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[PATCH] New DTrace probe for changes to global phase #11476

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p5pRT opened this issue Jul 7, 2011 · 22 comments
Closed

[PATCH] New DTrace probe for changes to global phase #11476

p5pRT opened this issue Jul 7, 2011 · 22 comments
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@p5pRT
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p5pRT commented Jul 7, 2011

Migrated from rt.perl.org#94234 (status was 'resolved')

Searchable as RT94234$

@p5pRT
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p5pRT commented Jul 7, 2011

From sartak@gmail.com

Hi porters,

I've recently developed somewhat of a DTrace kick, and I figured what better
way to shake that out of my system than by improving Perl's DTrace support?
As of 5.10.1, we have probes for subroutine entry and exit, which *does* get
us a long way, but we could do even better. There are some patches floating
around (like at
http​://fosiki.com/blog/2008/02/15/blead-perl-dtrace-probes/) to
improve Perl's DTrace support in other ways. For this first new probe
(an easy and useful one​: global phase changes) I decided to piggy-back on
top of Florian++'s new ${^GLOBAL_PHASE} variable, since that provides more
visibility than the aforelinked patch, and is easily understood in terms of
tangible Perl features.

My first patch does a tiny bit of refactoring to change all those literal​:

PL_phase = PERL_PHASE_END;

assignments to use a new macro instead​:

PERL_SET_PHASE(PERL_PHASE_END);

The second patch, the one with the actual meat in it, adds to that new
PERL_SET_PHASE macro a DTrace probe. This new probe gives DTrace users
additional visibility into _when_ certain things happen. For example, this
DTrace invocation​:

sudo dtrace -qZn '​:perl​::phase-change /copyinstr(arg0) == "END"/ {
self->cleaning_up = 1 } :perl​::sub-entry /self->cleaning_up &&
copyinstr(arg0) != "END"/ { printf("%s​::%s at %s line %d\n",
copyinstr(arg3), copyinstr(arg0), copyinstr(arg1), arg2) }'

will list all of the function calls made during interpreter cleanup
(excluding the sneaky sorta-function "END"). You might use this to help
diagnose why the interpreter doesn't exit immediately after the main
processing is done. You can play with it by running this one-liner in
another shell​:

perl -MFile​::Temp -MTest​::Builder -e 'sub foo {} sub bar {} END { foo } bar'

which for me gives​:

main​::foo at -e line 1
Test​::Builder​::_ending at
/Users/sartak/.perl/perls/dtrace/lib/5.15.0/Test/Builder.pm line 2389
Test​::Builder​::__ANON__ at
/Users/sartak/.perl/perls/dtrace/lib/5.15.0/Test/Builder.pm line 1592
File​::Temp​::cleanup at
/Users/sartak/.perl/perls/dtrace/lib/5.15.0/File/Temp.pm line 877
Test​::Builder​::DESTROY at
/Users/sartak/.perl/perls/dtrace/lib/5.15.0/Test/Builder.pm line 376
Test​::Builder​::parent at
/Users/sartak/.perl/perls/dtrace/lib/5.15.0/Test/Builder.pm line 361

Other use cases might be to investigate how many system calls are being made
at compile time, for performance tuning something like Moose (which is my
actual interest here). This DTrace invocation​:

dtrace -qZn '​:perl​::phase-change /copyinstr(arg0) == "START"/ {
self->interesting = 1 } :perl​::phase-change /copyinstr(arg0) == "RUN"/ {
self->interesting = 0 } syscall​::​: /self->interesting/ { @​[probefunc] =
count() } END { trunc(@​, 3) }'

produces the top three most-used syscalls for the above Perl one-liner​:

  read 152
  ioctl 156
  stat64 470

Please let me know if there are any reservations about these patches. Keep
in mind that unless you specifically use -Dusedtrace, DTrace support carries
NO performance penalty. DTrace does quite a bit of gymnastics to ensure that
there is no performance penalty during runtime, but as I understand it,
Perl's DTrace support is not quite at that ideal yet. I'll have to
investigate that one, since from what I can see in the perl source there
should be no latent penalty.

Cheers,
Shawn

P.S. Is there a leading DTrace expert already on p5p, or did I just
volunteer myself for the position? :P

@p5pRT
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p5pRT commented Jul 7, 2011

From sartak@gmail.com

0001-Factor-out-a-PERL_SET_PHASE-macro.patch
From 58a06746c9bbfd7ecad49c2f77fffc93c253f14c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Shawn M Moore <sartak@bestpractical.com>
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2011 22:34:49 -0400
Subject: [PATCH 1/2] Factor out a PERL_SET_PHASE macro

    This is the first step in adding a dtrace probe for global phase change
---
 perl.c |   16 ++++++++--------
 perl.h |    5 +++++
 2 files changed, 13 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)

diff --git a/perl.c b/perl.c
index e345ae1..914fbcd 100644
--- a/perl.c
+++ b/perl.c
@@ -562,7 +562,7 @@ perl_destruct(pTHXx)
         JMPENV_PUSH(x);
 	PERL_UNUSED_VAR(x);
         if (PL_endav && !PL_minus_c) {
-	    PL_phase = PERL_PHASE_END;
+	    PERL_SET_PHASE(PERL_PHASE_END);
             call_list(PL_scopestack_ix, PL_endav);
 	}
         JMPENV_POP;
@@ -757,7 +757,7 @@ perl_destruct(pTHXx)
      * destruct_level > 0 */
     SvREFCNT_dec(PL_main_cv);
     PL_main_cv = NULL;
-    PL_phase = PERL_PHASE_DESTRUCT;
+    PERL_SET_PHASE(PERL_PHASE_DESTRUCT);
 
