Index: components/tracing/docs/heap_profiler.md |
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+# Heap Profiling with MemoryInfra |
+ |
+As of Chrome 48, MemoryInfra supports heap profiling. The core principle is |
+a solution that JustWorks™ on all platforms without patching or rebuilding, |
+intergrated with the chrome://tracing ecosystem. |
+ |
+[TOC] |
+ |
+## How to Use |
+ |
+ * Start Chrome with the `--enable-heap-profiling` switch. This will make Chrome |
petrcermak
2016/01/19 10:13:55
Shouldn't this be an enumeration (1, 2, 3, ...)?
Ruud van Asseldonk
2016/01/19 10:44:48
Done.
|
+ keep track of all allocations. |
+ |
+ * Grab a [MemoryInfra][memory-infra] trace. For best results, start tracing |
+ first, and _then_ open a new tab that you want to trace. Furthermore, |
+ enabling more categories (besides memory-infra) will yield more detailed |
+ information in the heap profiler. |
petrcermak
2016/01/19 10:13:55
maybe say "... in the heap profiler pseudo stack t
Ruud van Asseldonk
2016/01/19 10:44:48
Done.
|
+ |
+ * When the trace has been collected, select a heavy memory dump indicated by |
+ a purple ![M][m-purple] dot. Heap dumps are only included in heavy memory |
+ dumps. |
+ |
+ * In the analysis view, cells marked with a triple bar icon (☰) contain heap |
+ dumps. Select such a cell. |
+ |
+ ![Cells containing a heap dump][cells-heap-dump] |
+ |
+ Note that at the moment only PartitionAlloc is supported. Heap dumps for |
+ malloc is currently in the prototype stage. |
petrcermak
2016/01/19 10:13:54
s/is/are/ (or s/dumps/dumping/ on the previous lin
Ruud van Asseldonk
2016/01/19 10:44:48
Fixed.
|
+ |
+ * Scroll down all the way to _Heap Details_. |
+ |
+ * Pinpoint the memory bug and live happily ever after. |
+ |
+[memory-infra]: memory_infra.md |
+[m-purple]: https://drive.google.com/uc?id=0Bx14iZPZRgb5RFFGc0xZZEJWVFk |
+[cells-heap-dump]: https://drive.google.com/uc?id=0Bx14iZPZRgb5NGlJSFRONTFoWEU |
+ |
+## Heap Details |
+ |
+The heap details view contains a tree that represents the heap. The size of the |
+root node corresponds to the selected allocator cell. |
+ |
+*** aside |
+The size value in the heap details view will not match the value in the selected |
+analysis view cell exactly. There are three reasons for this. First, the heap |
+profiler reports the memory that _the program requested_, whereas the allocator |
+reports the memory that it _actually allocated_ plus its own bookkeeping |
+overhead. Second, allocations that happen early --- before Chrome knows that |
+heap profiling is enabled --- are not captured by the heap profiler, but they |
+are reported by the allocator. Third, tracing overhead is not discounted by the |
+heap profiler. |
+*** |
+ |
+The heap can be broken down in two ways: by _backtrace_ (marked with an ƒ), and |
+by _type_ (marked with a Ⓣ). When tracing is enabled, Chrome records trace |
+events, shown in the flame chart in timeline view. At every point in time these |
petrcermak
2016/01/19 10:13:55
nit: This makes it sounds like Chrome *only* recor
Ruud van Asseldonk
2016/01/19 10:44:48
Replaced “shown” with “most of which appear”.
|
+trace events form a pseudo stack, and a vertical slice through the flame chart |
+is like a backtrace. This corresponds to the ƒ nodes in the heap details view. |
+Hence enabling more tracing categories will give a more detailed breakdown of |
+the heap. |
+ |
+The other way to break down the heap is by object type. At the moment this is |
+only supported for PartitionAlloc. |
petrcermak
2016/01/19 10:13:55
The second sentence seems irrelevant at the moment
Ruud van Asseldonk
2016/01/19 10:44:48
I know, but the screenshots show the icon for mall
petrcermak
2016/01/19 11:11:30
Do you mean the heap dump icon? As far as I unders
|
+ |
+*** aside |
+In official builds, only the most common type names are included due to binary |
+size concerns. A development build has full type information. |
petrcermak
2016/01/19 10:13:54
nit: I don't like the indefinite article in front
Ruud van Asseldonk
2016/01/19 10:44:48
Done.
