/
mono.1
1742 lines (1681 loc) · 64.9 KB
/
mono.1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
731
732
733
734
735
736
737
738
739
740
741
742
743
744
745
746
747
748
749
750
751
752
753
754
755
756
757
758
759
760
761
762
763
764
765
766
767
768
769
770
771
772
773
774
775
776
777
778
779
780
781
782
783
784
785
786
787
788
789
790
791
792
793
794
795
796
797
798
799
800
801
802
803
804
805
806
807
808
809
810
811
812
813
814
815
816
817
818
819
820
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
828
829
830
831
832
833
834
835
836
837
838
839
840
841
842
843
844
845
846
847
848
849
850
851
852
853
854
855
856
857
858
859
860
861
862
863
864
865
866
867
868
869
870
871
872
873
874
875
876
877
878
879
880
881
882
883
884
885
886
887
888
889
890
891
892
893
894
895
896
897
898
899
900
901
902
903
904
905
906
907
908
909
910
911
912
913
914
915
916
917
918
919
920
921
922
923
924
925
926
927
928
929
930
931
932
933
934
935
936
937
938
939
940
941
942
943
944
945
946
947
948
949
950
951
952
953
954
955
956
957
958
959
960
961
962
963
964
965
966
967
968
969
970
971
972
973
974
975
976
977
978
979
980
981
982
983
984
985
986
987
988
989
990
991
992
993
994
995
996
997
998
999
1000
.\"
.\" mono manual page.
.\" Copyright 2003 Ximian, Inc.
.\" Copyright 2004-2011 Novell, Inc.
.\" Copyright 2011-2012 Xamarin Inc
.\" Copyright 2013 7digital Media Ltd.
.\" Author:
.\" Miguel de Icaza (miguel@gnu.org)
.\"
.TH Mono "Mono 3.0"
.SH NAME
mono \- Mono's ECMA-CLI native code generator (Just-in-Time and Ahead-of-Time)
.SH SYNOPSIS
.PP
.B mono [options] file [arguments...]
.PP
.B mono-sgen [options] file [arguments...]
.SH DESCRIPTION
\fImono\fP is a runtime implementation of the ECMA Common Language
Infrastructure. This can be used to run ECMA and .NET applications.
.PP
The runtime contains a native code generator that transforms the
Common Intermediate Language into native code.
.PP
The code generator can operate in two modes: just in time compilation
(JIT) or ahead of time compilation (AOT). Since code can be
dynamically loaded, the runtime environment and the JIT are always
present, even if code is compiled ahead of time.
.PP
The runtime loads the specified
.I file
and optionally passes
the
.I arguments
to it. The
.I file
is an ECMA assembly. They typically have a .exe or .dll extension.
.PP
The runtime provides a number of configuration options for running
applications, for developing and debugging, and for testing and
debugging the runtime itself.
.PP
The \fImono\fP command uses the Boehm conservative garbage collector
while the \fImono-sgen\fP command uses a moving and generational
garbage collector.
.SH PORTABILITY
On Unix-based systems, Mono provides a mechanism to emulate the
Windows-style file access, this includes providing a case insensitive
view of the file system, directory separator mapping (from \\ to /) and
stripping the drive letters.
.PP
This functionality is enabled by setting the
.B MONO_IOMAP
environment variable to one of
.B all, drive
and
.B case.
.PP
See the description for
.B MONO_IOMAP
in the environment variables section for more details.
.SH RUNTIME OPTIONS
The following options are available:
.TP
\fB--aot\fR, \fB--aot[=options]\fR
This option is used to precompile the CIL code in the specified
assembly to native code. The generated code is stored in a file with
the extension .so. This file will be automatically picked up by the
runtime when the assembly is executed.
.Sp
Ahead-of-Time compilation is most useful if you use it in combination
with the -O=all,-shared flag which enables all of the optimizations in
the code generator to be performed. Some of those optimizations are
not practical for Just-in-Time compilation since they might be very
time consuming.
.Sp
Unlike the .NET Framework, Ahead-of-Time compilation will not generate
domain independent code: it generates the same code that the
Just-in-Time compiler would produce. Since most applications use a
single domain, this is fine. If you want to optimize the generated
code for use in multi-domain applications, consider using the
-O=shared flag.