     /* Tell PerlIO we are about to tear things apart in case
        we have layers which are using resources that should
@@ -1607,7 +1607,7 @@ perl_parse(pTHXx_ XSINIT_t xsinit, int argc, char **argv, char **env)
 	    call_list(oldscope, PL_unitcheckav);
 	}
 	if (PL_checkav) {
-	    PL_phase = PERL_PHASE_CHECK;
+	    PERL_SET_PHASE(PERL_PHASE_CHECK);
 	    call_list(oldscope, PL_checkav);
 	}
 	ret = 0;
@@ -1625,7 +1625,7 @@ perl_parse(pTHXx_ XSINIT_t xsinit, int argc, char **argv, char **env)
 	    call_list(oldscope, PL_unitcheckav);
 	}
 	if (PL_checkav) {
-	    PL_phase = PERL_PHASE_CHECK;
+	    PERL_SET_PHASE(PERL_PHASE_CHECK);
 	    call_list(oldscope, PL_checkav);
 	}
 	ret = STATUS_EXIT;
@@ -1774,7 +1774,7 @@ S_parse_body(pTHX_ char **env, XSINIT_t xsinit)
     SV *linestr_sv = newSV_type(SVt_PVIV);
     bool add_read_e_script = FALSE;
 
-    PL_phase = PERL_PHASE_START;
+    PERL_SET_PHASE(PERL_PHASE_START);
 
     SvGROW(linestr_sv, 80);
     sv_setpvs(linestr_sv,"");
@@ -2278,7 +2278,7 @@ perl_run(pTHXx)
 	PL_curstash = PL_defstash;
 	if (!(PL_exit_flags & PERL_EXIT_DESTRUCT_END) &&
 	    PL_endav && !PL_minus_c) {
-	    PL_phase = PERL_PHASE_END;
+	    PERL_SET_PHASE(PERL_PHASE_END);
 	    call_list(oldscope, PL_endav);
 	}
 #ifdef MYMALLOC
@@ -2330,7 +2330,7 @@ S_run_body(pTHX_ I32 oldscope)
 	if (PERLDB_SINGLE && PL_DBsingle)
 	    sv_setiv(PL_DBsingle, 1);
 	if (PL_initav) {
-	    PL_phase = PERL_PHASE_INIT;
+	    PERL_SET_PHASE(PERL_PHASE_INIT);
 	    call_list(oldscope, PL_initav);
 	}
 #ifdef PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_OPS
@@ -2340,7 +2340,7 @@ S_run_body(pTHX_ I32 oldscope)
 
     /* do it */
 
-    PL_phase = PERL_PHASE_RUN;
+    PERL_SET_PHASE(PERL_PHASE_RUN);
 
     if (PL_restartop) {
 	PL_restartjmpenv = NULL;
diff --git a/perl.h b/perl.h
index 6e1038b..423d264 100644
--- a/perl.h
+++ b/perl.h
@@ -4718,6 +4718,11 @@ EXTCONST char PL_bincompat_options[] =
 EXTCONST char PL_bincompat_options[];
 #endif
 
+#ifndef PERL_SET_PHASE
+#  define PERL_SET_PHASE(new_phase) \
+    PL_phase = new_phase;
+#endif
+
 /* The interpreter phases. If these ever change, PL_phase_names right below will
  * need to be updated accordingly. */
 enum perl_phase {
-- 
1.7.5.1

@p5pRT
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p5pRT commented Jul 7, 2011

From sartak@gmail.com

0002-Add-a-phase-change-DTrace-probe.patch
From b27b5d665c1bc8d61e6c24e91ed57f934d6e5c16 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Shawn M Moore <sartak@bestpractical.com>
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2011 22:35:47 -0400
Subject: [PATCH 2/2] Add a phase-change DTrace probe

---
 mydtrace.h   |    6 ++++++
 perl.h       |    1 +
 perldtrace.d |    2 ++
 3 files changed, 9 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)

diff --git a/mydtrace.h b/mydtrace.h
index 75e6918..a7a4e47 100644
--- a/mydtrace.h
+++ b/mydtrace.h
@@ -23,11 +23,17 @@
 	PERL_SUB_RETURN(func, file, line, stash); 	\
     }
 
+#  define PHASE_CHANGE_PROBE(new_phase, old_phase)      \
+    if (PERL_PHASE_CHANGE_ENABLED()) {                  \
+	PERL_PHASE_CHANGE(new_phase, old_phase);        \
+    }
+
 #else
 
 /* NOPs */
 #  define ENTRY_PROBE(func, file, line, stash)
 #  define RETURN_PROBE(func, file, line, stash)
+#  define PHASE_CHANGE_PROBE(new_phase, old_phase)
 
 #endif
 
diff --git a/perl.h b/perl.h
index 423d264..4d20047 100644
--- a/perl.h
+++ b/perl.h
@@ -4720,6 +4720,7 @@ EXTCONST char PL_bincompat_options[];
 
 #ifndef PERL_SET_PHASE
 #  define PERL_SET_PHASE(new_phase) \
+    PHASE_CHANGE_PROBE(PL_phase_names[new_phase], PL_phase_names[PL_phase]); \
     PL_phase = new_phase;
 #endif
 
diff --git a/perldtrace.d b/perldtrace.d
index 5175f24..6040d2b 100644
--- a/perldtrace.d
+++ b/perldtrace.d
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@
 provider perl {
     probe sub__entry(char *, char *, int, char *);
     probe sub__return(char *, char *, int, char *);
+
+    probe phase__change(const char *, const char *);
 };
 
 /*
-- 
1.7.5.1

@p5pRT
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p5pRT commented Jul 10, 2011

From @cpansprout

On Wed Jul 06 20​:58​:57 2011, sartak wrote​:

Hi porters,

I've recently developed somewhat of a DTrace kick, and I figured what
better
way to shake that out of my system than by improving Perl's DTrace
support?
As of 5.10.1, we have probes for subroutine entry and exit, which
*does* get
us a long way, but we could do even better. There are some patches
floating
around (like at
http​://fosiki.com/blog/2008/02/15/blead-perl-dtrace-probes/) to
improve Perl's DTrace support in other ways. For this first new probe
(an easy and useful one​: global phase changes) I decided to piggy-back on
top of Florian++'s new ${^GLOBAL_PHASE} variable, since that provides more
visibility than the aforelinked patch, and is easily understood in
terms of
tangible Perl features.