|
+*** |
+ |
+To keep the trace log small, uninteresting information is omitted from heap |
+dumps. The long tail of small nodes is not dumped, but grouped in an `<other>` |
+node instead. Note that altough these small nodes are insignificant on their |
+own, together they can be responsible for a significant portion of the heap. The |
+`<other>` node is large in that case. |
+ |
+## Example |
+ |
+In the trace below, `ParseAuthorStyleSheet` is called at some point. |
+ |
+![ParseAuthorStyleSheet pseudo stack][pseudo-stack] |
+ |
+The pseudo stack of trace events translates in the tree of ƒ nodes below. Of the |
petrcermak
2016/01/19 10:13:54
nit: s/translates in/is translated into/
Ruud van Asseldonk
2016/01/19 10:44:48
Changed to “corresponds to”.
|
+23.5 MiB of memory allocated with PartitionAlloc, 1.9 MiB was allocated inside |
+`ParseAuthorStyleSheet`, either directly, or at a deeper level |
+(like `CSSParserImpl::parseStyleSheet`). |
+ |
+![Memory Allocated in ParseAuthorStyleSheet][break-down-by-backtrace] |
+ |
+By expanding `ParseAuthorStyleSheet`, we can see which types were allocated |
+there. Of the 1.9 MiB, 371 KiB is spent on `ImmutableStylePropertySet`s, and |
petrcermak
2016/01/19 10:13:55
nit: s/is/was/ (consistency with "were allocated"
Ruud van Asseldonk
2016/01/19 10:44:48
Done. You are sharp today :)
|
+238 KiB is spent on `StringImpl`s. |
petrcermak
2016/01/19 10:13:54
ditto
Ruud van Asseldonk
2016/01/19 10:44:48
Done.
|
+ |
+![ParseAuthorStyleSheet broken down by type][break-down-by-type] |
+ |
+It is also possible to break down by type first, and then by backtrace. Below |
+we see that of the 23.5 MiB allocated with PartitionAlloc, 1 MiB is spent on |
+`Node`s, and about half of the memory spent on nodes was allocated in |
+`HTMLDocumentParser`. |
+ |
+![The PartitionAlloc heap broken down by type first and then by backtrace][type-then-backtrace] |
+ |
+Heap dump diffs are fully supported by trace viewer. Select a heavy memory dump, |
+then with the control key select a heavy memory dump earlier in time. Below is a |
petrcermak
2016/01/19 10:13:54
people tend to forget things, so it might be worth
petrcermak
2016/01/19 10:13:55
nit: Since you can also select a dump in the futur
Ruud van Asseldonk
2016/01/19 10:44:48
Hah, actually I stressed that you have to select t
Ruud van Asseldonk
2016/01/19 10:44:48
Done.
petrcermak
2016/01/19 11:11:30
Oh, really? Then it's a bug in the memory UI. It s
|
+diff of theverge.com before and in the middle of loading ads. We can see that 4 |
+MiB was allocated when parsing the documents in all those iframes, almost a |
petrcermak
2016/01/19 10:13:54
probably s/was/were/
Ruud van Asseldonk
2016/01/19 10:44:48
Done.
|
+megabyte of which was due to JavaScript. (Note that this is memory on the |
petrcermak
2016/01/19 10:13:54
nit: s/memory on the/memory allocated by/
Ruud van Asseldonk
2016/01/19 10:44:48
Done.
|
+PartitionAlloc alone, the total renderer memory increase was around 72 MiB.) |
+ |
+![Diff of The Verge before and after loading ads][diff] |
+ |
+[pseudo-stack]: https://drive.google.com/uc?id=0Bx14iZPZRgb5M194Y2RqQjhoZkk |
+[break-down-by-backtrace]: https://drive.google.com/uc?id=0Bx14iZPZRgb5ZDRQdGNnNDNIazA |
+[break-down-by-type]: https://drive.google.com/uc?id=0Bx14iZPZRgb5THJMYlpyTEN2Q2s |
+[type-then-backtrace]: https://drive.google.com/uc?id=0Bx14iZPZRgb5UGZFX1pDUVpOLUU |
+[diff]: https://drive.google.com/uc?id=0Bx14iZPZRgb5UzNvMmVOa0RnQWs |