.Sp
This pre-compiles the methods, but the original assembly is still
required to execute as this one contains the metadata and exception
information which is not available on the generated file. When
precompiling code, you might want to compile with all optimizations
(-O=all). Pre-compiled code is position independent code.
.Sp
Pre compilation is just a mechanism to reduce startup time, increase
code sharing across multiple mono processes and avoid just-in-time
compilation program startup costs. The original assembly must still
be present, as the metadata is contained there.
.Sp
AOT code typically can not be moved from one computer to another
(CPU-specific optimizations that are detected at runtime) so you
should not try to move the pre-generated assemblies or package the
pre-generated assemblies for deployment.
.Sp
A few options are available as a parameter to the
.B --aot
command line option. The options are separated by commas, and more
than one can be specified:
.RS
.ne 8
.TP
.I autoreg
The AOT compiler will emit a (ELF only) library initializer to automatically
register the aot compiled module with the runtime. This is only useful in static
mode
.TP
.I asmonly
Instructs the AOT compiler to output assembly code instead of an
object file.
.TP
.I bind-to-runtime-version
.Sp
If specified, forces the generated AOT files to be bound to the
runtime version of the compiling Mono. This will prevent the AOT
files from being consumed by a different Mono runtime.
.I full
This is currently an experimental feature as it is not complete.
This instructs Mono to precompile code that has historically not been
precompiled with AOT.
.TP
.I direct-pinvoke
.Sp
When this option is specified, P/Invoke methods are invoked directly
instead of going through the operating system symbol lookup operation.
.TP
.I llvm-path=<PREFIX>
Same for the llvm tools 'opt' and 'llc'.
.TP
.I mtriple=<TRIPLE>
Use the GNU style target triple <TRIPLE> to determine some code generation options, i.e.
--mtriple=armv7-linux-gnueabi will generate code that targets ARMv7. This is currently
only supported by the ARM backend. In LLVM mode, this triple is passed on to the LLVM
llc compiler.
.TP
.I nimt-trampolines=[number]
When compiling in full aot mode, the IMT trampolines must be precreated
in the AOT image. You can add additional method trampolines with this argument.
Defaults to 128.
.TP
.I nodebug
Instructs the AOT compiler to not output any debugging information.
.TP
.I dwarfdebug
Instructs the AOT compiler to emit DWARF debugging information. When
used together with the nodebug option, only DWARF debugging
information is emitted, but not the information that can be used at
runtime.
.TP
.I nrgctx-trampolines=[number]
When compiling in full aot mode, the generic sharing trampolines must be precreated
in the AOT image. You can add additional method trampolines with this argument.
Defaults to 1024.
.TP
.I ntrampolines=[number]
When compiling in full aot mode, the method trampolines must be precreated
in the AOT image. You can add additional method trampolines with this argument.
Defaults to 1024.
.TP
.I outfile=[filename]
Instructs the AOT compiler to save the output to the specified file.
.TP
.I print-skipped-methods
If the AOT compiler cannot compile a method for any reason, enabling this flag
will output the skipped methods to the console.
.TP
.I readonly-value=namespace.typename.fieldname=type/value
Override the value of a static readonly field. Usually, during JIT
compilation, the static constructor is ran eagerly, so the value of
a static readonly field is known at compilation time and the compiler
can do a number of optimizations based on it. During AOT, instead, the static
constructor can't be ran, so this option can be used to set the value of such
a field and enable the same set of optimizations.
Type can be any of i1, i2, i4 for integers of the respective sizes (in bytes).
Note that signed/unsigned numbers do not matter here, just the storage size.
This option can be specified multiple times and it doesn't prevent the static
constructor for the type defining the field to execute with the usual rules
at runtime (hence possibly computing a different value for the field).
.TP
.I save-temps,keep-temps
Instructs the AOT compiler to keep temporary files.
.TP
.I soft-debug
This instructs the compiler to generate sequence point checks that
allow Mono's soft debugger to debug applications even on systems where
it is not possible to set breakpoints or to single step (certain
hardware configurations like the cell phones and video gaming
consoles).
.TP
.I static
Create an ELF object file (.o) or .s file which can be statically linked into an
executable when embedding the mono runtime. When this option is used, the object file
needs to be registered with the embedded runtime using the mono_aot_register_module
function which takes as its argument the mono_aot_module_<ASSEMBLY NAME>_info global
symbol from the object file:
.nf
extern void *mono_aot_module_hello_info;
mono_aot_register_module (mono_aot_module_hello_info);
.fi
.ne
.TP
.I stats
Print various stats collected during AOT compilation.
