# Getting started with jprof (jBASE Application Profiling)
Updated: 10/14/2021, 2:20:00 PM
Created: 10/14/2021, 2:20:00 PM
Last Updated By: mikes
Read Time: 9 minute(s)
Profiling is built in, there is no external application that needs to be installed, it’s all right there in jBASE.
A single command starts the profiling, set the JDIAG environment variable and profiling is started. Then you enter your application and everything you do, every process that gets started underneath is all logged and profiled. That includes subroutines, triggers, menus, it doesn’t matter what you run. Then exit the application and unset the JDIAG environment variable and you are ready to view the profiling.
Profiling is done with a per user-session based concept. You enable profiling for your session and then enter your application and run the portion of the app that you want to profile. You will be profiling your session and any subroutines, triggers, executes, etc. Anything that the application runs or calls during your session will be profiled. Once that portion has completed, you will want to disable profiling on your session to limit the profiling log to just the part of the app that you want to profile.
# Starting profiling
Starting the profiling is accomplished with 1 command:
export JDIAG=profile=long:filename=fb1.txt <- this creates 1 file
Typically you will want to create several files, one for each process that gets exec’d or forked.
export JDIAG=profile=long:filename=fb1_%p.txt <- captures the process id and creates a separate file for each process that is created during the profiling.
export JDIAG=profile=long:filename=fb1_%p_%t.txt <- creates multiple files with %p being the pid of the process and %t being a time stamp.
# Linux Notes
Profiling must be started external to the jBASE environment, you need to enter jBASE with profiling already running as a result of setting JDIAG.
Changing JDIAG while you are already running a jBC program will not initiate the profiling, you must initially set JDIAG.
# export JDIAG=profile=long:filename=fb1.txt
This command above says we are going to start profiling and the output is going to be in a file called fb1.txt.
# unset JDIAG
# export JDIAG=profile=long:filename=fb1_%p.txt
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The commands above first clear the JDIAG environment variable using the 'unset' command, then says we are going to start profiling and the output is going to be in files called fb1_%p.txt where %p will be the separate process numbers that are profiled.
# export JDIAG=profile=long:filename=fb1_%p_%t.txt
This command above says we are going to start profiling and the output is going to be in files called fb1_%p_%.txt where %p will be the separate process numbers that are profiled and %t will be an additional time stamp, useful when there are many processes to be profiled.
# Windows Notes
The above examples are for Linux but the concept is the same for Windows. The command to assign and unassign the JDIAG environment variable is slightly different using the set command.
C:\windows\system32>cd ..
C:\Windows>cd ..
C:\>echo %JDIAG%
%JDIAG%
C:\>set JDIAG=profile=long:filename=fb1.txt
C:\>echo %JDIAG%
profile=long:filename=fb1.txt
C:\>set JDIAG=
C:\>echo %JDIAG%
%JDIAG%
C:\>
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Note: To include the
%pand%tvalues (process ID and timestamp) in the filename in Windows, the%character needs to be escaped. From a command line the%sign can be escaped using the caret^character. From a bat file the%sign needs to be escaped using another%sign; e.g.:
Command line:
C:\>set JDIAG=profile=long:filename=fb_^%p_^%t.txt
.bat file:
SET JDIAG=profile=long:filename=fb_%%p_%%t.txt
# Start the application
Once the JDIAG environment variable has been set you enter a command to run the application or start a jsh and run the application. Here is a snap of the steps being used to demonstrate the sequence for this test.
# export JDIAG=profile=long:filename=fb1.txt
# jsh
jsh ~ -->logto ROBERT
jsh ROBERT ~ -->make-demo-file 1000000 CUSTOMERS
File Type (JD=Dynamic=default, JP=jPlus, J4, UD=Directory, X=Exit):
[ 417 ] File CUSTOMERS]D created , type = JD
[ 417 ] File CUSTOMERS created , type = JD
1,000,000 processed
1,000,000 records created.
jsh ROBERT ~ -->exit
# unset JDIAG
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# Examining the profile
Our profiling output is in a single file called fb1.txt. You can cat this file to see the contents but to make more sense of it the jprof command is used to parse and present the profiling information. The complete syntax and options can be displayed with the jprof -h command.
# jprof -h
Called as :
jprof -kfilename {-t} profile_list
jprof -a profile_list
jprof -j ON|OFF portnumber | % {filename options}
jprof -o {-v} profile_list
jprof -p {-v} profile_list
jprof -s profile_list
jprof -A {-v} profile_list
jprof {-n{-u}} {-i} {-fFilename} {-Flistoffiles]} profile_list
jprof portno{-portno} jprof commands
Where :
-a Display all ancilliary information.
-j Turn ON or OFF JIMI
-fName Name of file to extract source from.
-FNameList List of names of files to extract source from.
-i Sort by increasing ticks, rather than decreasing tick.
-kKeyFile Name of file to store keyboard INPUT, used by jkeyauto.
-n Subtotalled and sorted by source name
-o Display shared object usage
-p Display programs PERFORM'ed
-s Display list of subroutines called
-t Generate a TYPERATE statement for each INPUT statement
-u Sorted by CPU utilisation
-v Verbose mode
-A ALL, same as -a , -o , -p and -s
portno The port number to use. Some commands allow % for your current port
profile_list One or more input files generated by profiling an application
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The first use of jprof is to display a summary of the profiling log with jprof -a -f. fb1.txt.
