watch

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Monitor methods in data aspect including return values, exceptions and parameters.

With the help of OGNL, you can easily check the details of variables when methods being invoked.

Parameters & Options

There are four different scenarios for watch command, which makes it rather complicated.

Name Specification
class-pattern pattern for the class name
method-pattern pattern for the method name
expression expression to monitor
condition-expression condition expression to filter
[b] before method being invoked
[e] when method encountering exceptions
[s] when method exits normally
[f] when method exits (either succeed or fail with exceptions)
[E] turn on regex matching while the default is wildcard matching
[x:] the depth to print the specified property with default value: 1

F.Y.I

  1. any valid OGNL expression as "{params,returnObj}" supported

  2. there are four watching points: -b, -e, -s and -f (the first three are off in default while -f on);

  3. at the watching point, Arthas will use the expression to evaluate the variables and print them out;

  4. in parameters and out parameters are different since they can be modified within the invoked methods; params stands for in parameters in -bwhile out parameters in other watching points;

  5. there are no return values and exceptions when using -b.

Advanced:

Usage

Start Demo

Start arthas-demo in Quick Start.

Check the out parameters and return value

$ watch demo.MathGame primeFactors "{params,returnObj}" -x 2
Press Ctrl+C to abort.
Affect(class-cnt:1 , method-cnt:1) cost in 44 ms.
ts=2018-12-03 19:16:51; [cost=1.280502ms] result=@ArrayList[
    @Object[][
        @Integer[535629513],
    ],
    @ArrayList[
        @Integer[3],
        @Integer[19],
        @Integer[191],
        @Integer[49199],
    ],
]

Check in parameters

$ watch demo.MathGame primeFactors "{params,returnObj}" -x 2 -b
Press Ctrl+C to abort.
Affect(class-cnt:1 , method-cnt:1) cost in 50 ms.
ts=2018-12-03 19:23:23; [cost=0.0353ms] result=@ArrayList[
    @Object[][
        @Integer[-1077465243],
    ],
    null,
]

Compared to the previous check:

  • return value is null since it’s -b.

Check before and after at the same time

$ watch demo.MathGame primeFactors "{params,target,returnObj}" -x 2 -b -s -n 2
Press Ctrl+C to abort.
Affect(class-cnt:1 , method-cnt:1) cost in 46 ms.
ts=2018-12-03 19:29:54; [cost=0.01696ms] result=@ArrayList[
    @Object[][
        @Integer[1544665400],
    ],
    @MathGame[
        random=@Random[java.util.Random@522b408a],
        illegalArgumentCount=@Integer[13038],
    ],
    null,
]
ts=2018-12-03 19:29:54; [cost=4.277392ms] result=@ArrayList[
    @Object[][
        @Integer[1544665400],
    ],
    @MathGame[
        random=@Random[java.util.Random@522b408a],
        illegalArgumentCount=@Integer[13038],
    ],
    @ArrayList[
        @Integer[2],
        @Integer[2],
        @Integer[2],
        @Integer[5],
        @Integer[5],
        @Integer[73],
        @Integer[241],
        @Integer[439],
    ],
]

F.Y.I

  • -n 2: threshold of execution times is 2.

  • the first block of output is the before watching point;

  • *the order of the output determined by the watching order itself (nothing to do with the order of the options -b -s).

Use -x to check more details

$ watch demo.MathGame primeFactors "{params,target}" -x 3
Press Ctrl+C to abort.
Affect(class-cnt:1 , method-cnt:1) cost in 58 ms.
ts=2018-12-03 19:34:19; [cost=0.587833ms] result=@ArrayList[
    @Object[][
        @Integer[47816758],
    ],
    @MathGame[
        random=@Random[
            serialVersionUID=@Long[3905348978240129619],
            seed=@AtomicLong[3133719055989],
            multiplier=@Long[25214903917],
            addend=@Long[11],
            mask=@Long[281474976710655],
            DOUBLE_UNIT=@Double[1.1102230246251565E-16],
            BadBound=@String[bound must be positive],
            BadRange=@String[bound must be greater than origin],
            BadSize=@String[size must be non-negative],
            seedUniquifier=@AtomicLong[-3282039941672302964],
            nextNextGaussian=@Double[0.0],
            haveNextNextGaussian=@Boolean[false],
            serialPersistentFields=@ObjectStreamField[][isEmpty=false;size=3],
            unsafe=@Unsafe[sun.misc.Unsafe@2eaa1027],
            seedOffset=@Long[24],
        ],
        illegalArgumentCount=@Integer[13159],
    ],
]

