Exception telemetry is not terribly useful

Questions about YourKit Java Profiler
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james.leatherman
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Jun 17, 2014 11:49 pm

Exception telemetry is not terribly useful

Post by james.leatherman »

1.) No line numbers
2.) Too many steps to export full stack text
3.) No drilldown capability
4.) No context in live or snapshot mode

Really, the fist item is the most important to me. Are you planning on changes in exception telemetry?
Anton Katilin
Posts: 6172
Joined: Wed Aug 11, 2004 8:37 am

Re: Exception telemetry is not terribly useful

Post by Anton Katilin »

Hello James,
1.) No line numbers
Exception telemetry does not offer line numbers for performance considerations.
The profiler must maintain a balance between result verbosity and profiling overhead.
Exception telemetry provides an overview of possible sources of excessive exception activity, which can be a performance issue, and a per-method result granularity is in most cases enough to easily locate the problems.

Anyway, I've added a feature request to provide an option to record line numbers too.
2.) Too many steps to export full stack text
3.) No drilldown capability
4.) No context in live or snapshot mode
Could you please explain each item in more detail. How would you like this information be presented instead?

#2: Do you want a list of all stack traces, e.g. sorted by invocation count?

Anyway, if you need more detail about thrown exceptions, please consider alternate approach: trigger on method invocation:
http://www.yourkit.com/docs/java/help/triggers.jsp
For example, you can use a trigger on method invocation, with the exception class constructor being the target,and print/record method actions.

Best regards,
Anton
james.leatherman
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Jun 17, 2014 11:49 pm

Re: Exception telemetry is not terribly useful

Post by james.leatherman »

Hi Anton -

Thanks for the quick reply - that means a lot when choosing to work with a tool vendor. And I appreciate the enhancement request for the option to include line numbers in the exception stack. It really does make a big difference.

Bear in mind that I have been using HP Diagnostics for many years, and the feature set is my benchmark for evaluating other profilers. HP does a great job of creating context by allowing you to drill down from server calls to methods to SQL to cross-VM... you get the idea. Also HP Diags are highly configurable to reduce overhead. Although I value your approach of ensuring low impact out of the box, I also would like a little bit of rope to hang myself if I want to. :)

And yes, I will start working with Triggers to see if I can get what I need that way. Thanks!
Anton Katilin
Posts: 6172
Joined: Wed Aug 11, 2004 8:37 am

Re: Exception telemetry is not terribly useful

Post by Anton Katilin »

Hello James,

We'll add line numbers in some profiling results in the next EAP build.

Did you have a chance to try the triggers?

Best regards,
Anton
james.leatherman
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Jun 17, 2014 11:49 pm

Re: Exception telemetry is not terribly useful

Post by james.leatherman »

Unfortunately, our exceptions are a bit out of control right now, so triggers are not the best method for me.

I have 68 installed, but I don't see the line numbers. Do I need to enable some other collection?
Anton Katilin
Posts: 6172
Joined: Wed Aug 11, 2004 8:37 am

Re: Exception telemetry is not terribly useful

Post by Anton Katilin »

Hello James,

Build 14068 is the first one offering line numbers, and they are not available in all profiling modes yet. In particular, they are still missing in exception telemetry. We'll cover exceptions soon, in one of upcoming builds. I'll notify when it's ready.

Best regards,
Anton
james.leatherman
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Jun 17, 2014 11:49 pm

Re: Exception telemetry is not terribly useful

Post by james.leatherman »

OK - cool. Thanks for the heads up, and thanks again for the functionality.
Anton Katilin
Posts: 6172
Joined: Wed Aug 11, 2004 8:37 am

Re: Exception telemetry is not terribly useful

Post by Anton Katilin »

Hello James,

FYI: build 14072 shows exception telemetry with line numbers:
http://www.yourkit.com/eap

Best regards,
Anton
james.leatherman
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Jun 17, 2014 11:49 pm

Re: Exception telemetry is not terribly useful

Post by james.leatherman »

Thanks!
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