<para>To make an executable program, the GHC system compiles your
code and then links it with a non-trivial runtime system (RTS),
- which handles storage management, profiling, etc.</para>
+ which handles storage management, thread scheduling, profiling, and
+ so on.</para>
+
+ <para>
+ The RTS has a lot of options to control its behaviour. For
+ example, you can change the context-switch interval, the default
+ size of the heap, and enable heap profiling. These options can be
+ passed to the runtime system in a variety of different ways; the
+ next section (<xref linkend="setting-rts-options" />) describes
+ the various methods, and the following sections describe the RTS
+ options themselves.
+ </para>
+
+ <sect2 id="setting-rts-options">
+ <title>Setting RTS options</title>
+ <indexterm><primary>RTS options, setting</primary></indexterm>
- <para>You have some control over the behaviour of the RTS, by giving
- special command-line arguments to your program.</para>
+ <para>
+ There are four ways to set RTS options:
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ on the command line between <literal>+RTS ... -RTS</literal>, when running the program
+ (<xref linkend="rts-opts-cmdline" />)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>at compile-time, using <option>--with-rtsopts</option>
+ (<xref linkend="rts-opts-compile-time" />)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>with the environment variable <envar>GHCRTS</envar>
+ (<xref linkend="rts-options-environment" />)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>by overriding “hooks” in the runtime system
+ (<xref linkend="rts-hooks" />)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </para>
- <para>When your Haskell program starts up, its RTS extracts
- command-line arguments bracketed between
- <option>+RTS</option><indexterm><primary><option>+RTS</option></primary></indexterm>
- and
- <option>-RTS</option><indexterm><primary><option>-RTS</option></primary></indexterm>
- as its own. For example:</para>
+ <sect3 id="rts-opts-cmdline">
+ <title>Setting RTS options on the command line</title>
+
+ <para>
+ If you set the <literal>-rtsopts</literal> flag appropriately
+ when linking (see <xref linkend="options-linker" />), you can
+ give RTS options on the command line when running your
+ program.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ When your Haskell program starts up, the RTS extracts
+ command-line arguments bracketed between
+ <option>+RTS</option><indexterm><primary><option>+RTS</option></primary></indexterm>
+ and
+ <option>-RTS</option><indexterm><primary><option>-RTS</option></primary></indexterm>
+ as its own. For example:
+ </para>
<screen>
-% ./a.out -f +RTS -p -S -RTS -h foo bar
+$ ghc prog.hs -rtsopts
+[1 of 1] Compiling Main ( prog.hs, prog.o )
+Linking prog ...
+$ ./prog -f +RTS -H32m -S -RTS -h foo bar
</screen>
- <para>The RTS will snaffle <option>-p</option> <option>-S</option>
- for itself, and the remaining arguments <literal>-f -h foo bar</literal>
- will be handed to your program if/when it calls
- <function>System.getArgs</function>.</para>
+ <para>
+ The RTS will
+ snaffle <option>-H32m</option> <option>-S</option> for itself,
+ and the remaining arguments <literal>-f -h foo bar</literal>
+ will be available to your program if/when it calls
+ <function>System.Environment.getArgs</function>.
+ </para>
- <para>No <option>-RTS</option> option is required if the
- runtime-system options extend to the end of the command line, as in
- this example:</para>
+ <para>
+ No <option>-RTS</option> option is required if the
+ runtime-system options extend to the end of the command line, as in
+ this example:
+ </para>
<screen>
% hls -ltr /usr/etc +RTS -A5m
</screen>
- <para>If you absolutely positively want all the rest of the options
- in a command line to go to the program (and not the RTS), use a
- <option>––RTS</option><indexterm><primary><option>--RTS</option></primary></indexterm>.</para>
-
- <para>As always, for RTS options that take
- <replaceable>size</replaceable>s: If the last character of
- <replaceable>size</replaceable> is a K or k, multiply by 1000; if an
- M or m, by 1,000,000; if a G or G, by 1,000,000,000. (And any
- wraparound in the counters is <emphasis>your</emphasis>
- fault!)</para>
-
- <para>Giving a <literal>+RTS -f</literal>
- <indexterm><primary><option>-f</option></primary><secondary>RTS option</secondary></indexterm> option
- will print out the RTS options actually available in your program
- (which vary, depending on how you compiled).</para>
-
- <para>NOTE: since GHC is itself compiled by GHC, you can change RTS
- options in the compiler using the normal
- <literal>+RTS ... -RTS</literal>
- combination. eg. to increase the maximum heap
- size for a compilation to 128M, you would add
- <literal>+RTS -M128m -RTS</literal>
- to the command line.</para>
-
- <sect2 id="rts-optinos-environment">
- <title>Setting global RTS options</title>
-
- <indexterm><primary>RTS options</primary><secondary>from the environment</secondary></indexterm>
- <indexterm><primary>environment variable</primary><secondary>for
- setting RTS options</secondary></indexterm>
-
- <para>RTS options are also taken from the environment variable
- <envar>GHCRTS</envar><indexterm><primary><envar>GHCRTS</envar></primary>
- </indexterm>. For example, to set the maximum heap size
- to 128M for all GHC-compiled programs (using an
- <literal>sh</literal>-like shell):</para>
+ <para>
+ If you absolutely positively want all the rest of the options
+ in a command line to go to the program (and not the RTS), use a
+ <option>––RTS</option><indexterm><primary><option>--RTS</option></primary></indexterm>.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ As always, for RTS options that take
+ <replaceable>size</replaceable>s: If the last character of
+ <replaceable>size</replaceable> is a K or k, multiply by 1000; if an
+ M or m, by 1,000,000; if a G or G, by 1,000,000,000. (And any
+ wraparound in the counters is <emphasis>your</emphasis>
+ fault!)