  • -x: Expand level of object (1 by default)

Use condition expressions to locate specific call

$ watch demo.MathGame primeFactors "{params[0],target}" "params[0]<0"
Press Ctrl+C to abort.
Affect(class-cnt:1 , method-cnt:1) cost in 68 ms.
ts=2018-12-03 19:36:04; [cost=0.530255ms] result=@ArrayList[
    @Integer[-18178089],
    @MathGame[demo.MathGame@41cf53f9],
]

Check exceptions

$ watch demo.MathGame primeFactors "{params[0],throwExp}" -e -x 2
Press Ctrl+C to abort.
Affect(class-cnt:1 , method-cnt:1) cost in 62 ms.
ts=2018-12-03 19:38:00; [cost=1.414993ms] result=@ArrayList[
    @Integer[-1120397038],
    java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: number is: -1120397038, need >= 2
	at demo.MathGame.primeFactors(MathGame.java:46)
	at demo.MathGame.run(MathGame.java:24)
	at demo.MathGame.main(MathGame.java:16)
,
]

  • -e: Trigger when an exception is thrown

  • throwExp: the exception object

Filter by time cost

$ watch demo.MathGame primeFactors '{params, returnObj}' '#cost>200' -x 2
Press Ctrl+C to abort.
Affect(class-cnt:1 , method-cnt:1) cost in 66 ms.
ts=2018-12-03 19:40:28; [cost=2112.168897ms] result=@ArrayList[
    @Object[][
        @Integer[2141897465],
    ],
    @ArrayList[
        @Integer[5],
        @Integer[428379493],
    ],
]

  • #cost>200 (ms) filter out all invokings that take less than 200ms.

Check the field of the target object

  • target is the this object in java.

$ watch demo.MathGame primeFactors 'target'
Press Ctrl+C to abort.
Affect(class-cnt:1 , method-cnt:1) cost in 52 ms.
ts=2018-12-03 19:41:52; [cost=0.477882ms] result=@MathGame[
    random=@Random[java.util.Random@522b408a],
    illegalArgumentCount=@Integer[13355],
]

  • target.field_name: the field of the current object.

$ watch demo.MathGame primeFactors 'target.illegalArgumentCount'
Press Ctrl+C to abort.
Affect(class-cnt:1 , method-cnt:1) cost in 67 ms.
ts=2018-12-03 20:04:34; [cost=131.303498ms] result=@Integer[8]
ts=2018-12-03 20:04:35; [cost=0.961441ms] result=@Integer[8]

Use the -v parameter to print more information

The watch/trace/monitor/stack/tt commands all support the -v parameter.

When the command is executed, there is no output result. There are two possibilities:

  1. The matched function is not executed

  2. The result of the conditional expression is false

But the user cannot tell which situation is.

Using the -v option, the specific value and execution result of Condition express will be printed for easy confirmation.

such as:

$ watch -v -x 2 demo.MathGame print 'params' 'params[0] > 100000'
Press Q or Ctrl+C to abort.
Affect(class count: 1 , method count: 1) cost in 29 ms, listenerId: 11
Condition express: params[0] > 100000 , result: false
Condition express: params[0] > 100000 , result: false
Condition express: params[0] > 100000 , result: true
ts=2020-12-02 22:38:56; [cost=0.060843ms] result=@Object[][
    @Integer[200033],
    @ArrayList[
        @Integer[200033],
    ],
]
Condition express: params[0] > 100000 , result: true
ts=2020-12-02 22:38:57; [cost=0.052877ms] result=@Object[][
    @Integer[123047],
    @ArrayList[
        @Integer[29],
        @Integer[4243],
    ],
]