[gst-devel] Naming threads ? Other performance debugging helpers ?

[Stefan Kost]

Hi Florent,

Florent schrieb:
> Hi
> 
> I was wondering if it would be feasible that elements that launch
> threads (e.g. queues) could name threads (using prctl(PR_SET_NAME? ),
> with the name being constructed after their name, or the neighbour
> elements' name. After a quick search [1], i'm not sure the Linux
> kernel offers this feature

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=580505

I'd like to have this too, but I don't think it can be done in a crossplatform,
non hackish way.
> 
> This would help a lot performance debugging : so far if you want to
> know what thread is consuming the most power, you make assumptions on
> the nature of processing, and study partial pipelines to estimate the
> proportion taken by what, but this approach is very limiting for
> detecting/understanding side effects.

What you could do is to add some thread-id name association to gstreamer. The
you could write gdb extension to query it? Or the logging could print the name
as well. Where would you need the name?

> 
> Also, any other idea about how to "map" the CPU cycles consumption of
> a pipeline or other performance indicators would be welcome. I am
> considering developing a tool which would display states/hints of a
> pipeline's behaviour in a graphical fashion. So far i experimented
> with polling queue filling states, but it does not always prove
> helpful. I also don't know how i can access QoS data from python.

As my time permits I hack on gst-tracelib [1]. One plan is to intergrate the
graphing (which is done by gnuplot) into gst-debug-viewer [2]. The later is
written in python. WOuld be cool if you would consider helping on that one.

Stefan

[1] http://cgit.freedesktop.org/~ensonic/gst-tracelib/
[2] http://cgit.freedesktop.org/~cymacs/gst-debug-viewer/

> 
> Regards,
> 
> FLorent
> 
> [1] http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/engine?list=linux&do=search_results&search_forum=forum_1&search_string=thread+name&search_type=AND
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Let Crystal Reports handle the reporting - Free Crystal Reports 2008 30-Day 
> trial. Simplify your report design, integration and deployment - and focus on 
> what you do best, core application coding. Discover what's new with 
> Crystal Reports now.  http://p.sf.net/sfu/bobj-july
> _______________________________________________
> gstreamer-devel mailing list
> gstreamer-devel at lists.sourceforge.net
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gstreamer-devel