The BTrace plugin for VisualVM, a tool that I love to showcase at No Fluff Just Stuff and user group events, has been updated to version 0.2.2. This solves an issue that prevented it from working on a Mac. Be sure to uninstall any prior version from your VisualVM prior to installing 0.2.2 to get the full benefit of the fix.
I’ve been battling getting jmap working properly on a new Mac. I followed the invaluable instructions my NFJS colleague, Ken Sipe, provided for the Rhino engine inclusion. However, I was still encountering an odd issue where I couldn’t get jmap to attach to a Java process.
First, I would start a simple helloworld Java application.
java com.ambientideas.HelloWorldJava Hello Java World!
Then I would get the PID:
jps 11554 HelloWorldJava 11573 Jps
Then I tried to jmap it, but got the following error
jmap -heap 11554 Attaching to process ID 11791, please wait... attach: task_for_pid(11791) failed (5) Error attaching to process: Error attaching to process, or no such process
So I thought, “These memory tools often require root access, so I’ll sudo it.” When I did, I got the following equally cryptic error:
sudo jmap -heap 11791 Attaching to process ID 11791, please wait... Exception in thread main java.lang.RuntimeException: gHotSpotVMTypes was not initialized properly in the remote process; can not continue at sun.jvm.hotspot.HotSpotTypeDataBase.readVMTypes(HotSpotTypeDataBase.java:111) at sun.jvm.hotspot.HotSpotTypeDataBase.<init>(HotSpotTypeDataBase.java:68) at sun.jvm.hotspot.MacOSXTypeDataBase.<init>(MacOSXTypeDataBase.java:35) at sun.jvm.hotspot.bugspot.BugSpotAgent.setupVM(BugSpotAgent.java:560) at sun.jvm.hotspot.bugspot.BugSpotAgent.go(BugSpotAgent.java:481) at sun.jvm.hotspot.bugspot.BugSpotAgent.attach(BugSpotAgent.java:319) at sun.jvm.hotspot.tools.Tool.start(Tool.java:146) at sun.jvm.hotspot.tools.JMap.main(JMap.java:128)
I though, “Hmmmm, this looks a lot like a java version mismatch. Let’s check which java version I’m running.” I had javac compiled the HelloWorld against Java 6, so was expecting a matching java. I made a quick stop into the Java Preferences pane. Yup. Java 6 set as the first-priority choice.
Let’s check the command line too…
java -version java version 1.6.0_13 Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_13-b03-211) Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 11.3-b02-83, mixed mode)
Excellent. Just what I expected. Java 6. But a little doubt crept into my mind. What if the sudo’ed invocation were finding a different Java. That didn’t sound plausible, but yet was still worth checking out.
sudo java -version java version 1.5.0_19 Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.5.0_19-b02-304) Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.5.0_19-137, mixed mode, sharing)
Aha! There’s the culprit. So somehow, sudo’ed commands are running Java 5, even though I’ve set a preference for 6 in my profile. I searched the web high and low for a way to specify the Java version for “sudo” specifically, but could find no trace. I even tried the -E flag to maintain the caller’s environment variables, as is possible on Linux distributions. Not implemented on Mac.
I did a quick check of my path and a “which java”. Both ultimately routed to Java 6. I also had JAVA_HOME and JAVA_VERSION set just fine.
set | grep JAVA JAVA_HOME=/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6/Home JAVA_VERSION=1.6 echo $PATH /Applications/Dev/btrace/bin:/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin: /usr/X11/bin:./: /Users/mccm06/scripts:/Applications/Dev/apache-ant/bin: /Applications/Dev/apache-maven/bin
So I turned to harness the wisdom of one of the really smart guys (that uses a Mac) I’m privileged to hang out with in Denver, Fred Jean. Fred said, “Try adding the 1.6 java explicitly to the front of your path rather than letting Java Preferences pane be the sole controller.” I opened up ~/.bash_profile (alternatively you could edit ~/.bash_rc)and slammed in the following:
export PATH=/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6/Commands:$PATH
I opened a new terminal to pick up the shell changes. Then I started checking if this fixed the issue in reverse order, starting with the sudo:
sudo java -version java version 1.6.0_13 Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_13-b03-211) Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 11.3-b02-83, mixed mode)
Looking good! Now let’s get back to our core goal, jmap.
sudo jmap -heap 5951
Attaching to process ID 5951, please wait...
