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= DevFaqProfiling
:jbake-type: wiki
:jbake-tags: wiki, devfaq, needsreview
:jbake-status: published
:keywords: Apache NetBeans wiki DevFaqProfiling
:description: Apache NetBeans wiki DevFaqProfiling
:toc: left
:toc-title:
:syntax: true

== How can I profile NetBeans?

There are many possibilities how to profile Java applications and that can be applied to NetBeans profiling.
For different task it can be good to select different ways because each of them has its strengths and weaknesses.

See also: link:DevFaqMemoryLeaks.asciidoc[DevFaqMemoryLeaks]

To be able to profile an application it is usually needed to start it with a modified command
that typically adds some (JVMPI or JVMTI) libraries, some classes to (boot)classpath, specifies 
options for profiling and often initializes profiling support before the application starts to run its code.

=== NetBeans profiler

The NB module development support is integrated with the NB Profiler.
Just select a module and click *Profile* to start.

_Want to cover some typical activities like:_

* action execution (invoked from menu or by shortcut)
* window/dialog opening/closing
* use of editor including tracking what happens in background
* startup

=== Analyzer

It is a sampling profiler working on Solaris and Linux (with limited functionality) that collects data during runtime.
These data are later available for offline processing.

It provides some capabilities that are not available in other Java profilers namely timeline view.
This view shows timeline for each thread visualizing if the thread actually executes some code or not.

==== Download and install Analyzer tool

Performance Analyzer that is part of Sun Studio tools and can be downloaded
from the link:http://developers.sun.com/sunstudio/downloads/express.jsp[developers' site].

==== Run the Analyzer

* Set the environment. `PATH` should contain `bin` directory of Analyzer installation. `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` should similarly contain `lib` dir (and also `/usr/lib/lwp` if you want to run it on Solaris 2.8). Optionally you can also set `MAN_PATH`. Set the `_NB_PROFILE_CMD`:
[source,java]
----

export _NB_PROFILE_CMD='collect -p 1 -j on -S off -g NetBeans.erg  -y 38 -d /export/home/radim/analyzer
----


-p _num_ stands for sampling period (_on_, _hi_, _lo_ are also accepted), -j on turns on Java profiling, -y _num_ determines the signal to trigger profiling on/off. -y _num_,r means that profiling will be resumed at the begining. Use `man collect` to get detailed explanation of all options.

* `mkdir /export/home/radim/analyzer` (It is only need first time. Next experiments will be added.)
* Install &amp; start the IDE
* Send signal 38 to Java process to start data collecting (`kill -38 $pid`). Or use another signal like PROF (this works well on Linux).
* Perform the analyzed activity
* Send the signal again to stop profiling (there can be more evaluated periods during one run).
* Shut down the IDE.
* Run the analyzer to evaluate the experiment in GUI environment: `analyzer /export/home/radim/analyzer/NetBeans.x.er`

==== Profiling hints

Startup: start with profiling enabled, send a signal when startup is completed. 
When sampling every 1ms it takes 70 seconds instead of 40.

=== Other tools

Quite simple way how to measure time spent in some code is to wrap the code with 

[source,java]
----

long t0 = System.nanoTime();
try {
  ... measured code
} finally {
  long t1 = System.nanoTime();
  System.out.println("action took "+(t1-t0)/1000000+"ms");
}
----

_JVMTI_ is powerful interface that allows to write custom libraries that will track behavior of application.

link:http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/dtrace/[DTrace] is a comprehensive dynamic tracing framework for the Solaris™ Operating Environment.
It is one of the few tools that allows to track activities running deeply in the system and analyze the system.
Because there are also probes provided by Java VM and function like `jstack` it is also possible to map 
observed actions to parts of Java code in running application.

=== Tips and trick

Node pop-ups: interesting starting point is `o.o.awt.MouseUtils$PopupMouseAdapter.mousePressed()`

=== How to measure performance/responsiveness?

See link:http://performance.netbeans.org/responsiveness/whatisresponsiveness.html[What is UI responsiveness] for overview.

Older link:http://performance.netbeans.org/[Performance] web page contains few links to documentation of one possible approach 
how to measure and profile responsiveness. 
This is based on use of modified event queue and patches classes from JDK.

Recently we changed the support a bit to avoid modifications of core JDK's classes and and use small utility library 
available in Hg.
This is used in current automated testing and can be used for manual checks too.
To run such test:

1. Build `performance` project.
2. Copy the JAR file to `netbeans/platform/core`
3. Start the IDE with `-J-Dnetbeans.mainclass=org.netbeans.performance.test.guitracker.Main -J-Dguitracker.mainclass=org.netbeans.core.startup.Main`
4. ... watch process output when you perform an action


Applies to: NetBeans 6.5 and above

link:Category:Performance:HowTo.asciidoc[Category:Performance:HowTo]

== Apache Migration Information

The content in this page was kindly donated by Oracle Corp. to the
Apache Software Foundation.

This page was exported from link:http://wiki.netbeans.org/DevFaqProfiling[http://wiki.netbeans.org/DevFaqProfiling] , 
that was last modified by NetBeans user Jglick 
on 2010-06-14T20:22:39Z.


*NOTE:* This document was automatically converted to the AsciiDoc format on 2018-02-07, and needs to be reviewed.