My first patch does a tiny bit of refactoring to change all those literal​:

PL_phase = PERL_PHASE_END;

assignments to use a new macro instead​:

PERL_SET_PHASE(PERL_PHASE_END);

The second patch, the one with the actual meat in it, adds to that new
PERL_SET_PHASE macro a DTrace probe. This new probe gives DTrace users
additional visibility into _when_ certain things happen. For example, this
DTrace invocation​:

sudo dtrace -qZn '​:perl​::phase-change /copyinstr(arg0) == "END"/ {
self->cleaning_up = 1 } :perl​::sub-entry /self->cleaning_up &&
copyinstr(arg0) != "END"/ { printf("%s​::%s at %s line %d\n",
copyinstr(arg3), copyinstr(arg0), copyinstr(arg1), arg2) }'

will list all of the function calls made during interpreter cleanup
(excluding the sneaky sorta-function "END"). You might use this to help
diagnose why the interpreter doesn't exit immediately after the main
processing is done. You can play with it by running this one-liner in
another shell​:

perl -MFile​::Temp -MTest​::Builder -e 'sub foo {} sub bar {} END { foo
} bar'

which for me gives​:

main​::foo at -e line 1
Test​::Builder​::_ending at
/Users/sartak/.perl/perls/dtrace/lib/5.15.0/Test/Builder.pm line 2389
Test​::Builder​::__ANON__ at
/Users/sartak/.perl/perls/dtrace/lib/5.15.0/Test/Builder.pm line 1592
File​::Temp​::cleanup at
/Users/sartak/.perl/perls/dtrace/lib/5.15.0/File/Temp.pm line 877
Test​::Builder​::DESTROY at
/Users/sartak/.perl/perls/dtrace/lib/5.15.0/Test/Builder.pm line 376
Test​::Builder​::parent at
/Users/sartak/.perl/perls/dtrace/lib/5.15.0/Test/Builder.pm line 361

Other use cases might be to investigate how many system calls are
being made
at compile time, for performance tuning something like Moose (which is my
actual interest here). This DTrace invocation​:

dtrace -qZn '​:perl​::phase-change /copyinstr(arg0) == "START"/ {
self->interesting = 1 } :perl​::phase-change /copyinstr(arg0) == "RUN"/ {
self->interesting = 0 } syscall​::​: /self->interesting/ { @​[probefunc] =
count() } END { trunc(@​, 3) }'

produces the top three most-used syscalls for the above Perl one-liner​:

read 152
ioctl 156
stat64 470

Please let me know if there are any reservations about these patches. Keep
in mind that unless you specifically use -Dusedtrace, DTrace support
carries
NO performance penalty. DTrace does quite a bit of gymnastics to
ensure that
there is no performance penalty during runtime, but as I understand it,
Perl's DTrace support is not quite at that ideal yet. I'll have to
investigate that one, since from what I can see in the perl source there
should be no latent penalty.

Cheers,
Shawn

P.S. Is there a leading DTrace expert already on p5p, or did I just
volunteer myself for the position? :P

I think you did. :-)

We now have a nuncupative policy that new feature have to be accompanied
by documentation. I don’t know whether that applies to your patch, but
in any case the examples you gave above would be great in the documentation.

Where is this DTrace stuff documented, anyway?

@p5pRT
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p5pRT commented Jul 10, 2011

The RT System itself - Status changed from 'new' to 'open'

@p5pRT
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p5pRT commented Jul 11, 2011

From sartak@gmail.com

I've tried my hand at writing a DTrace test file. Anything I can do to
improve it?

Shawn

@p5pRT
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p5pRT commented Jul 11, 2011

From sartak@gmail.com

0001-New-test-file-that-exercises-Perl-s-DTrace-support.patch
From b33eaa99148fb91ae9c36e24856e3f0f467f7749 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Shawn M Moore <sartak@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2011 16:24:07 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] New test file that exercises Perl's DTrace support

---
 t/run/dtrace.t |   96 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 files changed, 96 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 t/run/dtrace.t

diff --git a/t/run/dtrace.t b/t/run/dtrace.t
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..19aa2f5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/run/dtrace.t
@@ -0,0 +1,96 @@
+#!./perl
+use strict;
+use warnings;
+use IPC::Open2;
+
+my $Perl;
+my $dtrace;
+
+BEGIN {
+    chdir 't';
+    @INC = '../lib';
+    require './test.pl';
+
+    skip_all_without_config("usedtrace");
+
+    $dtrace = -x '/usr/sbin/dtrace' ? '/usr/sbin/dtrace'
+            : -x '/usr/bin/dtrace'  ? '/usr/bin/dtrace'
+            : 'dtrace';
+
+    $Perl = which_perl();
+
+    `$dtrace -V` or skip_all("dtrace unavailable");
+
+    my $result = `$dtrace -qnBEGIN -c'$Perl -e 1' 2>&1`;
+    $? && skip_all("Apparently can't $dtrace (perhaps you need root?): $result");
+}
+
+plan(tests => 2);
+
+dtrace_like(
+    '1',
+    'BEGIN { trace(42+666) }',
+    qr/708/,
+    'really running DTrace',
+);
+
+dtrace_like(
+    'package My;
+        sub outer { Your::inner() }
+     package Your;
+        sub inner { }
+     package Other;
+        My::outer();
+        Your::inner();',
+
+    'sub-entry { printf("-> %s::%s at %s line %d!\n", copyinstr(arg3), copyinstr(arg0), copyinstr(arg1), arg2) }
+     sub-return { printf("<- %s::%s at %s line %d!\n", copyinstr(arg3), copyinstr(arg0), copyinstr(arg1), arg2) }',
+
+     qr/-> My::outer at - line 2!
+-> Your::inner at - line 4!
+<- Your::inner at - line 4!
+<- My::outer at - line 2!
+-> Your::inner at - line 4!
+<- Your::inner at - line 4!/,
+
+    'traced multiple function calls',
+);
+
+sub dtrace_like {
+    my $perl     = shift;
+    my $probes   = shift;
+    my $expected = shift;
+    my $name     = shift;
+
+    my ($reader, $writer);
+
+    my $pid = open2($reader, $writer,
+        $dtrace,
+        '-q',
+        '-n', 'BEGIN { trace("ready!\n") }', # necessary! see below
+        '-n', $probes,
+        '-c', $Perl,
+    );
+
+    # wait until DTrace tells us that it is initialized
+    # otherwise our probes won't properly fire
+    chomp(my $throwaway = <$reader>);
+    $throwaway eq "ready!" or die "Unexpected 'ready!' result from DTrace: $throwaway";
+
+    # now we can start executing our perl
+    print $writer $perl;
+    close $writer;
+
+    # read all the dtrace results back in
+    local $/;
+    my $result = <$reader>;
+
+    # make sure that dtrace is all done and successful
+    waitpid($pid, 0);
+    my $child_exit_status = $? >> 8;
+    die "Unexpected error from DTrace: $result"
+        if $child_exit_status != 0;
+
+    like($result, $expected, $name);
+}
+
-- 
1.7.5.1