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Giving a <literal>+RTS -?</literal>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-?</option></primary><secondary>RTS option</secondary></indexterm> option
+ will print out the RTS options actually available in your program
+ (which vary, depending on how you compiled).</para>
+
+ <para>
+ NOTE: since GHC is itself compiled by GHC, you can change RTS
+ options in the compiler using the normal
+ <literal>+RTS ... -RTS</literal>
+ combination. eg. to set the maximum heap
+ size for a compilation to 128M, you would add
+ <literal>+RTS -M128m -RTS</literal>
+ to the command line.
+ </para>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3 id="rts-opts-compile-time">
+ <title>Setting RTS options at compile time</title>
+
+ <para>
+ GHC lets you change the default RTS options for a program at
+ compile time, using the <literal>-with-rtsopts</literal>
+ flag (<xref linkend="options-linker" />). For example, to
+ set <literal>-H128m -K64m</literal>, link
+ with <literal>-with-rtsopts="-H128m -K64m"</literal>.
+ </para>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3 id="rts-options-environment">
+ <title>Setting RTS options with the <envar>GHCRTS</envar>
+ environment variable</title>
+
+ <indexterm><primary>RTS options</primary><secondary>from the environment</secondary></indexterm>
+ <indexterm><primary>environment variable</primary><secondary>for
+ setting RTS options</secondary></indexterm>
+
+ <para>
+ If the <literal>-rtsopts</literal> flag is set to
+ something other than <literal>none</literal> when linking,
+ RTS options are also taken from the environment variable
+ <envar>GHCRTS</envar><indexterm><primary><envar>GHCRTS</envar></primary>
+ </indexterm>. For example, to set the maximum heap size
+ to 2G for all GHC-compiled programs (using an
+ <literal>sh</literal>-like shell):
+ </para>
<screen>
- GHCRTS='-M128m'
+ GHCRTS='-M2G'
export GHCRTS
</screen>
- <para>RTS options taken from the <envar>GHCRTS</envar> environment
- variable can be overridden by options given on the command
- line.</para>
+ <para>
+ RTS options taken from the <envar>GHCRTS</envar> environment
+ variable can be overridden by options given on the command
+ line.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Tip: setting something like <literal>GHCRTS=-M2G</literal>
+ in your environment is a handy way to avoid Haskell programs
+ growing beyond the real memory in your machine, which is
+ easy to do by accident and can cause the machine to slow to
+ a crawl until the OS decides to kill the process (and you
+ hope it kills the right one).
