How to: Launch a Stand-Alone .NET Framework Application with the Profiler to Collect Concurrency Data by Using the Command Line
This topic describes how to use Visual Studio Profiling Tools command-line tools to start a .NET Framework stand-alone (client) application and collect process and thread concurrency data
Note
Command-line tools of the Profiling Tools are located in the \Team Tools\Performance Tools subdirectory of the Visual Studio installation directory. On 64 bit computers, both 64 bit and 32 bit versions of the tools are available. To use the profiler command-line tools, you must add the tools path to the PATH environment variable of the command prompt window or add it to the command itself. For more information, see Specifying the Path to Profiling Tools Command Line Tools.
While the profiler is attached to the application, you can pause and resume data collection. To end a profiling session, the Profiler must no longer be attached to the application and the Profiler must be explicitly shut down.
Starting the Application with the Profiler
To launch a .NET Framework target application with the Profiler, you then use the VSPerfCmd /start and /launch options to initialize the Profiler and start the application. You can specify /start and /launch and their respective options on a single command line. You can also add the /globaloff option to the command line to pause data collection when the target application starts. You then use /globalon on a separate command line to start to collect data.
To start an application with the Profiler
Open a command prompt window.
Start the profiler. Type:
VSPerfCmd /start:concurrency[,{ResourceOnly|ThreadOnly}] **/output:**OutputFile [Options]
The /start option initializes the profiler.
/start:concurrency
Enables collecting both resource contention and thread execution data.
/start:concurrency,resourceonly
Enables collecting only resource contention data.
/start:concurrency,threadonly
Enables collecting only thread execution data.
The /output**:**OutputFile option is required with /start. OutputFile specifies the name and location of the profiling data (.vsp) file.
You can use any of the following options with the /start:concurrency option.
Option
Description
/user:[domain\]username
Specifies the optional domain and user name of the account to be granted access to the profiler.
Enables profiling of processes in other logon sessions.
/wincounter:WinCounterPath
Specifies a Windows performance counter to be collected during profiling.
/automark:Interval
Use with /wincounter only. Specifies the number of milliseconds between Windows performance counter collection events. Default is 500 ms.
/events:Config
Specifies an Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) event to be collected during profiling. ETW events are collected in a separate (.etl) file.
Start the target application. Type:
VSPerfCmd /launch**:**AppName [Options] [Sample Event]
You can use any of the following options with the /launch option.
Option
Description
/args:Arguments
Specifies a string that contains the command-line arguments to be passed to the target application.
Starts the target command-line application in a separate window.
/targetclr:Version
Specifies the version of the common language runtime (CLR) to profile when more than one version of the runtime is loaded in an application.
Controlling Data Collection
While the target application is running, you can control data collection by starting and stopping the writing of data to the file by using VSPerfCmd.exe options. Controlling data collection enables you to collect data for a specific part of program execution, such as the starting or shutdown of the application.
To start and stop data collection
The following pairs of VSPerfCmd.exe options start and stop data collection. Specify each option on a separate command-line. You can turn data collection on and off multiple times.
Option
Description
Starts (/globalon) or stops (/globaloff) data collection for all processes.
/processon:PID /processoff:PID
Starts (/processon) or stops (/processoff) data collection for the process specified by the process ID (PID).
/attach starts to collect data for the process specified by the process ID (PID) or process name (ProcName). /detach stops data collection for the specified process or for all processes if a specific process is not specified.
Ending the profiling session
To end a profiling session, the profiler must not be collecting data. You can stop collecting concurrency data by closing the profiled application or by invoking the VSPerfCmd /detach option. You then invoke the VSPerfCmd /shutdown option to turn off the profiler and close the profiling data file. The VSPerfClrEnv /off command clears the profiling environment variables.
To end a profiling session
Do one of the following to detach the profiler from the target application.
Close the target application.
-or-
Type VSPerfCmd /detach
Shut down the profiler
VSPerfCmd /shutdown
See Also
Concepts
Collecting Concurrency Data for Stand-Alone Applications by Using the Profiler Command Line
Change History
Date |
History |
Reason |
---|---|---|
December, 2011 |
Removed VSPerfClrEnv /sampleon step. |
Content bug fix. |