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Release Changes · Known Problems and Limitations · Release History · Installed Files · Authors

Release Changes for Jinsight Version 2.0

The major benefit of Jinsight 2.0 is in the revised visualizer, which provides greatly expanded capabilities for subsetting and analyzing trace data, as well as some new views requested by our users. The visualizer now requires Java Foundation Classes (JFC)/Swing, Version 1.1.1 Users of JDK1.1.8 need to obtain the file swingall.jar; the Java 1.2.2 and Java 1.3 distributions include this functionality. The major visualizer changes are listed below, and are detailed in sections of the Jinsight 2.0 Reference Manual.

The Jinsight 2.0 instrumented JVMs are all at the JDK1.1.8 level. Two of them (AIX, OS/390) have now instrumented the executable java program, in place of the previous java_g program.

Changes in the Jinsight 2.0 Visualizer:

• Two new views emphasize quantitative information
  • The Table view summarizes measures of execution activity or memory at any level of detail: by thread, package, class, method, object, method invocation, or user-defined slice
  • The Call Tree view summarizes execution activity along call paths from or to a given set of method invocations
  • Both of these views let you export information to a spreadsheet
• Navigation and selection capabilities have been greatly expanded
  • You may make a selection in one view and drill down to see related information in other views
  • Most views support live update: as you select elements in one view, another view will automatically show related information
  • Multiple selection is now supported, as well as more control over what may be selected in each view
• Slices and Workspaces
  • You may define custom slices of the trace information, corresponding to features of your run you would like to study. Use slices to filter out irrelevant information from views and measurements, and to group information into higher-level units. Various views let you use slices as an additional dimension for visualization or measurement.
  • A workspace gives you a working context, with a filter to focus your study, slices that group information within that focus, and any number of views. You may work with multiple workspaces simultaneously.
• Improved computation of aggregate measures of time
  • When summarizing cumulative time over a number of method invocations that call each other, care is now taken to avoid counting the time in any single invocation more than once.
• Miscellaneous user interface changes, including::
  • The Histogram view has been split into two views: the Object Histogram and Method Histogram views
  • A zoom history and bookmark are now provided in some views
• Deleted functionality
  • the Call Stack view
  • the Invocation Browser view (its function can be obtained by using a Table view of invocations and the Execution Pattern view together).
  • Animation of views while the trace is loading no longer occurs. Views are now updated only after loading has stopped.

Changes in the Jinsight 2.0 instrumented VMs:

• IBM AIX -- instrumentation of executable java (not java_g) for IBM JDK1.1.8 for AIX
• Windows -- instrumentation of executable java_g (not java) for IBM Windows JDK, Version 1.1.8

WebSphere users: see the revised configuration instructions for tracing WebSphere applications.

The OS/390 Jinsight instrumentation

• IBM OS/390 -- instrumentation of executable java (not java_g) for IBM Java for OS/390 at the JDK1.1.8 level

Release Changes for Jinsight Version 1.2

Changes in Jinsight Version 1.2 functionality and operation:

Changes in the Jinsight 1.2 Visualizer:

• Allows for the display of short names in the views, which shortens the length of data displayed in the status line.
• Fixes a bug in the Execution view for threads sharing the same name.
• Fixes a timestamp wraparound bug that can occur in long running traces.
• Reads the new trace format version 2, as well as all previous trace formats.

Changes in the Jinsight 1.2 instrumented VMs:

• Adds an API to dump object population and object references from a Java application, both on Windows JVMs and on the AIX JVM.
• Adds a web page and servlet to control tracing servlets remotely; you can start and stop tracing, as well as dump object population and object references.
• Extends JDK instrumentation on Windows based on JDK1.1.8 and on the IBM Enhanced Developer Kit Version 1.1.8, and on AIX to AIX JDK1.1.6 (at June 1999 PTF7 level).
• Fixes a bug that may have been causing occasional problems with the dump object references function.
• Produces trace output format version 2; the Jinsight 1.2 visualizer is needed to read trace format version 2.

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Known Problems and Limitations

• There is currently a limit of 32 slices active in a single Jinsight session
• Jinsight views may stop accepting keyboard input in some cases.  Click on either of the zoom buttons at the bottom of  the view to restore the keyboard focus.
• Reference Pattern: a long blue arrow to another occurrence disappears when you scroll far enough.
• Execution Pattern: pattern extraction may fail for very deep recursion patterns.
• Histogram: on Windows '95 only, some lines between objects or methods are drawn incorrectly due to a drawing problem in AWT.  (The problem occurs in such a way that you will easily be able to see that the lines aren't being drawn properly).

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Recent Release History

• January 2001: Public release of Jinsight 2.0 on IBM alphaWorks. This release presented a greatly revised visualizer, providing expanded capabilities for subsetting and analyzing trace data, as well as some new views requested by our users. The release also updated AIX JDK instrumentation to the JDK1.1.8 level, with instrumentation now for the java program rather than the java_g program. The release also updated the IBM Windows JDK1.1.8 java_g instrumentation to fix some bugs.
• February 2000: Public release of Jinsight 1.2 on IBM alphaWorks. This release added support and instructions for tracing server-side applications, especially servlets. It extends JDK instrumentation on Windows based on JDK1.1.8 and on the IBM Enhanced Developer Kit Version 1.1.8, and on AIX to AIX JDK1.1.6 (at June 1999 PTF7 level). The instrumented JVMs now produce trace output version 2; the Jinsight 1.2 visualizer is needed to read this trace format. The Jinsight 1.2 visualizer now displays short names in the views, and has a bug fix for same-named threads.

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Installed Files for Jinsight 2.0

In general, by default the Jinsight 2.0 installation process creates directory jinsight2.0 and includes these files:

• jinsight.jar -- Java classes for the visualizer; do not unzip!
• jinsight or jinsight.bat -- script/batch file to start the visualizer; this file may need environment variable revisions for your Java Runtime Environment.
• jinsight_trace or jinsight_trace.bat -- script/batch file to create a Jinsight trace, using the instrumented java (or java_g for Windows) command in the tracing VM
• jintrace.htm -- HTML interface for controlling servlet tracing
• tinySamp*.* -- tiny sample Java pgm to practice making a small trace

• docs -- HTML documentation for Jinsight
• traces -- sample trace files, with extension .trc

• a118-2.0 -- self-contained AIX tracing VM; extends the IBM AIX JDK1.1.8 executable java instrumentation to make Jinsight2.0 traces
• n118p-2.0 -- self-contained tracing VM on Windows; extends IBM Enhanced Developer Kit Version 1.1.8 java_g instrumentation to make Jinsight2.0 traces

Inside the lib directory of one of the above tracing VMs, the file:

• jintrace.jar -- contains the dump objects/dump references API, and functions to remotely controlling servlet tracing

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Authors

Wim De Pauw
Olivier Gruber
Erik Jensen
Ravi Konuru
Nick Mitchell
Martin Robillard
Gary Sevitsky
Harini Srinivasan
John Vlissides
Jeaha Yang

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