+ </para>
+ </sect3>
- </sect2>
+ <sect3 id="rts-hooks">
+ <title>“Hooks” to change RTS behaviour</title>
+
+ <indexterm><primary>hooks</primary><secondary>RTS</secondary></indexterm>
+ <indexterm><primary>RTS hooks</primary></indexterm>
+ <indexterm><primary>RTS behaviour, changing</primary></indexterm>
+
+ <para>GHC lets you exercise rudimentary control over the RTS
+ settings for any given program, by compiling in a
+ “hook” that is called by the run-time system. The RTS
+ contains stub definitions for all these hooks, but by writing your
+ own version and linking it on the GHC command line, you can
+ override the defaults.</para>
+
+ <para>Owing to the vagaries of DLL linking, these hooks don't work
+ under Windows when the program is built dynamically.</para>
+
+ <para>The hook <literal>ghc_rts_opts</literal><indexterm><primary><literal>ghc_rts_opts</literal></primary>
+ </indexterm>lets you set RTS
+ options permanently for a given program, in the same way as the
+ newer <option>-with-rtsopts</option> linker option does. A common use for this is
+ to give your program a default heap and/or stack size that is
+ greater than the default. For example, to set <literal>-H128m
+ -K1m</literal>, place the following definition in a C source
+ file:</para>
+
+<programlisting>
+char *ghc_rts_opts = "-H128m -K1m";
+</programlisting>
+
+ <para>Compile the C file, and include the object file on the
+ command line when you link your Haskell program.</para>
+
+ <para>These flags are interpreted first, before any RTS flags from
+ the <literal>GHCRTS</literal> environment variable and any flags
+ on the command line.</para>
+
+ <para>You can also change the messages printed when the runtime
+ system “blows up,” e.g., on stack overflow. The hooks
+ for these are as follows:</para>
+
+ <variablelist>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ <function>void OutOfHeapHook (unsigned long, unsigned long)</function>
+ <indexterm><primary><function>OutOfHeapHook</function></primary></indexterm>
+ </term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>The heap-overflow message.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ <function>void StackOverflowHook (long int)</function>
+ <indexterm><primary><function>StackOverflowHook</function></primary></indexterm>
+ </term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>The stack-overflow message.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ <function>void MallocFailHook (long int)</function>
+ <indexterm><primary><function>MallocFailHook</function></primary></indexterm>
+ </term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>The message printed if <function>malloc</function>
+ fails.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ </variablelist>
+
+ <para>For examples of the use of these hooks, see GHC's own
+ versions in the file
+ <filename>ghc/compiler/parser/hschooks.c</filename> in a GHC
+ source tree.</para>
+ </sect3>
+
+ </sect2>
<sect2 id="rts-options-misc">
<title>Miscellaneous RTS options</title>
things like ctrl-C. This option is primarily useful for when
you are using the Haskell code as a DLL, and want to set your
own signal handlers.</para>
+
+ <para>Note that even
+ with <option>--install-signal-handlers=no</option>, the RTS
+ interval timer signal is still enabled. The timer signal
+ is either SIGVTALRM or SIGALRM, depending on the RTS
+ configuration and OS capabilities. To disable the timer
+ signal, use the <literal>-V0</literal> RTS option (see
+ above).
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-xm<replaceable>address</replaceable></option>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-xm</option></primary><secondary>RTS
+ option</secondary></indexterm></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ WARNING: this option is for working around memory
+ allocation problems only. Do not use unless GHCi fails
+ with a message like “<literal>failed to mmap() memory below 2Gb</literal>”. If you need to use this option to get GHCi working
+ on your machine, please file a bug.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ On 64-bit machines, the RTS needs to allocate memory in the
+ low 2Gb of the address space. Support for this across
+ different operating systems is patchy, and sometimes fails.
+ This option is there to give the RTS a hint about where it
+ should be able to allocate memory in the low 2Gb of the
+ address space. For example, <literal>+RTS -xm20000000
+ -RTS</literal> would hint that the RTS should allocate
+ starting at the 0.5Gb mark. The default is to use the OS's
+ built-in support for allocating memory in the low 2Gb if
+ available (e.g. <literal>mmap</literal>
+ with <literal>MAP_32BIT</literal> on Linux), or
+ otherwise <literal>-xm40000000</literal>.
+ </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<indexterm><primary>allocation area, size</primary></indexterm>
</term>
<listitem>
- <para>[Default: 256k] Set the allocation area size
+ <para>[Default: 512k] Set the allocation area size
used by the garbage collector. The allocation area
(actually generation 0 step 0) is fixed and is never resized
(unless you use <option>-H</option>, below).</para>
<varlistentry>
<term>
- <option>-g</option><replaceable>threads</replaceable>
- <indexterm><primary><option>-g</option></primary><secondary>RTS option</secondary></indexterm>
+ <option>-qg<optional><replaceable>gen</replaceable></optional></option>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-qg</option><secondary>RTS
+ option</secondary></primary></indexterm>
+ </term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>[New in GHC 6.12.1] [Default: 0]
+ Use parallel GC in
+ generation <replaceable>gen</replaceable> and higher.
