path: root/lib/runtime_tools/doc/src/notes.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="latin1" ?>
<!DOCTYPE chapter SYSTEM "chapter.dtd">

<chapter>
  <header>
    <copyright>
      <year>2004</year><year>2012</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>Runtime_Tools Release Notes</title>
    <prepared></prepared>
    <docno></docno>
    <date></date>
    <rev></rev>
    <file>notes.xml</file>
  </header>
  <p>This document describes the changes made to the Runtime_Tools
    application.</p>

<section><title>Runtime_Tools 1.8.9</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Change the module-level docs to give complete
	    step-by-step instructions for using the `dyntrace:p()`
	    trace function. (Thanks to Scott Lystig Fritchie)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-10141</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Add 1024 separate USDT probes to dyntrace.erl and
	    dyntrace.c (Thanks to Scott Lystig Fritchie)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-10143</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Relocate bodies of DTrace probes to the statically-linked
	    VM.</p>
          <p>
	    Due to various operating systems (in both the DTrace and
	    SystemTap worlds) not fully supporting DTrace probes (or
	    SystemTap-compatibility mode probes) in shared libraries,
	    we relocate those probes to the statically-linked virtual
	    machine. This could be seen as pollution of the pristine
	    VM by a (yet) experimental feature. However:</p>
          <p>
	    1. This code can be eliminated completely by the C
	    preprocessor. 2. Leaving the probes in the dyntrace NIF
	    shared library simply does not work correctly on too many
	    platforms. *Many* thanks to Macneil Shonle at Basho for
	    assisting when my RSI-injured fingers gave out. (note:
	    Solaris 10 and FreeBSD 9.0-RELEASE can take a long time
	    to compile)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-10189</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Runtime_Tools 1.8.8</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The DTrace source patch from Scott Lystig Fritchie is
	    integrated in the source tree. Using an emulator with
	    dtrace probe is still not supported for production use,
	    but may be a valuable debugging tool. Configure with
	    --with-dynamic-trace=dtrace (or
	    --with-dynamic-trace=systemtap) to create a build with
	    dtrace probes enabled. See runtime_tools for
	    documentation and examples.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-10017</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Runtime_Tools 1.8.7</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Earlier dbg:stop only did erlang:trace_delivered and did
	    not flush the trace file driver. Therefore there could
	    still be trace messages that were delivered to the driver
	    (guaranteed by erlang:trace_delivered) but not yet
	    written to the file when dbg:stop returned. Flushing is
	    now added on each node before the dbg process terminates.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-9651</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    File handles created by the trace_file_drv driver was
	    inherited to child processes. This is now corrected.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-9658</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>Erlang/OTP can now be built using parallel make if you
	    limit the number of jobs, for instance using '<c>make
	    -j6</c>' or '<c>make -j10</c>'. '<c>make -j</c>' does not
	    work at the moment because of some missing
	    dependencies.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-9451</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Two new built-in trace pattern aliases have been added:
	    caller_trace (c) and caller_exception_trace (cx). See the
	    dbg:ltp/0 documentation for more info.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-9458</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Runtime_Tools 1.8.6</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Two new built-in trace pattern aliases have been added:
	    caller_trace (c) and caller_exception_trace (cx). See the
	    dbg:ltp/0 documentation for more info.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-9458</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Runtime_Tools 1.8.5</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    When a big number of trace patterns are set by inviso the
	    Erlang VM could get unresponsive for several seconds.
	    This is now corrected.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-9048 Aux Id: seq11480 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Runtime_Tools 1.8.4.1</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Minor corrections and removal of a temporary workaround.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8755 Aux Id: seq-11628, seq-11639 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Small fix in inviso_autostart_server.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8783 Aux Id: seq11628 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Runtime_Tools 1.8.4</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Miscellaneous updates.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8705</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Runtime_Tools 1.8.3</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>Cross compilation improvements and other build system
	    improvements.</p>
	    <p>Most notable:</p> <list><item> Lots of cross
	    compilation improvements. The old cross compilation
	    support was more or less non-existing as well as broken.
	    Please, note that the cross compilation support should
	    still be considered as experimental. Also note that old