@p5pRT
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p5pRT commented Jul 11, 2011

From sartak@gmail.com

2011/7/10 Father Chrysostomos via RT <perlbug-followup@​perl.org>

We now have a nuncupative policy that new feature have to be accompanied
by documentation. I don’t know whether that applies to your patch, but
in any case the examples you gave above would be great in the
documentation.

Where is this DTrace stuff documented, anyway?

I plan to write a perldtrace document that walks through all the probes Perl
provides, with examples like what I wrote. DTrace support apparently isn't
documented at all outside of INSTALL and perldelta files, partly because
there seems to be no good place for such documentation.

I'm also providing a slightly updated test file patch which now respects
$Config{dtrace}.

Shawn

@p5pRT
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p5pRT commented Jul 11, 2011

From sartak@gmail.com

0001-New-test-file-that-exercises-Perl-s-DTrace-support.patch
From 189553285f2c3db77602ef4e1863fa98fede9e1f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Shawn M Moore <sartak@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2011 16:24:07 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] New test file that exercises Perl's DTrace support

---
 t/run/dtrace.t |   94 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 files changed, 94 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 t/run/dtrace.t

diff --git a/t/run/dtrace.t b/t/run/dtrace.t
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ae253fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/run/dtrace.t
@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+#!./perl
+use strict;
+use warnings;
+use IPC::Open2;
+
+my $Perl;
+my $dtrace;
+
+BEGIN {
+    chdir 't';
+    @INC = '../lib';
+    require './test.pl';
+
+    skip_all_without_config("usedtrace");
+
+    $dtrace = $Config{dtrace};
+
+    $Perl = which_perl();
+
+    `$dtrace -V` or skip_all("$dtrace unavailable");
+
+    my $result = `$dtrace -qnBEGIN -c'$Perl -e 1' 2>&1`;
+    $? && skip_all("Apparently can't probe using $dtrace (perhaps you need root?): $result");
+}
+
+plan(tests => 2);
+
+dtrace_like(
+    '1',
+    'BEGIN { trace(42+666) }',
+    qr/708/,
+    'really running DTrace',
+);
+
+dtrace_like(
+    'package My;
+        sub outer { Your::inner() }
+     package Your;
+        sub inner { }
+     package Other;
+        My::outer();
+        Your::inner();',
+
+    'sub-entry { printf("-> %s::%s at %s line %d!\n", copyinstr(arg3), copyinstr(arg0), copyinstr(arg1), arg2) }
+     sub-return { printf("<- %s::%s at %s line %d!\n", copyinstr(arg3), copyinstr(arg0), copyinstr(arg1), arg2) }',
+
+     qr/-> My::outer at - line 2!
+-> Your::inner at - line 4!
+<- Your::inner at - line 4!
+<- My::outer at - line 2!
+-> Your::inner at - line 4!
+<- Your::inner at - line 4!/,
+
+    'traced multiple function calls',
+);
+
+sub dtrace_like {
+    my $perl     = shift;
+    my $probes   = shift;
+    my $expected = shift;
+    my $name     = shift;
+
+    my ($reader, $writer);
+
+    my $pid = open2($reader, $writer,
+        $dtrace,
+        '-q',
+        '-n', 'BEGIN { trace("ready!\n") }', # necessary! see below
+        '-n', $probes,
+        '-c', $Perl,
+    );
+
+    # wait until DTrace tells us that it is initialized
+    # otherwise our probes won't properly fire
+    chomp(my $throwaway = <$reader>);
+    $throwaway eq "ready!" or die "Unexpected 'ready!' result from DTrace: $throwaway";
+
+    # now we can start executing our perl
+    print $writer $perl;
+    close $writer;
+
+    # read all the dtrace results back in
+    local $/;
+    my $result = <$reader>;
+
+    # make sure that dtrace is all done and successful
+    waitpid($pid, 0);
+    my $child_exit_status = $? >> 8;
+    die "Unexpected error from DTrace: $result"
+        if $child_exit_status != 0;
+
+    like($result, $expected, $name);
+}
+
-- 
1.7.5.1

@p5pRT
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p5pRT commented Jul 12, 2011

From sartak@gmail.com

2011/7/11 Sartak <sartak@​gmail.com>

2011/7/10 Father Chrysostomos via RT <perlbug-followup@​perl.org>

We now have a nuncupative policy that new feature have to be accompanied
by documentation. I don’t know whether that applies to your patch, but
in any case the examples you gave above would be great in the
documentation.