+ Omitting <replaceable>gen</replaceable> turns off the
+ parallel GC completely, reverting to sequential GC.</para>
+
+ <para>The default parallel GC settings are usually suitable
+ for parallel programs (i.e. those
+ using <literal>par</literal>, Strategies, or with multiple
+ threads). However, it is sometimes beneficial to enable
+ the parallel GC for a single-threaded sequential program
+ too, especially if the program has a large amount of heap
+ data and GC is a significant fraction of runtime. To use
+ the parallel GC in a sequential program, enable the
+ parallel runtime with a suitable <literal>-N</literal>
+ option, and additionally it might be beneficial to
+ restrict parallel GC to the old generation
+ with <literal>-qg1</literal>.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ <option>-qb<optional><replaceable>gen</replaceable></optional></option>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-qb</option><secondary>RTS
+ option</secondary></primary></indexterm>
</term>
<listitem>
- <para>[Default: 1] [new in GHC 6.10] Set the number
- of threads to use for garbage collection. This option is
- only accepted when the program was linked with the
- <option>-threaded</option> option; see <xref
- linkend="options-linker" />.</para>
-
- <para>The garbage collector is able to work in parallel when
- given more than one OS thread. Experiments have shown
- that this usually results in a performance improvement
- given 3 cores or more; with 2 cores it may or may not be
- beneficial, depending on the workload. Bigger heaps work
- better with parallel GC, so set your <option>-H</option>
- value high (3 or more times the maximum residency). Look
- at the timing stats with <option>+RTS -s</option> to
- see whether you're getting any benefit from parallel GC or
- not. If you find parallel GC is
- significantly <emphasis>slower</emphasis> (in elapsed
- time) than sequential GC, please report it as a
- bug.</para>
-
- <para>This value is set automatically when the
- <option>-N</option> option is used, so the only reason to
- use <option>-g</option> would be if you wanted to use a
- different number of threads for GC than for execution.
- For example, if your program is strictly single-threaded
- but you still want to benefit from parallel GC, then it
- might make sense to use <option>-g</option> rather than
- <option>-N</option>.</para>
+ <para>
+ [New in GHC 6.12.1] [Default: 1] Use
+ load-balancing in the parallel GC in
+ generation <replaceable>gen</replaceable> and higher.
+ Omitting <replaceable>gen</replaceable> disables
+ load-balancing entirely.</para>
+
+ <para>
+ Load-balancing shares out the work of GC between the
+ available cores. This is a good idea when the heap is
+ large and we need to parallelise the GC work, however it
+ is also pessimal for the short young-generation
+ collections in a parallel program, because it can harm
+ locality by moving data from the cache of the CPU where is
+ it being used to the cache of another CPU. Hence the
+ default is to do load-balancing only in the
+ old-generation. In fact, for a parallel program it is
+ sometimes beneficial to disable load-balancing entirely
+ with <literal>-qb</literal>.
+ </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
- <option>-k</option><replaceable>size</replaceable>
+ <option>-ki</option><replaceable>size</replaceable>
<indexterm><primary><option>-k</option></primary><secondary>RTS option</secondary></indexterm>
- <indexterm><primary>stack, minimum size</primary></indexterm>
+ <indexterm><primary>stack, initial size</primary></indexterm>
</term>
<listitem>
- <para>[Default: 1k] Set the initial stack size for
- new threads. Thread stacks (including the main thread's
- stack) live on the heap, and grow as required. The default
- value is good for concurrent applications with lots of small
- threads; if your program doesn't fit this model then
- increasing this option may help performance.</para>
-
- <para>The main thread is normally started with a slightly
- larger heap to cut down on unnecessary stack growth while
- the program is starting up.</para>
- </listitem>
+ <para>
+ [Default: 1k] Set the initial stack size for new
+ threads. (Note: this flag used to be
+ simply <option>-k</option>, but was renamed
+ to <option>-ki</option> in GHC 7.2.1. The old name is
+ still accepted for backwards compatibility, but that may
+ be removed in a future version).
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Thread stacks (including the main thread's stack) live on
+ the heap. As the stack grows, new stack chunks are added
+ as required; if the stack shrinks again, these extra stack
+ chunks are reclaimed by the garbage collector. The
+ default initial stack size is deliberately small, in order
+ to keep the time and space overhead for thread creation to
+ a minimum, and to make it practical to spawn threads for
+ even tiny pieces of work.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ <option>-kc</option><replaceable>size</replaceable>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-kc</option></primary><secondary>RTS
+ option</secondary></indexterm>
+ <indexterm><primary>stack</primary><secondary>chunk size</secondary></indexterm>
+ </term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ [Default: 32k] Set the size of “stack
+ chunks”. When a thread's current stack overflows, a
+ new stack chunk is created and added to the thread's
+ stack, until the limit set by <option>-K</option> is
+ reached.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ The advantage of smaller stack chunks is that the garbage
+ collector can avoid traversing stack chunks if they are
+ known to be unmodified since the last collection, so
+ reducing the chunk size means that the garbage collector
+ can identify more stack as unmodified, and the GC overhead
+ might be reduced. On the other hand, making stack chunks
+ too small adds some overhead as there will be more
+ overflow/underflow between chunks. The default setting of
+ 32k appears to be a reasonable compromise in most cases.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ <option>-kb</option><replaceable>size</replaceable>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-kc</option></primary><secondary>RTS
+ option</secondary></indexterm>
+ <indexterm><primary>stack</primary><secondary>chunk buffer size</secondary></indexterm>
+ </term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ [Default: 1k] Sets the stack chunk buffer size.
