1 Observer Release Notes
This document describes the changes made to the Observer
application.
1.1 Observer 0.9.8.1
1.1.1 Improvements and New Features
-
Major improvements of the Erlang distribution for Erlang
runtime systems with SMP support. Previously distribution
port locks were heavily contended, and all encoding and
decoding for a specific distribution channel had to be
done in sequence. Lock contention due to the distribution
is now negligible and both encoding and decoding of
Erlang messages can be done in parallel.
The old atom cache protocol used by the Erlang
distribution has been dropped since it effectively
prevented all parallel encoding and decoding of messages
passed over the same distribution channel.
A new atom cache protocol has been introduced which
isolates atom cache accesses and makes parallel encoding
and decoding of messages passed over the same
distribution channel possible. The new atom cache
protocol also use an atom cache size 8 times larger than
before. The new atom cache protocol is documented in the
ERTS users guide.
Erlang messages received via the distribution are now
decoded by the receiving Erlang processes without holding
any distribution channel specific locks. Erlang messages
and signals sent over the distribution are as before
encoded by the sending Erlang process, but now without
holding any distribution channel specific locks during
the encoding. That is, both encoding and decoding can be
and are done in parallel regardless of distribution
channel used.
The part that cannot be parallelized is the atom cache
updates. Atom cache updates are therefore now scheduled
on the distribution port. Since it is only one entity per
distribution channel doing this work there is no lock
contention due to the atom cache updates.
The new runtime system does not understand the old atom
cache protocol. New and old runtime systems can however
still communicate, but no atom cache will be used.
Own Id: OTP-7774
1.2 Observer 0.9.8
1.2.1 Improvements and New Features
-
etop would crash if the emulator's custom
allocators had been turned off (e.g. using the
+Meamin option).
Own Id: OTP-7519
-
The copyright notices have been updated.
Own Id: OTP-7851
1.3 Observer 0.9.7.4
1.3.1 Improvements and New Features
-
Minor Makefile changes.
Own Id: OTP-6689
-
Obsolete guard tests (such as list()) have been replaced
with the modern guard tests (such as is_list()).
Own Id: OTP-6725
1.4 Observer 0.9.7.3
1.4.1 Improvements and New Features
-
This application has been updated to eliminate warnings
by Dialyzer.
Own Id: OTP-6551
1.5 Observer 0.9.7.2
1.5.1 Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions
-
Several minor bugs and race conditions eliminated in the
runtime_tools and observer applications.
Own Id: OTP-6265
1.6 Observer 0.9.7.1
1.6.1 Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions
-
Crash dump with large integers could crash the
crashdump_viewer.
Own Id: OTP-6301
1.7 Observer 0.9.7 (R11B)
1.7.1 Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions
-
Fixed a bug in etop which made the Load and Memory
information in the header incorrect -- for example the
value shown for binary (memory allocated for
binaries) was actually the number of currently running
processes. (Thanks to Rikard Johansson.)
Own Id: OTP-6075
1.8 Observer 0.9.6.2
1.8.1 Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions
-
The Observer application has been recompiled because of
a compiler bug.
Own Id: OTP-5700
1.9 Observer 0.9.6.1
1.9.1 Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions
-
crashdump_viewer is faster when showing message,
dictionary, and stack dump for large processes.
Own Id: OTP-5408
observer 0.9.8.1
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Ericsson AB