ADDING A PROFILING AGENT TO A VIRTUAL MACHINE TO PERMIT PERFORMANCE AND MEMORY CONSUMPTION ANALYSIS WITHIN UNIT TESTS

• US 20090172664A1
• Filed: 01/02/2008
• Published: 07/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/02/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: MOSTAFA, MOHAMMED
• Granted Patent: US 9,727,436 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/301 where the computing system is a virtual computing platform, e.g. logically partitioned systems virtual machines G06F9/45533; logical partitioning of resources G06F9/5077
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3037 where the computing system component is a memory, e.g. virtual memory, cache accessing, addressing or allocating within memory systems or architectures G06F12/00; checking stores for correct operation G11C29/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3089 Monitoring arrangements determined by the means or processing involved in sensing the monitored data, e.g. interfaces, connectors, sensors, probes, agents software debugging using additional hardware using a specific debug interface G06F11/3656; performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring G06F11/3466
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3419 by assessing time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3438 monitoring of user actions tracking the activity of the user H04L67/535
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3612 by runtime analysis performance monitoring G06F11/3466
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/88 Monitoring involving counting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45504 Abstract machines for programme code execution, e.g. Java virtual machine [JVM], interpreters, emulators

Abstract

The present invention discloses a solution for adding a profiling agent to a virtual machine (VM), which permits unit test programs to access information relating to memory and performance from runtime data areas of the VM. Operations permitted by the agent can include starting/stopping VM monitor, getting objects from the heap, retrieving an invocation count, determining a size of an instantiated object, getting a current thread time, and the like. Memory and performance information gathered during a test can be stored for later analysis under a test version identifier. A comparison engine can create reports that use the stored performance and memory data, which can help developers compare memory/performance deltas among different unit versions. In one embodiment, the VM can be a JAVA VIRTUAL MACHINE (JVM) and the unit test programs can be JUNIT programs.

Claims

1. A system for performing unit testing comprising:

a virtual machine configured to execute software units;

a unit testing framework configured to test software units executing within the virtual machine; and

a profiling agent of the virtual machine configured to expose memory and performance information from runtime data areas of the virtual machine to the unit testing framework, wherein said unit testing framework is able to execute a set of methods relating to memory and performance of the runtime data areas, wherein said set of methods interact with the profiling agent.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said virtual machine is a JAVA VIRTUAL MACHINE, wherein said unit testing framework is JUNIT.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the profiling agent is one of a JAVA VIRTUAL MACHINE PROFILER INTERFACE (JVMPI) agent and a JAVA VIRTUAL MACHINE TOOLING INTERFACE (JVMTI).

4. The system of claim 2, wherein said JUNIT framework comprises an extension that comprises at least one assert related to at least one of memory and performance of the runtime data areas, which uses information from the profiling agent.

5. The system of claim 2, further comprising:

a JAVA interface class that includes said set of methods.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein said agent is written in C++, and wherein a JAVA NATIVE INTERFACE (JNI) is used to exchange data between the JAVA interface class and the profiling agent.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the profiling agent is configured to capture and store memory and performance data for different test runs associated with one of the software units, wherein the different runs correspond to different versions of the associated software unit.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

a comparison software engine configured to compare memory and storage differences between the different test runs.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising:

a data model configured to represent data collected by the profiling agent for at least one of the different test runs and configured to represent a delta model that supports comparing data collected across at least two of the different test runs.

10. The system of claim 9, said virtual machine is a JAVA VIRTUAL MACHINE, wherein said unit testing framework is JUNIT, and wherein said data model is an ECLIPSE MODEL FRAMEWORK (EMF) data model.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the virtual machine is an application virtual machine comprising a heap for objects that are garbage collected and a set of stacks and registers for threads, wherein a standard API for the application virtual machine fails to expose the memory and performance information exposed by the profiling agent to the unit testing framework.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein said memory information exposed by the profiling agent comprises information concerning which objects are in the heap.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein one of said methods permits a memory size of a selected object in the heap to be queried.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein said performance information exposed by the profiling agent comprises timing information concerning the threads.

15. An extension to a unit testing framework comprising:

a plurality of published methods available for unit testing purposes relating memory or performance aspects of an application virtual machine gathered from runtime data areas of the application virtual machine, wherein said published methods comprise at least two of a get heap method, a get invocation count method, a get size of object method, a get current thread time method, and a get data model method, and wherein said unit testing framework is implemented within software that is digitally encoded in a machine readable medium, wherein said software is configured to able to be executed by at least one computing device.

16. The framework of claim 15, wherein at least one of said published methods relate to memory aspects of the application virtual machine, and wherein at least one of said published method relates to performance aspects of the application virtual machine.

17. The framework of claim 15, wherein said published methods are available to a JUNIT framework, and wherein said application virtual machine is a JAVA virtual machine, and wherein each of the methods utilizes a profiling agent, wherein said profiling agent is one of a JAVA VIRTUAL MACHINE PROFILER INTERFACE (JVMPI) agent and a JAVA VIRTUAL MACHINE TOOLING INTERFACE (JVMTI).

18. A method for exposing runtime data areas of a virtual machine to a unit testing framework comprising:

placing a profiling agent within an application virtual machine that has access to runtime data areas of the application virtual machine; and

establishing an interface class for exchanging information with the profiling agent, wherein said interface class includes a plurality of public methods available to a unit testing framework, wherein said public methods provide memory and performance related information concerning objects in a heap of the application virtual machine and threads executing within the application virtual machine.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein said application virtual machine is a JAVA VIRTUAL MACHINE, wherein said unit testing framework is JUNIT.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein said published methods comprise at least two of a get heap method, a get invocation count method, a get size of object method, a get current thread time method, and a get data model method.