+ When a stack chunk overflows and a new stack chunk is
+ created, some of the data from the previous stack chunk is
+ moved into the new chunk, to avoid an immediate underflow
+ and repeated overflow/underflow at the boundary. The
+ amount of stack moved is set by the <option>-kb</option>
+ option.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Note that to avoid wasting space, this value should
+ typically be less than 10% of the size of a stack
+ chunk (<option>-kc</option>), because in a chain of stack
+ chunks, each chunk will have a gap of unused space of this
+ size.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<listitem>
<para>[Default: 8M] Set the maximum stack size for
an individual thread to <replaceable>size</replaceable>
- bytes. This option is there purely to stop the program
- eating up all the available memory in the machine if it gets
- into an infinite loop.</para>
+ bytes. If the thread attempts to exceed this limit, it will
+ be send the <literal>StackOverflow</literal> exception.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This option is there mainly to stop the program eating up
+ all the available memory in the machine if it gets into an
+ infinite loop.
+ </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<option>-S</option><optional><replaceable>file</replaceable></optional>
<indexterm><primary><option>-S</option></primary><secondary>RTS option</secondary></indexterm>
</term>
+ <term>
+ <option>--machine-readable</option>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>--machine-readable</option></primary><secondary>RTS option</secondary></indexterm>
+ </term>
<listitem>
<para>These options produce runtime-system statistics, such
as the amount of time spent executing the program and in the
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
- The total bytes allocated by the program. This may be less
- than the peak memory use, as some may be freed.
+ The total number of bytes allocated by the program over the
+ whole run.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- The total number of garbage collections that occurred.
+ The total number of garbage collections performed.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- The average and maximum space used by your program.
- This is only checked during major garbage collections, so it
- is only an approximation; the number of samples tells you how
- many times it is checked.
+ The average and maximum "residency", which is the amount of
+ live data in bytes. The runtime can only determine the
+ amount of live data during a major GC, which is why the
+ number of samples corresponds to the number of major GCs
+ (and is usually relatively small). To get a better picture
+ of the heap profile of your program, use
+ the <option>-hT</option> RTS option
+ (<xref linkend="rts-profiling" />).
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
+ You can also get this in a more future-proof, machine readable
+ format, with <literal>-t --machine-readable</literal>:
+ </para>
+
+<programlisting>
+ [("bytes allocated", "36169392")
+ ,("num_GCs", "69")
+ ,("average_bytes_used", "603392")
+ ,("max_bytes_used", "1065272")
+ ,("num_byte_usage_samples", "2")
+ ,("peak_megabytes_allocated", "3")
+ ,("init_cpu_seconds", "0.00")
+ ,("init_wall_seconds", "0.00")
+ ,("mutator_cpu_seconds", "0.02")
+ ,("mutator_wall_seconds", "0.02")
+ ,("GC_cpu_seconds", "0.07")
+ ,("GC_wall_seconds", "0.07")
+ ]
+</programlisting>
+
+ <para>
If you use the <literal>-s</literal> flag then, when your
program finishes, you will see something like this (the exact
details will vary depending on what sort of RTS you have, e.g.
Generation 0: 67 collections, 0 parallel, 0.04s, 0.03s elapsed
Generation 1: 2 collections, 0 parallel, 0.03s, 0.04s elapsed
+ SPARKS: 359207 (557 converted, 149591 pruned)
+
INIT time 0.00s ( 0.00s elapsed)
MUT time 0.01s ( 0.02s elapsed)
GC time 0.07s ( 0.07s elapsed)
<listitem>
<para>
The "bytes allocated in the heap" is the total bytes allocated
- by the program. This may be less than the peak memory use, as
- some may be freed.
+ by the program over the whole run.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- GHC uses a copying garbage collector. "bytes copied during GC"
- tells you how many bytes it had to copy during garbage collection.