Where is this DTrace stuff documented, anyway?

I plan to write a perldtrace document that walks through all the probes
Perl provides, with examples like what I wrote. DTrace support apparently
isn't documented at all outside of INSTALL and perldelta files, partly
because there seems to be no good place for such documentation.

And so I did! See attached. :) Once this patch and my test patch make it to
blead I'll refactor my original GLOBAL_PHASE dtrace probe patch to amend
perldtrace.pod and dtrace.t.

Shawn

@p5pRT
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p5pRT commented Jul 12, 2011

From sartak@gmail.com

0001-New-document-for-perldtrace.patch
From ef819fab43468ae30ad119485fd4776f16684290 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Shawn M Moore <sartak@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2011 20:49:25 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] New document for perldtrace

---
 pod/perldtrace.pod |  144 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 files changed, 144 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 pod/perldtrace.pod

diff --git a/pod/perldtrace.pod b/pod/perldtrace.pod
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2654417
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pod/perldtrace.pod
@@ -0,0 +1,144 @@
+=head1 NAME
+
+perldtrace - Perl's support for DTrace
+
+=head1 SYNOPSIS
+
+    # dtrace -Zn 'perl::sub-entry, perl::sub-return { trace(copyinstr(arg0)) }'
+    dtrace: description 'perl::sub-entry, perl::sub-return ' matched 10 probes
+
+    # perl -E 'sub outer { inner(@_) } sub inner { say shift } outer("hello")'
+    hello
+
+    (dtrace output)
+    CPU     ID                    FUNCTION:NAME
+      0  75915       Perl_pp_entersub:sub-entry   BEGIN
+      0  75915       Perl_pp_entersub:sub-entry   import
+      0  75922      Perl_pp_leavesub:sub-return   import
+      0  75922      Perl_pp_leavesub:sub-return   BEGIN
+      0  75915       Perl_pp_entersub:sub-entry   outer
+      0  75915       Perl_pp_entersub:sub-entry   inner
+      0  75922      Perl_pp_leavesub:sub-return   inner
+      0  75922      Perl_pp_leavesub:sub-return   outer
+
+=head1 DESCRIPTION
+
+DTrace is a framework for comprehensive system- and application-level
+tracing. Perl is a DTrace I<provider>, meaning it exposes several
+I<probes> for instrumentation. You can use these in conjunction
+with kernel-level probes, as well as probes from other providers
+such as MySQL, in order to diagnose software defects, or even just
+your application's bottlenecks.
+
+Perl must be compiled with the C<-Dusedtrace> option in order to
+make use of the provided probes. While DTrace aims to have no
+overhead when its instrumentation is not active, Perl's support
+itself cannot uphold that guarantee, so it is built without DTrace
+probes under most systems. One notable exception is that Mac OS X
+ships a F</usr/bin/perl> with DTrace support enabled.
+
+=head1 HISTORY
+
+=over 4
+
+=item 5.10.1
+
+Perl's initial DTrace support was added, providing C<sub-entry> and
+C<sub-return> probes.
+
+=item 5.14.0
+
+The C<sub-entry> and C<sub-return> probes gain a fourth argument: the
+package name of the function.
+
+=back
+
+=head1 PROBES
+
+=over 4
+
+=item sub-entry(SUBNAME, FILE, LINE, PACKAGE)
+
+Traces the entry of any subroutine. Note that all of the variables
+refer to the subroutine that is being invoked; there is currently
+no way to get ahold of any information about the subroutine's
+I<caller> from a DTrace action.
+
+    :*perl*::sub-entry {
+        printf("%s::%s entered at %s line %d\n",
+               copyinstr(arg3), copyinstr(arg0), copyinstr(arg1), arg0);
+    }
+
+=item sub-return(SUBNAME, FILE, LINE, PACKAGE)
+
+Traces the exit of any subroutine. Note that all of the variables
+refer to the subroutine that is returning; there is currently no
+way to get ahold of any information about the subroutine's I<caller>
+from a DTrace action.
+
+    :*perl*::sub-return {
+        printf("%s::%s returned at %s line %d\n",
+               copyinstr(arg3), copyinstr(arg0), copyinstr(arg1), arg0);
+    }
+
+=back
+
+=head1 EXAMPLES
+
+=over 4
+
+=item Most frequently called functions
+
+    # dtrace -qZn 'sub-entry { @[strjoin(strjoin(copyinstr(arg3),"::"),copyinstr(arg0))] = count() } END {trunc(@, 10)}'
+
+    Class::MOP::Attribute::slots                                    400
+    Try::Tiny::catch                                                411
+    Try::Tiny::try                                                  411
+    Class::MOP::Instance::inline_slot_access                        451
+    Class::MOP::Class::Immutable::Trait:::around                    472
+    Class::MOP::Mixin::AttributeCore::has_initializer               496
+    Class::MOP::Method::Wrapped::__ANON__                           544
+    Class::MOP::Package::_package_stash                             737
+    Class::MOP::Class::initialize                                  1128
+    Class::MOP::get_metaclass_by_name                              1204
+
+=item Trace function calls
+
+    # dtrace -qFZn 'sub-entry, sub-return { trace(copyinstr(arg0)) }'
+
+    0  -> Perl_pp_entersub                        BEGIN                            
+    0  <- Perl_pp_leavesub                        BEGIN                            
+    0  -> Perl_pp_entersub                        BEGIN                            
+    0    -> Perl_pp_entersub                      import                           
+    0    <- Perl_pp_leavesub                      import                           
+    0  <- Perl_pp_leavesub                        BEGIN                            
+    0  -> Perl_pp_entersub                        BEGIN                            
+    0    -> Perl_pp_entersub                      dress                            
+    0    <- Perl_pp_leavesub                      dress                            
+    0    -> Perl_pp_entersub                      dirty                            
+    0    <- Perl_pp_leavesub                      dirty                            
+    0    -> Perl_pp_entersub                      whiten                           
+    0    <- Perl_pp_leavesub                      whiten                           
+    0  <- Perl_dounwind                           BEGIN 
+
+=back
+
+=head1 REFERENCES
+
+=over 4
+
+=item DTrace User Guide
+
+L<http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E19082-01/819-3620/index.html>
+
+=item DTrace: Dynamic Tracing in Oracle Solaris, Mac OS X and FreeBSD
+
+L<http://www.amazon.com/DTrace-Dynamic-Tracing-Solaris-FreeBSD/dp/0132091518/>
+
+=back
+
+=head1 AUTHORS
+
+Shawn M Moore C<sartak@gmail.com>
+
+=cut
-- 
1.7.5.1