Debugger attached successfully.
Server compiler detected.
JVM version is 11.3-b02-83
using parallel threads in the new generation.
using thread-local object allocation.
Concurrent Mark-Sweep GC
Heap Configuration:
MinHeapFreeRatio = 40
MaxHeapFreeRatio = 70
MaxHeapSize = 88080384 (84.0MB)
NewSize = 21757952 (20.75MB)
MaxNewSize = 43581440 (41.5625MB)
OldSize = 64159744 (61.1875MB)
NewRatio = 7
SurvivorRatio = 6
PermSize = 21757952 (20.75MB)
MaxPermSize = 88080384 (84.0MB)
Heap Usage:
New Generation (Eden + 1 Survivor Space):
capacity = 19070976 (18.1875MB)
used = 2351616 (2.24267578125MB)
free = 16719360 (15.94482421875MB)
12.330863402061855% used
Eden Space:
capacity = 16384000 (15.625MB)
used = 2351616 (2.24267578125MB)
free = 14032384 (13.38232421875MB)
14.353125% used
From Space:
capacity = 2686976 (2.5625MB)
used = 0 (0.0MB)
free = 2686976 (2.5625MB)
0.0% used
To Space:
capacity = 2686976 (2.5625MB)
used = 0 (0.0MB)
free = 2686976 (2.5625MB)
0.0% used
concurrent mark-sweep generation:
capacity = 64159744 (61.1875MB)
used = 0 (0.0MB)
free = 64159744 (61.1875MB)
0.0% used
Perm Generation:
capacity = 21757952 (20.75MB)
used = 4716880 (4.4983673095703125MB)
free = 17041072 (16.251632690429688MB)
21.678878600338855% used
Thanks to a combination of Ken Sipe, Fred Jean, a few good guesses and some investigative work, the problem is solved! I’m longwindedly calling this the “java version is different for sudo-initiated processes on Mac” so that the next person Googling for this using similar keywords will hopefully find this tutorial.
As a closing note, I often get asked how I set my environment variables for Java so that Spotlight-launched, Quicksilver-launched, Dock-launched, and Terminal-launched processes can all see the variables (yes, there’s some odd pitfalls about that on a Mac due to the process parents being different). The short answer is to create a text file called /private/etc/launchd.conf and put the following (applicable portions, based on your tool usage) contents in it:
setenv JAVA_VERSION 1.6 # A) Some process-launchers will cause their child to default to 1.5 if using /Library/Java/Home # even if Java Preferences pane says 1.6 at the top # setenv JAVA_HOME /Library/Java/Home # B) Alternate: Force Java 1.6 as Java Home setenv JAVA_HOME /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6/Home setenv GROOVY_HOME /Applications/Dev/groovy setenv GRAILS_HOME /Applications/Dev/grails setenv NEXUS_HOME /Applications/Dev/nexus/nexus-webapp setenv JRUBY_HOME /Applications/Dev/jruby # Set up Ant setenv ANT_HOME /Applications/Dev/apache-ant setenv ANT_OPTS -Xmx512M # Set up Maven setenv MAVEN_OPTS -Xmx1024M setenv M2_HOME /Applications/Dev/apache-maven
As we have learned the hard way, the only pitfall is that the java version specified in launchd.conf is not honored by sudo’ed java invocations.
Drop me an email if you’ve seen this issue and this tutorial helps you solve it.
In the spirit of automating anything I’ve done more than twice manually, here’s an incredibly simple yet useful little script to recursively search a tree of JARs for a class file. I most often use this against a local Maven repository.