.TP
.I threads=[number]
This is an experimental option for the AOT compiler to use multiple threads
when compiling the methods.
.TP
.I tool-prefix=<PREFIX>
Prepends <PREFIX> to the name of tools ran by the AOT compiler, i.e. 'as'/'ld'. For
example, --tool=prefix=arm-linux-gnueabi- will make the AOT compiler run
'arm-linux-gnueabi-as' instead of 'as'.
.TP
.I write-symbols
Instructs the AOT compiler to emit debug symbol information.
.PP
For more information about AOT, see: http://www.mono-project.com/AOT
.RE
.TP
\fB--attach=[options]\fR
Currently the only option supported by this command line argument is
\fBdisable\fR which disables the attach functionality.
.TP
\fB--config filename\fR
Load the specified configuration file instead of the default one(s).
The default files are /etc/mono/config and ~/.mono/config or the file
specified in the MONO_CONFIG environment variable, if set. See the
mono-config(5) man page for details on the format of this file.
.TP
\fB--debugger-agent=[options]\fR
This instructs the Mono runtime to
start a debugging agent inside the Mono runtime and connect it to a
client user interface will control the Mono process.
This option is typically used by IDEs, like the MonoDevelop IDE.
.PP
The configuration is specified using one of more of the following options:
.RS
.ne 8
.TP
.I address=host:port
.Sp
Use this option to specify the IP address where your debugger client is
listening to.
.TP
.I loglevel=LEVEL
.Sp
Specifies the diagnostics log level for
.TP
.I logfile=filename
.Sp
Used to specify the file where the log will be stored, it defaults to
standard output.
.TP
.I server=[y/n]
Defaults to no, with the default option Mono will actively connect to the
host/port configured with the \fBaddress\fR option. If you set it to 'y', it
instructs the Mono runtime to start debugging in server mode, where Mono
actively waits for the debugger front end to connect to the Mono process.
Mono will print out to stdout the IP address and port where it is listening.
.TP
.I suspend=[y/n]
Defaults to yes, with the default option Mono will suspend the vm on startup
until it connects successfully to a debugger front end. If you set it to 'n', in
conjunction with \fBserver=y\fR, it instructs the Mono runtime to run as normal,
while caching metadata to send to the debugger front end on connection..
.TP
.I transport=transport_name
.Sp
This is used to specify the transport that the debugger will use to
communicate. It must be specified and currently requires this to
be 'dt_socket'.
.ne
.RE
.TP
\fB--desktop\fR
Configures the virtual machine to be better suited for desktop
applications. Currently this sets the GC system to avoid expanding
the heap as much as possible at the expense of slowing down garbage
collection a bit.
.TP
\fB--full-aot\fR
This is an experimental flag that instructs the Mono runtime to not
generate any code at runtime and depend exclusively on the code
generated from using mono --aot=full previously. This is useful for
platforms that do not permit dynamic code generation.
.Sp
Notice that this feature will abort execution at runtime if a codepath
in your program, or Mono's class libraries attempts to generate code
dynamically. You should test your software upfront and make sure that
you do not use any dynamic features.
.TP
\fB--gc=boehm\fR, \fB--gc=sgen\fR
Selects the Garbage Collector engine for Mono to use, Boehm or SGen.
Currently this merely ensures that you are running either the
\fImono\fR or \fImono-sgen\fR commands. This flag can be set in the
\fBMONO_ENV_OPTIONS\fR environment variable to force all of your child
processes to use one particular kind of GC with the Mono runtime.
.TP
\fB--help\fR, \fB-h\fR
Displays usage instructions.
.TP
\fB--llvm\fR
If the Mono runtime has been compiled with LLVM support (not available
in all configurations), Mono will use the LLVM optimization and code
generation engine to JIT or AOT compile.
.Sp
For more information, consult: http://www.mono-project.com/Mono_LLVM
.TP
\fB--nollvm\fR
When using a Mono that has been compiled with LLVM support, it forces
Mono to fallback to its JIT engine and not use the LLVM backend.
.TP
\fB--optimize=MODE\fR, \fB-O=MODE\fR
MODE is a comma separated list of optimizations. They also allow
optimizations to be turned off by prefixing the optimization name with
a minus sign.