@p5pRT
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p5pRT commented Jul 12, 2011

From @cpansprout

On Mon Jul 11 14​:50​:14 2011, sartak wrote​:

2011/7/10 Father Chrysostomos via RT <perlbug-followup@​perl.org>

We now have a nuncupative policy that new feature have to be accompanied
by documentation. I don’t know whether that applies to your patch, but
in any case the examples you gave above would be great in the
documentation.

The main reason for that policy is to avoid introducing feature without
actually documenting them. In this case, however, we are no worse off
with your patches, so I have applied them as ca7b837, cb3f818 and
b9a2454. Thank you.

Now I eagerly await your perldtrace.pod! :-)

This feels strange. A few years ago I didn’t even know how to use diff,
so you had to explain it to me
(http​://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/;msgid=e7e9b6ab0703101555i1cf12927wf50b8cec77e0b731@​mail.gmail.com),
and now I’m applying your patches.

Where is this DTrace stuff documented, anyway?

I plan to write a perldtrace document that walks through all the
probes Perl
provides, with examples like what I wrote. DTrace support apparently isn't
documented at all outside of INSTALL and perldelta files, partly because
there seems to be no good place for such documentation.

I'm also providing a slightly updated test file patch which now respects
$Config{dtrace}.

You did not import %Config, so I changed the test to use
$Config​::Config{...}.

@p5pRT
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p5pRT commented Jul 12, 2011

@cpansprout - Status changed from 'open' to 'resolved'

@p5pRT
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p5pRT commented Jul 12, 2011

From @cpansprout

On Mon Jul 11 17​:54​:53 2011, sartak wrote​:

2011/7/11 Sartak <sartak@​gmail.com>

2011/7/10 Father Chrysostomos via RT <perlbug-followup@​perl.org>

We now have a nuncupative policy that new feature have to be
accompanied
by documentation. I don’t know whether that applies to your patch, but
in any case the examples you gave above would be great in the
documentation.

Where is this DTrace stuff documented, anyway?

I plan to write a perldtrace document that walks through all the probes
Perl provides, with examples like what I wrote. DTrace support
apparently
isn't documented at all outside of INSTALL and perldelta files, partly
because there seems to be no good place for such documentation.

And so I did! See attached. :) Once this patch and my test patch make
it to
blead I'll refactor my original GLOBAL_PHASE dtrace probe patch to amend
perldtrace.pod and dtrace.t.

Shawn

(I should learn to reload the RT page before responding.)

OK, now I’m going to apply this patch and run the porting tests....

@p5pRT
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p5pRT commented Jul 12, 2011

From @cpansprout

On Mon Jul 11 20​:41​:03 2011, sprout wrote​:

On Mon Jul 11 17​:54​:53 2011, sartak wrote​:

2011/7/11 Sartak <sartak@​gmail.com>

2011/7/10 Father Chrysostomos via RT <perlbug-followup@​perl.org>

We now have a nuncupative policy that new feature have to be
accompanied
by documentation. I don’t know whether that applies to your
patch, but
in any case the examples you gave above would be great in the
documentation.

Where is this DTrace stuff documented, anyway?

I plan to write a perldtrace document that walks through all the
probes
Perl provides, with examples like what I wrote. DTrace support
apparently
isn't documented at all outside of INSTALL and perldelta files, partly
because there seems to be no good place for such documentation.

And so I did! See attached. :) Once this patch and my test patch make
it to
blead I'll refactor my original GLOBAL_PHASE dtrace probe patch to amend
perldtrace.pod and dtrace.t.

Shawn

(I should learn to reload the RT page before responding.)

OK, now I’m going to apply this patch and run the porting tests....

Where do you think this be listed in perl.pod?

@p5pRT
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p5pRT commented Jul 12, 2011

From @cpansprout

On Mon Jul 11 20​:43​:42 2011, sprout wrote​:

On Mon Jul 11 20​:41​:03 2011, sprout wrote​:

On Mon Jul 11 17​:54​:53 2011, sartak wrote​:

2011/7/11 Sartak <sartak@​gmail.com>

2011/7/10 Father Chrysostomos via RT <perlbug-followup@​perl.org>

We now have a nuncupative policy that new feature have to be
accompanied
by documentation. I don’t know whether that applies to your
patch, but
in any case the examples you gave above would be great in the
documentation.

Where is this DTrace stuff documented, anyway?

I plan to write a perldtrace document that walks through all the
probes
Perl provides, with examples like what I wrote. DTrace support
apparently
isn't documented at all outside of INSTALL and perldelta files,
partly
because there seems to be no good place for such documentation.

And so I did! See attached. :) Once this patch and my test patch make
it to
blead I'll refactor my original GLOBAL_PHASE dtrace probe patch to
amend
perldtrace.pod and dtrace.t.

Shawn

(I should learn to reload the RT page before responding.)

OK, now I’m going to apply this patch and run the porting tests....

