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| 20 | <div class="chapter"> |
| 21 | <div class="titlepage"><div><div><h1 class="title"> |
| 22 | <a name="manual-intro"></a>1. Introduction</h1></div></div></div> |
| 23 | <div class="toc"> |
| 24 | <p><b>Table of Contents</b></p> |
| 25 | <dl class="toc"> |
| 26 | <dt><span class="sect1"><a href="manual-intro.html#manual-intro.overview">1.1. An Overview of Valgrind</a></span></dt> |
| 27 | <dt><span class="sect1"><a href="manual-intro.html#manual-intro.navigation">1.2. How to navigate this manual</a></span></dt> |
| 28 | </dl> |
| 29 | </div> |
| 30 | <div class="sect1"> |
| 31 | <div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"> |
| 32 | <a name="manual-intro.overview"></a>1.1. An Overview of Valgrind</h2></div></div></div> |
| 33 | <p>Valgrind is an instrumentation framework for building dynamic analysis |
| 34 | tools. It comes with a set of tools each of which performs some kind of |
| 35 | debugging, profiling, or similar task that helps you improve your programs. |
| 36 | Valgrind's architecture is modular, so new tools can be created easily |
| 37 | and without disturbing the existing structure.</p> |
| 38 | <p>A number of useful tools are supplied as standard.</p> |
| 39 | <div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist" type="1"> |
| 40 | <li class="listitem"><p><span class="command"><strong>Memcheck</strong></span> is a memory error detector. It helps |
| 41 | you make your programs, particularly those written in C and C++, more |
| 42 | correct.</p></li> |
| 43 | <li class="listitem"><p><span class="command"><strong>Cachegrind</strong></span> is a cache and branch-prediction |
| 44 | profiler. It helps you make your programs run faster.</p></li> |
| 45 | <li class="listitem"><p><span class="command"><strong>Callgrind</strong></span> is a call-graph generating cache |
| 46 | profiler. It has some overlap with Cachegrind, but also gathers some |
| 47 | information that Cachegrind does not.</p></li> |
| 48 | <li class="listitem"><p><span class="command"><strong>Helgrind</strong></span> is a thread error detector. |
| 49 | It helps you make your multi-threaded programs more correct. |
| 50 | </p></li> |
| 51 | <li class="listitem"><p><span class="command"><strong>DRD</strong></span> is also a thread error detector. It is |
| 52 | similar to Helgrind but uses different analysis techniques and so may |
| 53 | find different problems.</p></li> |
| 54 | <li class="listitem"><p><span class="command"><strong>Massif</strong></span> is a heap profiler. It helps you |
| 55 | make your programs use less memory.</p></li> |
| 56 | <li class="listitem"><p><span class="command"><strong>DHAT</strong></span> is a different kind of heap |
| 57 | profiler. It helps you understand issues of block lifetimes, |
| 58 | block utilisation, and layout inefficiencies.</p></li> |
| 59 | <li class="listitem"><p><span class="command"><strong>SGcheck</strong></span> is an experimental tool that can |
| 60 | detect overruns of stack and global arrays. Its functionality is |
| 61 | complementary to that of Memcheck: SGcheck finds problems that |
| 62 | Memcheck can't, and vice versa..</p></li> |
| 63 | <li class="listitem"><p><span class="command"><strong>BBV</strong></span> is an experimental SimPoint basic block |
| 64 | vector generator. It is useful to people doing computer architecture |
| 65 | research and development.</p></li> |
| 66 | </ol></div> |
| 67 | <p>There are also a couple of minor tools that aren't useful to |
| 68 | most users: <span class="command"><strong>Lackey</strong></span> is an example tool that illustrates |
| 69 | some instrumentation basics; and <span class="command"><strong>Nulgrind</strong></span> is the minimal |
| 70 | Valgrind tool that does no analysis or instrumentation, and is only useful |
| 71 | for testing purposes.</p> |
| 72 | <p>Valgrind is closely tied to details of the CPU and operating |
| 73 | system, and to a lesser extent, the compiler and basic C libraries. |
| 74 | Nonetheless, it supports a number of widely-used platforms, listed in full |
| 75 | at <a class="ulink" href="http://www.valgrind.org/" target="_top">http://www.valgrind.org/</a>.</p> |
| 76 | <p>Valgrind is built via the standard Unix |
| 77 | <code class="computeroutput">./configure</code>, |
| 78 | <code class="computeroutput">make</code>, <code class="computeroutput">make |
| 79 | install</code> process; full details are given in the |
| 80 | README file in the distribution.</p> |
| 81 | <p>Valgrind is licensed under the <a class="xref" href="license.gpl.html" title="1. The GNU General Public License"> The GNU General Public License</a>, |
| 82 | version 2. The <code class="computeroutput">valgrind/*.h</code> headers |
| 83 | that you may wish to include in your code (eg. |
| 84 | <code class="filename">valgrind.h</code>, <code class="filename">memcheck.h</code>, |
| 85 | <code class="filename">helgrind.h</code>, etc.) are |
| 86 | distributed under a BSD-style license, so you may include them in your |
| 87 | code without worrying about license conflicts. Some of the PThreads |
| 88 | test cases, <code class="filename">pth_*.c</code>, are taken from "Pthreads |
| 89 | Programming" by Bradford Nichols, Dick Buttlar & Jacqueline Proulx |
| 90 | Farrell, ISBN 1-56592-115-1, published by O'Reilly & Associates, |
| 91 | Inc.</p> |
| 92 | <p>If you contribute code to Valgrind, please ensure your |
| 93 | contributions are licensed as "GPLv2, or (at your option) any later |
| 94 | version." This is so as to allow the possibility of easily upgrading |
| 95 | the license to GPLv3 in future. If you want to modify code in the VEX |
| 96 | subdirectory, please also see the file VEX/HACKING.README in the |
| 97 | distribution.</p> |
| 98 | </div> |
| 99 | <div class="sect1"> |
| 100 | <div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"> |
| 101 | <a name="manual-intro.navigation"></a>1.2. How to navigate this manual</h2></div></div></div> |
| 102 | <p>This manual's structure reflects the structure of Valgrind itself. |
| 103 | First, we describe the Valgrind core, how to use it, and the options |
| 104 | it supports. Then, each tool has its own chapter in this manual. You |
| 105 | only need to read the documentation for the core and for the tool(s) you |
| 106 | actually use, although you may find it helpful to be at least a little |
| 107 | bit familiar with what all tools do. If you're new to all this, you probably |
| 108 | want to run the Memcheck tool and you might find the <a class="xref" href="quick-start.html" title="The Valgrind Quick Start Guide">The Valgrind Quick Start Guide</a> useful.</p> |
| 109 | <p>Be aware that the core understands some command line options, and |
| 110 | the tools have their own options which they know about. This means |
| 111 | there is no central place describing all the options that are |
| 112 | accepted -- you have to read the options documentation both for |
| 113 | <a class="xref" href="manual-core.html" title="2. Using and understanding the Valgrind core">Valgrind's core</a> and for the tool you want to use.</p> |
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