#!/bin/sh
#Example Usages:
# findjars com/ambientideas/SuperWidget
# findjars AnotherWidget
CLASSNAMETOFIND="$1"
echo "Searching all JARs recursively..."
for eachjar in `find . -iname "*.jar"`
do
#echo "Searching in $eachjar ..."
jar tvf $eachjar | grep $CLASSNAMETOFIND > /dev/null
if [ $? == 0 ]
then
echo "******* Located "$CLASSNAMETOFIND" in $eachjar *******"
fi
done
I’m very pleased to announce that my DZone Maven RefCard was released this week ahead of schedule, and JavaLobby did a little introductory interview for the launch. A handful of folks contributed to the early alpha reviews and I want to acknowledge their inputs: Ken Sipe, Tim O’Brien, Chris Maki, Tim Berglund, and Jason van Zyl.
The timing was great, as I did a Mastering Maven talk at the San Diego Java Users Group (SDJUG) on Tuesday night. A handful of the attendees came with printed copies of the RefCard in hand!
I’m always looking for ways to contribute to the Maven community, and this was by far the most fun I’ve had building materials to promote this unique Convention over Configuration build tool.
Git, the oft-referred to as “Linux, Rubyists, and Cool Kids source code control system”, is gaining ground so fast that there’s not enough room in this post to mention all the traction and good press it is achieving. Yet, a common comment I hear over lunches and cubicle walls is
“Git doesn’t have good support on Windows yet.“
I politely disagree.
While the methods for putting Git on Windows have a slight variance from that of putting it on Mac or Linux, I have seen no real compatibility issues in my near daily use of it on all three aforementioned platforms. Is there still room for it to get better on Windows though? Definitely!
The next lament I hear is
“If only there were a Tortise-like UI for Git.“
Let me also put that to rest and direct you to the TortiseGit homepage. While TortiseGit is still a work in progress, I’ve seen a handful of folks already putting it to productive daily use. And if you don’t like TortiseGit, then try GitSafe. And if you are using IntelliJ, support is built right into v8.1, Eclipse has eGit as an official Eclipse project now, and NetBeans has an issue open and some ongoing work for support which, awesomely consumes parts of eGit (JGit Libs) from Eclipse.
And just to share the “Peanutbutter in my Chocolate” favorite story of the week, Maven is moving to Git in many directions at once:
If you have yet to explore or fully leverage the power of Git or Maven, now is a critical juncture of market acceptance for these tools, and accordingly, a perfect time to explore their benefits. For the latest news on Git, Maven, iPhone development, and Open Source, join the conversation over at Twitter.
Tonight was the Denver Open Source User’s Group March meeting.
First up was Clark Hobbie on the CLIP IPC Library.
First, Clark addressed the question,”Why do we need an IPC library?” . He purports you need IPC “anytime you access something outside your JVM and need to share it in a controlled and coordinated manner with another client”. Clark says that CLIP was created as an answer to the cryptic and verbose shared memory classes in the JDK.
A brief outline of what he covered in his slides is as follows:
Clark did a great job on his slides with funny anecdotes, images for analogies, and clear verbal examples of IPC types (props to World of Warcraft).
Talend ETL Tool
Second up was Tim Berglund speaking on the open source Talend Open Studio ETL (Extract Transform and Load) system. This French startup company is attempting to create a new price point for ETL tools with the now-common OSS business model, selling support and training while giving away the core product for free.
He neatly said this is a talk for non-DBAs but rather developers that need to work with databases. Tim admitted that there are a few negatives to the otherwise great Talend tool. Those are: the JAR is 70MB, the error messages have a French accent, and Mac Eclipse support is a work in progress.
The visual designer has a lot of off-the-shelf transforms. We also saw XML, Excel files, 10+ DB brands, and CSVs as just some of the data sources.
It was a fun set of slides that were in the vein of Slideology.
Maven 1.0 users were spoiled with the console plugin, and now Maven 2.0 users can get a nearly equivalent experience with a high-performance bootstrapped prompt via the Command Line Interface plugin. Watch this quick screencast for a tour of using this plugin and start saving even more time with Maven.