Where do you think this be listed in perl.pod?

s/be/should be/;

@p5pRT
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p5pRT commented Jul 12, 2011

From @cpansprout

On Mon Jul 11 20​:43​:57 2011, sprout wrote​:

On Mon Jul 11 20​:43​:42 2011, sprout wrote​:

On Mon Jul 11 20​:41​:03 2011, sprout wrote​:

On Mon Jul 11 17​:54​:53 2011, sartak wrote​:

2011/7/11 Sartak <sartak@​gmail.com>

2011/7/10 Father Chrysostomos via RT <perlbug-followup@​perl.org>

We now have a nuncupative policy that new feature have to be
accompanied
by documentation. I don’t know whether that applies to your
patch, but
in any case the examples you gave above would be great in the
documentation.

Where is this DTrace stuff documented, anyway?

I plan to write a perldtrace document that walks through all the
probes
Perl provides, with examples like what I wrote. DTrace support
apparently
isn't documented at all outside of INSTALL and perldelta files,
partly
because there seems to be no good place for such documentation.

And so I did! See attached. :) Once this patch and my test patch
make
it to
blead I'll refactor my original GLOBAL_PHASE dtrace probe patch to
amend
perldtrace.pod and dtrace.t.

Shawn

(I should learn to reload the RT page before responding.)

OK, now I’m going to apply this patch and run the porting tests....

Where do you think this be listed in perl.pod?

s/be/should be/;

I’ve just put it in the reference section. I hope that’s OK.

Anyway, thank you. I’ve just added your new pod file with commit
f993ad5.

@p5pRT
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p5pRT commented Jul 12, 2011

From sartak@gmail.com

Thanks for cleaning up and applying my patches, Father Chrysostomos. :)

I'm reopening this ticket because, like I said, "Once this patch and my test
patch make it to blead I'll refactor my original GLOBAL_PHASE dtrace probe
patch to amend perldtrace.pod and dtrace.t". See attached! I patched
perldelta as well.

Feels more right to have this final commit be in the same ticket for
continuity. Any unrelated dtrace patches I cook up will get their own
tickets.

Thanks again!
Shawn

@p5pRT
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p5pRT commented Jul 12, 2011

From sartak@gmail.com

0001-Document-and-test-the-phase-change-probe.patch
From e12943d694af10645d45d3b7b1d6ca3fb81c2b73 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Shawn M Moore <sartak@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2011 08:49:10 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] Document and test the phase-change probe

---
 pod/perldelta.pod  |   19 +++++++++++++--
 pod/perldtrace.pod |   63 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----------
 t/run/dtrace.t     |   64 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 3 files changed, 128 insertions(+), 18 deletions(-)

diff --git a/pod/perldelta.pod b/pod/perldelta.pod
index 6306189..b91d66c 100644
--- a/pod/perldelta.pod
+++ b/pod/perldelta.pod
@@ -53,6 +53,14 @@ exhaust memory).
 New in Unicode 6.0, this is an improved C<Script> property.  Details
 are in L<perlunicode/Scripts>.
 
+=head2 DTrace probes for interpreter phase change
+
+The C<phase-change> probes will fire when the interpreter's phase
+changes, which tracks the C<${^GLOBAL_PHASE}> variable. C<arg0> is
+the new phase name; C<arg1> is the old one. This is useful mostly
+for limiting your instrumentation to one or more of: compile time,
+run time, destruct time.
+
 =head1 Security
 
 XXX Any security-related notices go here.  In particular, any security
@@ -278,9 +286,10 @@ file and be sure to link to the appropriate page, e.g. L<perlfunc>.
 
 XXX Changes which create B<new> files in F<pod/> go here.
 
-=head3 L<XXX>
+=head3 L<perldtrace>
 
-XXX Description of the purpose of the new file here
+L<perldtrace> describes Perl's DTrace support, listing the provided probes
+and gives examples of their use.
 
 =head2 Changes to Existing Documentation
 
@@ -401,7 +410,11 @@ that they represent may be covered elsewhere.
 
 =item *
 
-XXX
+F<t/run/dtrace.t> was added to test Perl's DTrace support. This
+test will only be run if your Perl was built with C<-Dusedtrace>
+and if calling C<dtrace> actually lets you instrument code. This
+generally requires being run as root, so this test file is primarily
+intended for use by the dtrace subcommittee of p5p.
 
 =back
 
diff --git a/pod/perldtrace.pod b/pod/perldtrace.pod
index 2654417..39551e1 100644
--- a/pod/perldtrace.pod
+++ b/pod/perldtrace.pod
@@ -51,6 +51,10 @@ C<sub-return> probes.
 The C<sub-entry> and C<sub-return> probes gain a fourth argument: the
 package name of the function.
 
+=item 5.16.0
+
+The C<phase-change> probe was added.
+
 =back
 
 =head1 PROBES
@@ -81,6 +85,18 @@ from a DTrace action.
                copyinstr(arg3), copyinstr(arg0), copyinstr(arg1), arg0);
     }
 
+=item phase-change(NEWPHASE, OLDPHASE)
+
+Traces changes to Perl's interpreter state. You can internalize this
+as tracing changes to Perl's C<${^GLOBAL_PHASE}> variable, especially
+since the values for C<NEWPHASE> and C<OLDPHASE> are the strings that
+C<${^GLOBAL_PHASE}> reports.
+
+    :*perl*::phase-change {
+        printf("Phase changed from %s to %s\n",
+            copyinstr(arg1), copyinstr(arg0));
+    }
+
 =back
 
 =head1 EXAMPLES
@@ -106,20 +122,39 @@ from a DTrace action.
 