.Sp
In general, Mono has been tuned to use the default set of flags,
before using these flags for a deployment setting, you might want to
actually measure the benefits of using them.
.Sp
The following optimizations are implemented:
.nf
all Turn on all optimizations
peephole Peephole postpass
branch Branch optimizations
inline Inline method calls
cfold Constant folding
consprop Constant propagation
copyprop Copy propagation
deadce Dead code elimination
linears Linear scan global reg allocation
cmov Conditional moves [arch-dependency]
shared Emit per-domain code
sched Instruction scheduling
intrins Intrinsic method implementations
tailc Tail recursion and tail calls
loop Loop related optimizations
fcmov Fast x86 FP compares [arch-dependency]
leaf Leaf procedures optimizations
aot Usage of Ahead Of Time compiled code
precomp Precompile all methods before executing Main
abcrem Array bound checks removal
ssapre SSA based Partial Redundancy Elimination
sse2 SSE2 instructions on x86 [arch-dependency]
gshared Enable generic code sharing.
.fi
.Sp
For example, to enable all the optimization but dead code
elimination and inlining, you can use:
.nf
-O=all,-deadce,-inline
.fi
.Sp
The flags that are flagged with [arch-dependency] indicate that the
given option if used in combination with Ahead of Time compilation
(--aot flag) would produce pre-compiled code that will depend on the
current CPU and might not be safely moved to another computer.
.TP
\fB--runtime=VERSION\fR
Mono supports different runtime versions. The version used depends on the program
that is being run or on its configuration file (named program.exe.config). This option
can be used to override such autodetection, by forcing a different runtime version
to be used. Note that this should only be used to select a later compatible runtime
version than the one the program was compiled against. A typical usage is for
running a 1.1 program on a 2.0 version:
.nf
mono --runtime=v2.0.50727 program.exe
.fi
.TP
\fB--security\fR, \fB--security=mode\fR
Activate the security manager, a currently experimental feature in
Mono and it is OFF by default. The new code verifier can be enabled
with this option as well.
.RS
.ne 8
.PP
Using security without parameters is equivalent as calling it with the
"cas" parameter.
.PP
The following modes are supported:
.TP
.I cas
This allows mono to support declarative security attributes,
e.g. execution of Code Access Security (CAS) or non-CAS demands.
.TP
.I core-clr
Enables the core-clr security system, typically used for
Moonlight/Silverlight applications. It provides a much simpler
security system than CAS, see http://www.mono-project.com/Moonlight
for more details and links to the descriptions of this new system.
.TP
.I validil
Enables the new verifier and performs basic verification for code
validity. In this mode, unsafe code and P/Invoke are allowed. This
mode provides a better safety guarantee but it is still possible
for managed code to crash Mono.
.TP
.I verifiable
Enables the new verifier and performs full verification of the code
being executed. It only allows verifiable code to be executed.
Unsafe code is not allowed but P/Invoke is. This mode should
not allow managed code to crash mono. The verification is not as
strict as ECMA 335 standard in order to stay compatible with the MS
runtime.
.PP
The security system acts on user code: code contained in mscorlib or
the global assembly cache is always trusted.
.ne
.RE
.TP
\fB--server\fR
Configures the virtual machine to be better suited for server
operations (currently, allows a heavier threadpool initialization).
.TP
\fB--verify-all\fR
Verifies mscorlib and assemblies in the global
assembly cache for valid IL, and all user code for IL
verifiability.
This is different from \fB--security\fR's verifiable
or validil in that these options only check user code and skip
mscorlib and assemblies located on the global assembly cache.
.TP
\fB-V\fR, \fB--version\fR
Prints JIT version information (system configuration, release number
and branch names if available).
.SH DEVELOPMENT OPTIONS
The following options are used to help when developing a JITed application.
.TP
\fB--debug\fR, \fB--debug=OPTIONS\fR
Turns on the debugging mode in the runtime. If an assembly was
compiled with debugging information, it will produce line number
information for stack traces.
.RS
.ne 8
.PP
The optional OPTIONS argument is a comma separated list of debugging
options. These options are turned off by default since they generate
much larger and slower code at runtime.
.TP
The following options are supported:
.TP
.I casts
Produces a detailed error when throwing a InvalidCastException. This
option needs to be enabled as this generates more verbose code at
execution time.