	    cross compilation configurations cannot be used without
	    modifications. For more information on cross compiling
	    Erlang/OTP see the <c>$ERL_TOP/INSTALL-CROSS.md</c> file.
	    </item><item> Support for staged install using <url
	    href="http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/DESTDIR.html">DESTDIR</url>.
	    The old broken <c>INSTALL_PREFIX</c> has also been fixed.
	    For more information see the <c>$ERL_TOP/INSTALL.md</c>
	    file. </item><item> Documentation of the <c>release</c>
	    target of the top <c>Makefile</c>. For more information
	    see the <c>$ERL_TOP/INSTALL.md</c> file. </item><item>
	    <c>make install</c> now by default creates relative
	    symbolic links instead of absolute ones. For more
	    information see the <c>$ERL_TOP/INSTALL.md</c> file.
	    </item><item> <c>$ERL_TOP/configure --help=recursive</c>
	    now works and prints help for all applications with
	    <c>configure</c> scripts. </item><item> Doing <c>make
	    install</c>, or <c>make release</c> directly after
	    <c>make all</c> no longer triggers miscellaneous
	    rebuilds. </item><item> Existing bootstrap system is now
	    used when doing <c>make install</c>, or <c>make
	    release</c> without a preceding <c>make all</c>.
	    </item><item> The <c>crypto</c> and <c>ssl</c>
	    applications use the same runtime library path when
	    dynamically linking against <c>libssl.so</c> and
	    <c>libcrypto.so</c>. The runtime library search path has
	    also been extended. </item><item> The <c>configure</c>
	    scripts of <c>erl_interface</c> and <c>odbc</c> now
	    search for thread libraries and thread library quirks the
	    same way as <c>erts</c> do. </item><item> The
	    <c>configure</c> script of the <c>odbc</c> application
	    now also looks for odbc libraries in <c>lib64</c> and
	    <c>lib/64</c> directories when building on a 64-bit
	    system. </item><item> The <c>config.h.in</c> file in the
	    <c>erl_interface</c> application is now automatically
	    generated in instead of statically updated which reduces
	    the risk of <c>configure</c> tests without any effect.
	    </item></list>
	    <p>(Thanks to Henrik Riomar for suggestions and
	    testing)</p>
	    <p>(Thanks to Winston Smith for the AVR32-Linux cross
	    configuration and testing)</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8323</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Cleanups suggested by tidier and modernization of types
	    and specs.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8455</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Runtime_Tools 1.8.2</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The documentation is now built with open source tools
	    (xsltproc and fop) that exists on most platforms. One
	    visible change is that the frames are removed.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8201</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Runtime_Tools 1.8.1</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    <c>Makefile.in</c> has been updated to use the LDFLAGS
	    environment variable (if set). (Thanks to Davide
	    Pesavento.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8157</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Runtime_Tools 1.8</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    <c>etop</c> would crash if the emulator's custom
	    allocators had been turned off (e.g. using the
	    <c>+Meamin</c> option).</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7519</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The copyright notices have been updated.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7851</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>Now, dbg:p/2 accepts {X,Y,Z} process specification as
	    stated in the documentation. It also now accepts
	    "&lt;X.Y.Z&gt;" like from erlang:pid_to_list/1.</p>
	    <p>There is now a pre-saved match spec in dbg that saves
	    a lot of typing. Use dbg:ltp/0 to find out more...</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7867</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Runtime_Tools 1.7.3</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>Fixed a timestamp problem where some events could be
	    sent out of order. Minor fixes to presentation of
	    data.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7544 Aux Id: otp-7442 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Runtime_Tools 1.7.2</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p><c>etop</c> now collects process information faster
	    and more reliably than before (a race condition reported
	    by Igor Goryachev has been eliminated).</p>
	    <p>Trace messages could be lost when <c>ttb:stop/0</c>
	    was called.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7164</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Runtime_Tools 1.7.1</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>The documentation has been updated so as to reflect
	    the last updates of the Erlang shell as well as the minor
	    modifications of the control sequence <c>p</c> of the
	    <c>io_lib</c> module.</p> <p>Superfluous empty lines have
	    been removed from code examples and from Erlang shell
	    examples.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6944 Aux Id: OTP-6554, OTP-6911 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>Memory management improvements especially for the
	    runtime system with SMP support:</p> <list> <item> The
	    runtime system with SMP support can now use multiple,
	    thread specific instances of most memory allocators. This
	    improves performance since it reduces lock contention in
	    the memory allocators. It may however increase memory
	    usage for some applications. The runtime system with SMP