+ GHC uses a copying garbage collector by default. "bytes copied
+ during GC" tells you how many bytes it had to copy during
+ garbage collection.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
The "bytes maximum slop" tells you the most space that is ever
- wasted due to the way GHC packs data into so-called "megablocks".
+ wasted due to the way GHC allocates memory in blocks. Slop is
+ memory at the end of a block that was wasted. There's no way
+ to control this; we just like to see how much memory is being
+ lost this way.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Next there is information about the garbage collections done.
For each generation it says how many garbage collections were
- done, how many of those collections used multiple threads,
+ done, how many of those collections were done in parallel,
the total CPU time used for garbage collecting that generation,
and the total wall clock time elapsed while garbage collecting
that generation.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
+ <para>The <literal>SPARKS</literal> statistic refers to the
+ use of <literal>Control.Parallel.par</literal> and related
+ functionality in the program. Each spark represents a call
+ to <literal>par</literal>; a spark is "converted" when it is
+ executed in parallel; and a spark is "pruned" when it is
+ found to be already evaluated and is discarded from the pool
+ by the garbage collector. Any remaining sparks are
+ discarded at the end of execution, so "converted" plus
+ "pruned" does not necessarily add up to the total.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
<para>
- Next there is the CPU time and wall clock time elapsedm broken
- down by what the runtiem system was doing at the time.
+ Next there is the CPU time and wall clock time elapsed broken
+ down by what the runtime system was doing at the time.
INIT is the runtime system initialisation.
MUT is the mutator time, i.e. the time spent actually running
your code.
<xref linkend="parallel-options"/>.</para>
</sect2>
- <sect2>
+ <sect2 id="rts-profiling">
<title>RTS options for profiling</title>
<para>Most profiling runtime options are only available when you
</variablelist>
</sect2>
+ <sect2 id="rts-eventlog">
+ <title>Tracing</title>
+
+ <indexterm><primary>tracing</primary></indexterm>
+ <indexterm><primary>events</primary></indexterm>
+ <indexterm><primary>eventlog files</primary></indexterm>
+
+ <para>
+ When the program is linked with the <option>-eventlog</option>
+ option (<xref linkend="options-linker" />), runtime events can
+ be logged in two ways:
+ </para>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ In binary format to a file for later analysis by a
+ variety of tools. One such tool
+ is <ulink url="http://hackage.haskell.org/package/ThreadScope">ThreadScope</ulink><indexterm><primary>ThreadScope</primary></indexterm>,
+ which interprets the event log to produce a visual parallel
+ execution profile of the program.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ As text to standard output, for debugging purposes.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+
+ <variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ <option>-l<optional><replaceable>flags</replaceable></optional></option>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-l</option></primary><secondary>RTS option</secondary></indexterm>
+ </term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Log events in binary format to the
+ file <filename><replaceable>program</replaceable>.eventlog</filename>,
+ where <replaceable>flags</replaceable> is a sequence of
+ zero or more characters indicating which kinds of events
+ to log. Currently there is only one type
+ supported: <literal>-ls</literal>, for scheduler events.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ The format of the log file is described by the header
+ <filename>EventLogFormat.h</filename> that comes with
+ GHC, and it can be parsed in Haskell using
+ the <ulink url="http://hackage.haskell.org/package/ghc-events">ghc-events</ulink>
+ library. To dump the contents of
+ a <literal>.eventlog</literal> file as text, use the
+ tool <literal>show-ghc-events</literal> that comes with
+ the <ulink url="http://hackage.haskell.org/package/ghc-events">ghc-events</ulink>
+ package.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ <option>-v</option><optional><replaceable>flags</replaceable></optional>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-v</option></primary><secondary>RTS option</secondary></indexterm>
+ </term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Log events as text to standard output, instead of to
+ the <literal>.eventlog</literal> file.
+ The <replaceable>flags</replaceable> are the same as
+ for <option>-l</option>, with the additional
+ option <literal>t</literal> which indicates that the
+ each event printed should be preceded by a timestamp value
+ (in the binary <literal>.eventlog</literal> file, all
+ events are automatically associated with a timestamp).
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ </variablelist>
+
+ <para>
+ The debugging
+ options <option>-D<replaceable>x</replaceable></option> also
+ generate events which are logged using the tracing framework.
+ By default those events are dumped as text to stdout
+ (<option>-D<replaceable>x</replaceable></option>
+ implies <option>-v</option>), but they may instead be stored in
+ the binary eventlog file by using the <option>-l</option>
+ option.