.TP
.I mdb-optimizations
Disable some JIT optimizations which are usually only disabled when
running inside the debugger. This can be helpful if you want to attach
to the running process with mdb.
.TP
.I gdb
Generate and register debugging information with gdb. This is only supported on some
platforms, and only when using gdb 7.0 or later.
.ne
.RE
.TP
\fB--profile[=profiler[:profiler_args]]\fR
Turns on profiling. For more information about profiling applications
and code coverage see the sections "PROFILING" and "CODE COVERAGE"
below.
.TP
This option can be used multiple times, each time will load an
additional profiler. This allows developers to use modules that
extend the JIT through the Mono profiling interface.
.TP
\fB--trace[=expression]\fR
Shows method names as they are invoked. By default all methods are
traced.
.Sp
The trace can be customized to include or exclude methods, classes or
assemblies. A trace expression is a comma separated list of targets,
each target can be prefixed with a minus sign to turn off a particular
target. The words `program', `all' and `disabled' have special
meaning. `program' refers to the main program being executed, and
`all' means all the method calls.
.Sp
The `disabled' option is used to start up with tracing disabled. It
can be enabled at a later point in time in the program by sending the
SIGUSR2 signal to the runtime.
.Sp
Assemblies are specified by their name, for example, to trace all
calls in the System assembly, use:
.nf
mono --trace=System app.exe
.fi
Classes are specified with the T: prefix. For example, to trace all
calls to the System.String class, use:
.nf
mono --trace=T:System.String app.exe
.fi
And individual methods are referenced with the M: prefix, and the
standard method notation:
.nf
mono --trace=M:System.Console:WriteLine app.exe
.fi
Exceptions can also be traced, it will cause a stack trace to be
printed every time an exception of the specified type is thrown.
The exception type can be specified with or without the namespace,
and to trace all exceptions, specify 'all' as the type name.
.nf
mono --trace=E:System.Exception app.exe
.fi
As previously noted, various rules can be specified at once:
.nf
mono --trace=T:System.String,T:System.Random app.exe
.fi
You can exclude pieces, the next example traces calls to
System.String except for the System.String:Concat method.
.nf
mono --trace=T:System.String,-M:System.String:Concat
.fi
You can trace managed to unmanaged transitions using
the wrapper qualifier:
.nf
mono --trace=wrapper app.exe
.fi
Finally, namespaces can be specified using the N: prefix:
.nf
mono --trace=N:System.Xml
.fi
.TP
\fB--no-x86-stack-align\fR
Don't align stack frames on the x86 architecture. By default, Mono
aligns stack frames to 16 bytes on x86, so that local floating point
and SIMD variables can be properly aligned. This option turns off the
alignment, which usually saves one intruction per call, but might
result in significantly lower floating point and SIMD performance.
.TP
\fB--jitmap\fR
Generate a JIT method map in a /tmp/perf-PID.map file. This file is then
used, for example, by the perf tool included in recent Linux kernels.
Each line in the file has:
.nf
HEXADDR HEXSIZE methodname
.fi
Currently this option is only supported on Linux.
.SH JIT MAINTAINER OPTIONS
The maintainer options are only used by those developing the runtime
itself, and not typically of interest to runtime users or developers.
.TP
\fB--break method\fR
Inserts a breakpoint before the method whose name is `method'
(namespace.class:methodname). Use `Main' as method name to insert a
breakpoint on the application's main method. You can use it also with
generics, for example "System.Collections.Generic.Queue`1:Peek"
.TP
\fB--breakonex\fR
Inserts a breakpoint on exceptions. This allows you to debug your
application with a native debugger when an exception is thrown.
.TP
\fB--compile name\fR
This compiles a method (namespace.name:methodname), this is used for
testing the compiler performance or to examine the output of the code
generator.
.TP
\fB--compileall\fR
Compiles all the methods in an assembly. This is used to test the
compiler performance or to examine the output of the code generator
.TP
\fB--graph=TYPE METHOD\fR
This generates a postscript file with a graph with the details about
the specified method (namespace.name:methodname). This requires `dot'
and ghostview to be installed (it expects Ghostview to be called
"gv").