# jprof -a -f. fb1.txt
Command line : jsh -
Process ID : 57
Parent pid : 17
Start time : 26 JUN 2020 22:01:42
End time : 26 JUN 2020 22:01:42
CPU usage : User 10.94 , System 2.51
Profile ticks : 2,679
Index count : None
Trigger count : None
Page size : 4,096
Memory : Used 239,856 , Free 896,768
INPUT count : 54
Keyboard speed: 54 characters in 0 secs , 0 secs per keystroke
Resource info : Maximum resident set size : 277996 (1,138,671,616 bytes)
Integral resident set size : 0 (0 bytes)
Page faults with no I/O : 550821
Page faults requiring physical I/O : 0
Swaps : 0
Block input operations : 56
Block output operations : 4997536
Messages sent : 0
Messages received : 0
Signals received : 0
Voluntary context switches : 177
Involuntary context switches : 276
File I/O : READ statement count : 41
WRITE statement count : 1000018
DELETE statement count : 3
CLEARFILE statement count : 0
OPEN statement count : 33
PERFORM statement count : 2
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Remove the -a for a report sorted by line number and CPU usage: jprof -f. fb1.txt
# jprof -f. fb1.txt
Profile of program jsh from profile fb1.txt
Source name Line# Ticks % Source
make-demo-file.b 361 856 32.93 attr14->$append(50 + RND(2000))
360 433 16.66 attr13->$append(systemtype<1+RND(csystemtype)>)
345 345 13.27 rec->city = city<1+RND(ccity)>
356 213 8.19 attr14 = new array
353 140 5.38 attr11 = new array
358 114 4.38 attr11->$append(hardware<1+RND(chardware)>)
354 106 4.07 attr12 = new array
355 83 3.19 attr13 = new array
362 64 2.46 NEXT x
363 39 1.5 rec->hardware = attr11
335 34 1.3 REPEAT
334 33 1.26 WRITE dictentry ON dm, id
357 32 1.23 FOR x = 1 TO cc
348 26 1 rec->hometel = hometel<1+RND(chometel)>
352 24 0.92 cc = RND(8)
349 21 0.8 rec->worktel = worktel<1+RND(cworktel)>
351 17 0.65
350 14 0.53 rec->email = OCONV(rec->firstname:rec->lastname[1,1],"MCL"):email<1+RND(cem
347 3 0.11 rec->zip = zip<1+RND(czip)>
jmainfunction.b 364 1 0.03 ??
jsh.b 153 1 0.03 ??
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You can see above that the primary sort is on cpu usage by source code line number across all programs or subroutines that were run. It may be more informative to look at each program or subroutine individually so the next use of jprof would be to add the -n option, jprof -n -f. fb1.txt.
# jprof -n -f. fb1.txt
Profile of program jsh from profile fb1.txt
Source name Line# Ticks % Source
make-demo-file.b 360 909 5.25 attr13->$append(systemtype<1+RND(csystemtype)>)
345 732 4.23 rec->city = city<1+RND(ccity)>
356 268 1.54 attr14 = new array
358 181 1.04 attr11->$append(hardware<1+RND(chardware)>)
353 165 0.95 attr11 = new array
362 152 0.87 NEXT x
354 118 0.68 attr12 = new array
361 109 0.63 attr14->$append(50 + RND(2000))
355 100 0.57 attr13 = new array
334 99 0.57 WRITE dictentry ON dm, id
363 84 0.48 rec->hardware = attr11
352 53 0.3 cc = RND(8)
335 46 0.26 REPEAT
357 30 0.17 FOR x = 1 TO cc
349 25 0.14 rec->worktel = worktel<1+RND(cworktel)>
348 24 0.13 rec->hometel = hometel<1+RND(chometel)>
351 11 0.06
347 7 0.04 rec->zip = zip<1+RND(czip)>
-------- --------
3132 18.01
TRIGTEST 3 5317 30.74 WRITE RECORD ON F.TEST1,RECORDKEY
2 4101 23.71 OPEN "TEST1" TO F.TEST1 ELSE DEBUG
4 35 0.2 RETURN
-------- ---------
9453 54.65
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In the output above you can see the display break on each separate program module that was executed during your profile run.
To display the subroutines that were called in the profile, use just the -s option: jprof -s -f. fb1.txt
# jprof -s -f. fb1.txt
Subroutines called by program jsh from profile fb1.txt
Times Subroutine
2000003 TRIGTEST
22 JBASECommandNext
3 JBASECommandInit
2 main()
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Different combinations of options will enhance the output until you find the optimal information to allow you to move forward with your performance profiling.
Profiling is mainly used to concentrate on CPU usage per process, per user, per line number of source code. Profiling can be set to concentrate instead on memory usage for resource planning and to identify if you have introduced memory inefficiencies or memory leaks in your application. Program branches can also be profiled, which will examine the flow of your program in the context of subroutine calls and executes. Profiling can also be set to jimi mode (jBASE independent metrics information) which provides information on transactions and file I/O. The complete range of profiling environments can be displayed with the command:
JDIAG=help WHO
# JDIAG=help WHO
JDIAG=option{:option{:option ...}}
option can be one of ...
profile={off|short|long|user|jcover|all}
filename={stdout|stderr|tmp|pathname{,refresh_mins}
(%p in pathname is substituted with process id)
(%t in pathname is substituted with time stamp)
memory={off|on|verify}
branch={off|on|verbose}
jimi={database|open|fileio|branch|call|perform|transaction|all|verbose}
help
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Look for future quick starts on profiling memory and the various other advanced features of jBASE profiling.
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