+ </para>
+ </sect2>
+
<sect2 id="rts-options-debugging">
<title>RTS options for hackers, debuggers, and over-interested
souls</title>
<varlistentry>
<term>
- <option>-D</option><replaceable>num</replaceable>
+ <option>-D</option><replaceable>x</replaceable>
<indexterm><primary>-D</primary><secondary>RTS option</secondary></indexterm>
</term>
<listitem>
- <para>An RTS debugging flag; varying quantities of output
- depending on which bits are set in
- <replaceable>num</replaceable>. Only works if the RTS was
- compiled with the <option>DEBUG</option> option.</para>
+ <para>
+ An RTS debugging flag; only availble if the program was
+ linked with the <option>-debug</option> option. Various
+ values of <replaceable>x</replaceable> are provided to
+ enable debug messages and additional runtime sanity checks
+ in different subsystems in the RTS, for
+ example <literal>+RTS -Ds -RTS</literal> enables debug
+ messages from the scheduler.
+ Use <literal>+RTS -?</literal> to find out which
+ debug flags are supported.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Debug messages will be sent to the binary event log file
+ instead of stdout if the <option>-l</option> option is
+ added. This might be useful for reducing the overhead of
+ debug tracing.
+ </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</term>
<listitem>
<para>Produce “ticky-ticky” statistics at the
- end of the program run. The <replaceable>file</replaceable>
- business works just like on the <option>-S</option> RTS
- option (above).</para>
-
- <para>“Ticky-ticky” statistics are counts of
- various program actions (updates, enters, etc.) The program
- must have been compiled using
- <option>-ticky</option><indexterm><primary><option>-ticky</option></primary></indexterm>
- (a.k.a. “ticky-ticky profiling”), and, for it to
- be really useful, linked with suitable system libraries.
- Not a trivial undertaking: consult the installation guide on
- how to set things up for easy “ticky-ticky”
- profiling. For more information, see <xref
- linkend="ticky-ticky"/>.</para>
+ end of the program run (only available if the program was
+ linked with <option>-debug</option>).
+ The <replaceable>file</replaceable> business works just like
+ on the <option>-S</option> RTS option, above.</para>
+
+ <para>For more information on ticky-ticky profiling, see
+ <xref linkend="ticky-ticky"/>.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</sect2>
- <sect2 id="rts-hooks">
- <title>“Hooks” to change RTS behaviour</title>
-
- <indexterm><primary>hooks</primary><secondary>RTS</secondary></indexterm>
- <indexterm><primary>RTS hooks</primary></indexterm>
- <indexterm><primary>RTS behaviour, changing</primary></indexterm>
-
- <para>GHC lets you exercise rudimentary control over the RTS
- settings for any given program, by compiling in a
- “hook” that is called by the run-time system. The RTS
- contains stub definitions for all these hooks, but by writing your
- own version and linking it on the GHC command line, you can
- override the defaults.</para>
-
- <para>Owing to the vagaries of DLL linking, these hooks don't work
- under Windows when the program is built dynamically.</para>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Getting information about the RTS</title>
- <para>The hook <literal>ghc_rts_opts</literal><indexterm><primary><literal>ghc_rts_opts</literal></primary>
- </indexterm>lets you set RTS
- options permanently for a given program. A common use for this is
- to give your program a default heap and/or stack size that is
- greater than the default. For example, to set <literal>-H128m
- -K1m</literal>, place the following definition in a C source
- file:</para>
+ <indexterm><primary>RTS</primary></indexterm>
-<programlisting>
-char *ghc_rts_opts = "-H128m -K1m";
-</programlisting>
+ <para>It is possible to ask the RTS to give some information about
+ itself. To do this, use the <option>--info</option> flag, e.g.</para>
+<screen>
+$ ./a.out +RTS --info
+ [("GHC RTS", "YES")
+ ,("GHC version", "6.7")
+ ,("RTS way", "rts_p")
+ ,("Host platform", "x86_64-unknown-linux")
+ ,("Host architecture", "x86_64")
+ ,("Host OS", "linux")
+ ,("Host vendor", "unknown")
+ ,("Build platform", "x86_64-unknown-linux")
+ ,("Build architecture", "x86_64")
+ ,("Build OS", "linux")
+ ,("Build vendor", "unknown")
+ ,("Target platform", "x86_64-unknown-linux")
+ ,("Target architecture", "x86_64")
+ ,("Target OS", "linux")
+ ,("Target vendor", "unknown")
+ ,("Word size", "64")
+ ,("Compiler unregisterised", "NO")
+ ,("Tables next to code", "YES")
+ ]
+</screen>
+ <para>The information is formatted such that it can be read as a
+ of type <literal>[(String, String)]</literal>. Currently the following
+ fields are present:</para>
- <para>Compile the C file, and include the object file on the
- command line when you link your Haskell program.</para>
+ <variablelist>
- <para>These flags are interpreted first, before any RTS flags from
- the <literal>GHCRTS</literal> environment variable and any flags
- on the command line.</para>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><literal>GHC RTS</literal></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Is this program linked against the GHC RTS? (always
+ "YES").</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
- <para>You can also change the messages printed when the runtime
