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Release Notes
Version 1.8.2


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1 Runtime_Tools Release Notes

This document describes the changes made to the Runtime_Tools application.

1.1  Runtime_Tools 1.8.2

Improvements and New Features

  • 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.

    Own Id: OTP-8201

1.2  Runtime_Tools 1.8.1

Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

  • Makefile.in has been updated to use the LDFLAGS environment variable (if set). (Thanks to Davide Pesavento.)

    Own Id: OTP-8157

1.3  Runtime_Tools 1.8

Improvements and New Features

  • etop would crash if the emulator's custom allocators had been turned off (e.g. using the +Meamin option).

    Own Id: OTP-7519

  • The copyright notices have been updated.

    Own Id: OTP-7851

  • Now, dbg:p/2 accepts {X,Y,Z} process specification as stated in the documentation. It also now accepts "<X.Y.Z>" like from erlang:pid_to_list/1.

    There is now a pre-saved match spec in dbg that saves a lot of typing. Use dbg:ltp/0 to find out more...

    Own Id: OTP-7867

1.4  Runtime_Tools 1.7.3

Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

  • Fixed a timestamp problem where some events could be sent out of order. Minor fixes to presentation of data.

    Own Id: OTP-7544 Aux Id: otp-7442

1.5  Runtime_Tools 1.7.2

Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

  • etop now collects process information faster and more reliably than before (a race condition reported by Igor Goryachev has been eliminated).

    Trace messages could be lost when ttb:stop/0 was called.

    Own Id: OTP-7164

1.6  Runtime_Tools 1.7.1

Improvements and New Features

  • 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 p of the io_lib module.

    Superfluous empty lines have been removed from code examples and from Erlang shell examples.

    Own Id: OTP-6944 Aux Id: OTP-6554, OTP-6911

  • Memory management improvements especially for the runtime system with SMP support:

    • 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.
    • driver_alloc(), driver_realloc(), and driver_free() now use their own erts specific memory allocator instead of the default malloc() implementation on the system.
    • The default configuration of some allocators have been changed to fit applications that use much memory better.
    • Some new erts_alloc configuration parameters have been added.
    • erts_alloc_config has been modified to be able to create configurations suitable for multiple instances of allocators.
    • The returned value from erlang:system_info({allocator, Alloc}) has been changed. This since an allocator may now run in multiple instances.

    If you for some reason want the memory allocators to be configured as before, you can pass the +Mea r11b command-line argument to erl.

    For more information see the erts_alloc(3), the erts_alloc_config(3), and the erlang(3) documentation.

    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***

    Own Id: OTP-7100

1.7  Runtime_Tools 1.7

Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

  • dbg could leave traced processes in a suspended state if the tracer process was killed with exit reason kill.

    erlang:suspend_process/2 has been introduced which accepts an option list as second argument. For more information see the erlang(3) documentation.

    Processes suspended via erlang:suspend_process/[1,2] will now be automatically resumed if the process that called erlang:suspend_process/[1,2] terminates.

    Processes could previously be suspended by one process and resumed by another unless someone was tracing the suspendee. This is not possible anymore. The process resuming a process has to be the one that suspended it.

    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***

    Own Id: OTP-6946

Improvements and New Features

  • The undocumented and unsupported function dbg:tracer/1 has been removed. The undocumented, unsupported, and broken function dbg:i/1 has been removed.

    Own Id: OTP-6939

1.8  Runtime_Tools 1.6.8

Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

  • 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.

    Own Id: OTP-6918

1.9  Runtime_Tools 1.6.7

Improvements and New Features

  • 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.

    *** INCOMPATIBILITY with Meta trace call-backs are called with different arguments now. ***

    Own Id: OTP-6881

1.10  Runtime_Tools 1.6.6

Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

  • 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.

    Own Id: OTP-6703

Improvements and New Features

  • Minor Makefile changes.

    Own Id: OTP-6689 Aux Id: OTP-6742

  • An experimental tool called erts_alloc_config has been added. erts_alloc_config is intended to be used to aid creation of an erts_alloc configuration that is suitable for a limited number of runtime scenarios. For more information see the erts_alloc_config(3) documentation.

    Own Id: OTP-6700

1.11  Runtime_Tools 1.6.5

Improvements and New Features

  • Misc improvements.

    Own Id: OTP-6576

1.12  Runtime_Tools 1.6.4

Improvements and New Features

  • This application has been updated to eliminate warnings by Dialyzer.

    Own Id: OTP-6551

1.13  Runtime_Tools 1.6.3

Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

  • 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.

    Own Id: OTP-6426

1.14  Runtime_Tools 1.6.2

Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

  • Several minor bugs and race conditions eliminated in the runtime_tools and observer applications.

    Own Id: OTP-6265

1.15  Runtime_Tools 1.6.1

Improvements and New Features

  • There are new BIFs erlang:spawn_monitor/1,3, and the new option monitor for spawn_opt/2,3,4,5.

    The observer_backend module has been updated to handle the new BIFs.

    Own Id: OTP-6281

1.16  Runtime_Tools 1.6

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.

1.17  Runtime_Tools 1.5.1.1

Improvements and New Features

  • The dbg manual page has been updated with information about how to avoid deadlock when tracing.

    Own Id: OTP-5373 Aux Id: seq9729

1.18  Runtime_Tools 1.5.1

Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

  • Linked in drivers in the Crypto, and Asn1 applications are now compiled with the -D_THREAD_SAFE and -D_REENTRANT switches on unix when the emulator has thread support enabled.

    Linked in drivers on MacOSX are not compiled with the undocumented -lbundle1.o switch anymore. Thanks to Sean Hinde who sent us a patch.

    Linked in driver in Crypto, and port programs in SSL, now compiles on OSF1.

    Minor Makefile improvements in Runtime_Tools.

    Own Id: OTP-5346

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