	    support will by default enable this feature on most
	    allocators. The amount of instances used can be
	    configured. </item> <item> <c>driver_alloc()</c>,
	    <c>driver_realloc()</c>, and <c>driver_free()</c> now use
	    their own erts specific memory allocator instead of the
	    default <c>malloc()</c> implementation on the system.
	    </item> <item> The default configuration of some
	    allocators have been changed to fit applications that use
	    much memory better. </item> <item> Some new
	    <c>erts_alloc</c> configuration parameters have been
	    added. </item> <item> <c>erts_alloc_config</c> has been
	    modified to be able to create configurations suitable for
	    multiple instances of allocators. </item> <item> The
	    returned value from <c>erlang:system_info({allocator,
	    Alloc})</c> has been changed. This since an allocator may
	    now run in multiple instances. </item> </list> <p>If you
	    for some reason want the memory allocators to be
	    configured as before, you can pass the <c>+Mea r11b</c>
	    command-line argument to <c>erl</c>.</p> <p>For more
	    information see the <c>erts_alloc(3)</c>, the
	    <c>erts_alloc_config(3)</c>, and the <c>erlang(3)</c>
	    documentation.</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7100</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Runtime_Tools 1.7</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    <c>dbg</c> could leave traced processes in a suspended
	    state if the tracer process was killed with exit reason
	    <c>kill</c>.</p>
          <p>
	    <c>erlang:suspend_process/2</c> has been introduced which
	    accepts an option list as second argument. For more
	    information see the <c>erlang(3)</c> documentation.</p>
          <p>
	    Processes suspended via
	    <c>erlang:suspend_process/[1,2]</c> will now be
	    automatically resumed if the process that called
	    <c>erlang:suspend_process/[1,2]</c> terminates.</p>
          <p>
	    Processes could previously be suspended by one process
	    and resumed by another unless someone was tracing the
	    suspendee. This is <em>not</em> possible anymore. The
	    process resuming a process <em>has</em> to be the one
	    that suspended it.</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6946</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The undocumented and unsupported function
	    <c>dbg:tracer/1</c> has been removed. The undocumented,
	    unsupported, and broken function <c>dbg:i/1</c> has been
	    removed.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6939</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Runtime_Tools 1.6.8</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
            In this release the following has been fixed and
            enhanced: Autostart: It is now possible to configure
            modules that shall be loaded by the autostart mechanism.
            This because it is not certain that all application
            systems make use of the OTP boot script to set up paths
            to all Erlang modules. Runtime_tools/Inviso: A bug in the
            fetch_log functionality has been fixed. Further a bug
            that was (supposedly) fixed in a previous patch
            concerning meta-tracer write_ti has been fixed (again) in
            this patch. A bug in inviso_as_lib making remote
            autostart config file updates fail has been fixed.
            Inviso: inviso_tool has been given a flush API.</p>
          <p>
            Own Id: OTP-6918</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>
<section><title>Runtime_Tools 1.6.7</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
            The following bugs/improvements have been done: Internal
            interworking between inviso_rt and inviso_rt_meta. The
            call function used by inviso_rt to call inviso_rt_meta is
            now protected with a monitor. Inviso_rt_meta now includes
            the timestamp of the incoming meta trace message when
            calling the call-callback. (Makes it possible to add a
            "better" timestamp to the ti-file.) Bug in inviso_tool
            making it not remove trace patterns when terminating. Bug
            in internal function h_start_session making inviso_tool
            crash if there were no active nodes to start the session
            on. The user-inviso_tool and inviso API-inviso control
            component request/response gen_server protocols had
            default time-out. Since many trace operations can be time
            consuming, a longer time-out is necessary. Improved
            overload protection. It is now possible to let the
            overload protection renew itself (e.g after an exit from
            an external overload protector). Inviso_rt_meta now fully
            uses the exception_trace match spec action term. Run
            Trace Case API (as in contrast to activate and deactivate
            trace case APIs) in inviso_tool. Flush trace-port API
            added to inviso. Get_session_data API added to
            inviso_tool. Improved inviso_tool:stop making it possible
            to name nodes which shall not have their trace patterns
            removed when inviso_tool terminates. Bug in handling of
            writing multiple ti-entries if returned from a
            call/return_from call-back in inviso_rt_meta Process
            trace flags are no longer explicitly removed by the
            inviso_tool when it terminates. Not necessary.
            Inviso_tool get_autostart_data adopted to standard
            autostarter.</p>
          <p>
            *** INCOMPATIBILITY with Meta trace call-backs are called
            with different arguments now. ***</p>
          <p>
            Own Id: OTP-6881</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

