start_link(Notebook, self()),
wxNotebook:addPage(Notebook, TracePanel, ?TRACE_STR, []),
- %% App Viewer Panel
- AppPanel = observer_app_wx:start_link(Notebook, self()),
- wxNotebook:addPage(Notebook, AppPanel, "Applications", []),
%% Force redraw (window needs it)
wxWindow:refresh(Panel),