     # dtrace -qFZn 'sub-entry, sub-return { trace(copyinstr(arg0)) }'
 
-    0  -> Perl_pp_entersub                        BEGIN                            
-    0  <- Perl_pp_leavesub                        BEGIN                            
-    0  -> Perl_pp_entersub                        BEGIN                            
-    0    -> Perl_pp_entersub                      import                           
-    0    <- Perl_pp_leavesub                      import                           
-    0  <- Perl_pp_leavesub                        BEGIN                            
-    0  -> Perl_pp_entersub                        BEGIN                            
-    0    -> Perl_pp_entersub                      dress                            
-    0    <- Perl_pp_leavesub                      dress                            
-    0    -> Perl_pp_entersub                      dirty                            
-    0    <- Perl_pp_leavesub                      dirty                            
-    0    -> Perl_pp_entersub                      whiten                           
-    0    <- Perl_pp_leavesub                      whiten                           
-    0  <- Perl_dounwind                           BEGIN 
+    0  -> Perl_pp_entersub                        BEGIN
+    0  <- Perl_pp_leavesub                        BEGIN
+    0  -> Perl_pp_entersub                        BEGIN
+    0    -> Perl_pp_entersub                      import
+    0    <- Perl_pp_leavesub                      import
+    0  <- Perl_pp_leavesub                        BEGIN
+    0  -> Perl_pp_entersub                        BEGIN
+    0    -> Perl_pp_entersub                      dress
+    0    <- Perl_pp_leavesub                      dress
+    0    -> Perl_pp_entersub                      dirty
+    0    <- Perl_pp_leavesub                      dirty
+    0    -> Perl_pp_entersub                      whiten
+    0    <- Perl_pp_leavesub                      whiten
+    0  <- Perl_dounwind                           BEGIN
+
+=item Function calls during interpreter cleanup
+
+    # dtrace -Zn 'phase-change /copyinstr(arg0) == "END"/ { self->ending = 1 } sub-entry /self->ending/ { trace(copyinstr(arg0)) }'
+
+    CPU     ID                    FUNCTION:NAME
+      1  77214       Perl_pp_entersub:sub-entry   END
+      1  77214       Perl_pp_entersub:sub-entry   END
+      1  77214       Perl_pp_entersub:sub-entry   cleanup
+      1  77214       Perl_pp_entersub:sub-entry   _force_writable
+      1  77214       Perl_pp_entersub:sub-entry   _force_writable
+
+=item System calls at compile time
+
+    # dtrace -qZn 'phase-change /copyinstr(arg0) == "START"/ { self->interesting = 1 } phase-change /copyinstr(arg0) == "RUN"/ { self->interesting = 0 } syscall::: /self->interesting/ { @[probefunc] = count() } END { trunc(@, 3) }'
+
+    lseek                                                           310
+    read                                                            374
+    stat64                                                         1056
 
 =back
 
diff --git a/t/run/dtrace.t b/t/run/dtrace.t
index 4ea851e..625e403 100644
--- a/t/run/dtrace.t
+++ b/t/run/dtrace.t
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ use strict;
 use warnings;
 use IPC::Open2;
 
-plan(tests => 2);
+plan(tests => 5);
 
 dtrace_like(
     '1',
@@ -55,6 +55,68 @@ dtrace_like(
     'traced multiple function calls',
 );
 
+dtrace_like(
+    '1',
+    'phase-change { printf("%s -> %s; ", copyinstr(arg1), copyinstr(arg0)) }',
+    qr/START -> RUN; RUN -> DESTRUCT;/,
+    'phase changes of a simple script',
+);
+
+# this code taken from t/op/magic_phase.t which tests all of the
+# transitions of ${^GLOBAL_PHASE}. instead of printing (which will
+# interact nondeterministically with the DTrace output), we increment
+# an unused variable for side effects
+dtrace_like(<< 'MAGIC_OP',
+    my $x = 0;
+    BEGIN { $x++ }
+    CHECK { $x++ }
+    INIT  { $x++ }
+    sub Moo::DESTROY { $x++ }
+
+    my $tiger = bless {}, Moo::;
+
+    sub Kooh::DESTROY { $x++ }
+
+    our $affe = bless {}, Kooh::;
+
+    END { $x++ }
+MAGIC_OP
+
+    'phase-change { printf("%s -> %s; ", copyinstr(arg1), copyinstr(arg0)) }',
+
+     qr/START -> CHECK; CHECK -> INIT; INIT -> RUN; RUN -> END; END -> DESTRUCT;/,
+
+     'phase-changes in a script that exercises all of ${^GLOBAL_PHASE}',
+);
+
+dtrace_like(<< 'PHASES',
+    my $x = 0;
+    sub foo { $x++ }
+    sub bar { $x++ }
+    sub baz { $x++ }
+
+    INIT { foo() }
+    bar();
+    END { baz() }
+PHASES
+
+    '
+    BEGIN { starting = 1 }
+
+    phase-change                            { phase    = arg0 }
+    phase-change /copyinstr(arg0) == "RUN"/ { starting = 0 }
+    phase-change /copyinstr(arg0) == "END"/ { ending   = 1 }
+
+    sub-entry /copyinstr(arg0) != copyinstr(phase) && (starting || ending)/ {
+        printf("%s during %s; ", copyinstr(arg0), copyinstr(phase));
+    }
+    ',
+
+     qr/foo during INIT; baz during END;/,
+
+     'make sure sub-entry and phase-change interact well',
+);
+
 sub dtrace_like {
     my $perl     = shift;
     my $probes   = shift;
-- 
1.7.5.1

@p5pRT
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p5pRT commented Jul 12, 2011

sartak@gmail.com - Status changed from 'resolved' to 'open'

@p5pRT
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p5pRT commented Jul 12, 2011

From @cpansprout

On Tue Jul 12 06​:09​:19 2011, sartak wrote​:

Thanks for cleaning up and applying my patches, Father Chrysostomos. :)

I'm reopening this ticket because, like I said, "Once this patch and
my test
patch make it to blead I'll refactor my original GLOBAL_PHASE dtrace probe
patch to amend perldtrace.pod and dtrace.t". See attached! I patched
perldelta as well.

Feels more right to have this final commit be in the same ticket for
continuity. Any unrelated dtrace patches I cook up will get their own
tickets.

Thanks again!
Shawn

Thank you. Applied as 2b67939.

@p5pRT
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p5pRT commented Jul 12, 2011

@cpansprout - Status changed from 'open' to 'resolved'

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