- system “blows up,” e.g., on stack overflow. The hooks
- for these are as follows:</para>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><literal>GHC version</literal></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>The version of GHC used to compile this program.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
- <variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><literal>RTS way</literal></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>The variant (“way”) of the runtime. The
+ most common values are <literal>rts</literal> (vanilla),
+ <literal>rts_thr</literal> (threaded runtime, i.e. linked using the
+ <literal>-threaded</literal> option) and <literal>rts_p</literal>
+ (profiling runtime, i.e. linked using the <literal>-prof</literal>
+ option). Other variants include <literal>debug</literal>
+ (linked using <literal>-debug</literal>),
+ <literal>t</literal> (ticky-ticky profiling) and
+ <literal>dyn</literal> (the RTS is
+ linked in dynamically, i.e. a shared library, rather than statically
+ linked into the executable itself). These can be combined,
+ e.g. you might have <literal>rts_thr_debug_p</literal>.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term>
- <function>void OutOfHeapHook (unsigned long, unsigned long)</function>
- <indexterm><primary><function>OutOfHeapHook</function></primary></indexterm>
+ <term>
+ <literal>Target platform</literal>,
+ <literal>Target architecture</literal>,
+ <literal>Target OS</literal>,
+ <literal>Target vendor</literal>
</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>The heap-overflow message.</para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>These are the platform the program is compiled to run on.</para>
+ </listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term>
- <function>void StackOverflowHook (long int)</function>
- <indexterm><primary><function>StackOverflowHook</function></primary></indexterm>
+ <term>
+ <literal>Build platform</literal>,
+ <literal>Build architecture</literal>,
+ <literal>Build OS</literal>,
+ <literal>Build vendor</literal>
</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>The stack-overflow message.</para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>These are the platform where the program was built
+ on. (That is, the target platform of GHC itself.) Ordinarily
+ this is identical to the target platform. (It could potentially
+ be different if cross-compiling.)</para>
+ </listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term>
- <function>void MallocFailHook (long int)</function>
- <indexterm><primary><function>MallocFailHook</function></primary></indexterm>
+ <term>
+ <literal>Host platform</literal>,
+ <literal>Host architecture</literal>
+ <literal>Host OS</literal>
+ <literal>Host vendor</literal>
</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>The message printed if <function>malloc</function>
- fails.</para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>These are the platform where GHC itself was compiled.
+ Again, this would normally be identical to the build and
+ target platforms.</para>
+ </listitem>
</varlistentry>
- </variablelist>
- <para>For examples of the use of these hooks, see GHC's own
- versions in the file
- <filename>ghc/compiler/parser/hschooks.c</filename> in a GHC
- source tree.</para>
- </sect2>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><literal>Word size</literal></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Either <literal>"32"</literal> or <literal>"64"</literal>,
+ reflecting the word size of the target platform.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
- <sect2>
- <title>Getting information about the RTS</title>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><literal>Compiler unregistered</literal></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Was this program compiled with an “unregistered”
+ version of GHC? (I.e., a version of GHC that has no platform-specific
+ optimisations compiled in, usually because this is a currently
+ unsupported platform.) This value will usually be no, unless you're
+ using an experimental build of GHC.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
- <indexterm><primary>RTS</primary></indexterm>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><literal>Tables next to code</literal></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Putting info tables directly next to entry code is a useful
+ performance optimisation that is not available on all platforms.
+ This field tells you whether the program has been compiled with
+ this optimisation. (Usually yes, except on unusual platforms.)</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ </variablelist>
- <para>It is possible to ask the RTS to give some information about
- itself. To do this, use the <option>--info</option> flag, e.g.</para>
-<screen>
-$ ./a.out +RTS --info
- [("GHC RTS", "Yes")
- ,("GHC version", "6.7")
- ,("RTS way", "rts_p")
- ,("Host platform", "x86_64-unknown-linux")
- ,("Build platform", "x86_64-unknown-linux")
- ,("Target platform", "x86_64-unknown-linux")
- ,("Compiler unregisterised", "NO")
- ,("Tables next to code", "YES")
- ]
-</screen>
- <para>The information is formatted such that it can be read as a
- of type <literal>[(String, String)]</literal>.</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
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