  <section>
    <title>Runtime_Tools 1.6.6</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>A bug in inviso_rt_meta caused an ETS table containing
            information on initiated (init_tpm) functions to be lost
            when suspending tracing. Further an enhancement to
            inviso_rt has been introduced making it possible to
            activate process trace flags based on globally registered
            names. It is then not an error to activate a global name
            on a node where the name does not reside. The process
            count in the return value will simply be set to zero
            (hence exactly one node in the NodeResult part of the
            return value will indicate one matching process found). A
            bug was found in fetch_log API. At the same time the
            fetch_log functionality was enhanced to also offer flow
            control making fetcher processes send chunks of
            transferred file data at a slower pace.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6703</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>Minor Makefile changes.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6689 Aux Id: OTP-6742 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>An experimental tool called <c>erts_alloc_config</c>
            has been added. <c>erts_alloc_config</c> is intended to
            be used to aid creation of an <c>erts_alloc</c>
            configuration that is suitable for a limited number of
            runtime scenarios. For more information see the
            <c>erts_alloc_config(3)</c> documentation.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6700</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Runtime_Tools 1.6.5</title>

    <section>
      <title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>Misc improvements.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6576</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Runtime_Tools 1.6.4</title>

    <section>
      <title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>This application has been updated to eliminate warnings
            by Dialyzer.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6551</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Runtime_Tools 1.6.3</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>This ticket includes several improvements and bugfixes to
            both runtime_tools and inviso. The overload mechanism can
            now also react to incoming messages. This is useful if
            an external overload watch-dog is used. Some improvements
            of variable bindings has been done to the default
            autostart mechanism - inviso_autostart_server. Autostart
            "jobs" can now be done in parallel, allowing for some
            jobs to hang waiting for some parts of the traced system
            to become ready before proceeding. Previously when using
            named meta-match-specs (tpm_ms) ending up with zero
            match-specs still kept the meta trace pattern active.
            This caused zero match-specs to be equal to unlimited
            meta tracing on that particular function. If the internal
            database becomes empty of meta match specs, meta trace
            pattern is removed for that function. Standard public
            loop data in the inviso runtime meta tracer process is
            now extended to a 2-tuple. The functions ctp/1 and ctpl/1
            are added making it possible to remove trace patterns for
            a list of functions rather than one by one.
            Inviso_rt_meta will now accept a list of binaries to be
            output into the trace information file, in additions to a
            single binary. Further it is also possible to make own
            output to the trace information file using the write_ti/1
            function. An error was discovered in inviso_rt making the
            inviso_rt_meta remain rather than terminate if the
            inviso_rt terminated due to "running alone" (not allowed
            to run without a control component). A new tool,
            inviso_tool, has been added to the inviso application.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6426</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Runtime_Tools 1.6.2</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>Several minor bugs and race conditions eliminated in the
            runtime_tools and observer applications.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6265</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Runtime_Tools 1.6.1</title>

    <section>
      <title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>There are new BIFs <c>erlang:spawn_monitor/1,3</c>,
            and the new option <c>monitor</c> for
            <c>spawn_opt/2,3,4,5</c>.</p>
          <p>The <c>observer_backend</c> module has been updated to
            handle the new BIFs.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6281</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Runtime_Tools 1.6</title>
    <p>Added the runtime part of the Inviso tracer, see the new Inviso
      application for more information. This also meant adding an
      application callback module and an application supervisor tree
      for Runtime_Tools.</p>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Runtime_Tools 1.5.1.1</title>

    <section>
      <title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>The <c>dbg</c> manual page has been updated with information
            about how to avoid deadlock when tracing.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5373 Aux Id: seq9729</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Runtime_Tools 1.5.1</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>Linked in drivers in the Crypto, and Asn1 applications
            are now compiled with the <c>-D_THREAD_SAFE</c> and
            <c>-D_REENTRANT</c> switches on unix when the emulator has
            thread support enabled.</p>
          <p>Linked in drivers on MacOSX are not compiled with the
            undocumented <c>-lbundle1.o</c> switch anymore. Thanks to
            Sean Hinde who sent us a patch.</p>
          <p>Linked in driver in Crypto, and port programs in SSL, now
            compiles on OSF1.</p>
          <p>Minor <c>Makefile</c> improvements in Runtime_Tools.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5346</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>
</chapter>