.Sp
The following graphs are available:
.nf
cfg Control Flow Graph (CFG)
dtree Dominator Tree
code CFG showing code
ssa CFG showing code after SSA translation
optcode CFG showing code after IR optimizations
.fi
.Sp
Some graphs will only be available if certain optimizations are turned
on.
.TP
\fB--ncompile\fR
Instruct the runtime on the number of times that the method specified
by --compile (or all the methods if --compileall is used) to be
compiled. This is used for testing the code generator performance.
.TP
\fB--stats\fR
Displays information about the work done by the runtime during the
execution of an application.
.TP
\fB--wapi=hps|semdel\fR
Perform maintenance of the process shared data.
.Sp
semdel will delete the global semaphore.
.Sp
hps will list the currently used handles.
.TP
\fB-v\fR, \fB--verbose\fR
Increases the verbosity level, each time it is listed, increases the
verbosity level to include more information (including, for example,
a disassembly of the native code produced, code selector info etc.).
.SH ATTACH SUPPORT
The Mono runtime allows external processes to attach to a running
process and load assemblies into the running program. To attach to
the process, a special protocol is implemented in the Mono.Management
assembly.
.PP
With this support it is possible to load assemblies that have an entry
point (they are created with -target:exe or -target:winexe) to be
loaded and executed in the Mono process.
.PP
The code is loaded into the root domain, and it starts execution on
the special runtime attach thread. The attached program should
create its own threads and return after invocation.
.PP
This support allows for example debugging applications by having the
csharp shell attach to running processes.
.SH PROFILING
The mono runtime includes a profiler that can be used to explore
various performance related problems in your application. The
profiler is activated by passing the --profile command line argument
to the Mono runtime, the format is:
.nf
--profile[=profiler[:profiler_args]]
.fi
Mono has a built-in profiler called 'default' (and is also the default
if no arguments are specified), but developers can write custom
profilers, see the section "CUSTOM PROFILERS" for more details.
.PP
If a
.I profiler
is not specified, the default profiler is used.
.Sp
The
.I profiler_args
is a profiler-specific string of options for the profiler itself.
.Sp
The default profiler accepts the following options 'alloc' to profile
memory consumption by the application; 'time' to profile the time
spent on each routine; 'jit' to collect time spent JIT-compiling methods
and 'stat' to perform sample statistical profiling.
If no options are provided the default is 'alloc,time,jit'.
.PP
By default the
profile data is printed to stdout: to change this, use the 'file=filename'
option to output the data to filename.
.Sp
For example:
.nf
mono --profile program.exe
.fi
.Sp
That will run the program with the default profiler and will do time
and allocation profiling.
.Sp
.nf
mono --profile=default:stat,alloc,file=prof.out program.exe
.fi
Will do sample statistical profiling and allocation profiling on
program.exe. The profile data is put in prof.out.
.Sp
Note that the statistical profiler has a very low overhead and should
be the preferred profiler to use (for better output use the full path
to the mono binary when running and make sure you have installed the
addr2line utility that comes from the binutils package).
.SH LOG PROFILER
This is the most advanced profiler.
.PP
The Mono \f[I]log\f[] profiler can be used to collect a lot of
information about a program running in the Mono runtime.
This data can be used (both while the process is running and later)
to do analyses of the program behaviour, determine resource usage,
performance issues or even look for particular execution patterns.
.PP
This is accomplished by logging the events provided by the Mono
runtime through the profiling interface and periodically writing
them to a file which can be later inspected with the mprof-report(1)
tool.
.PP
More information about how to use the log profiler is available on the
mprof-report(1) page.
.SH CUSTOM PROFILERS
Mono provides a mechanism for loading other profiling modules which in
the form of shared libraries. These profiling modules can hook up to
various parts of the Mono runtime to gather information about the code
being executed.
.PP
To use a third party profiler you must pass the name of the profiler
to Mono, like this:
.nf
mono --profile=custom program.exe
.fi
.PP
In the above sample Mono will load the user defined profiler from the
shared library `mono-profiler-custom.so'. This profiler module must
be on your dynamic linker library path.
.PP
A list of other third party profilers is available from Mono's web
site (www.mono-project.com/Performance_Tips)
.PP
Custom profiles are written as shared libraries. The shared library
must be called `mono-profiler-NAME.so' where `NAME' is the name of
your profiler.
.PP
For a sample of how to write your own custom profiler look in the
Mono source tree for in the samples/profiler.c.
.SH CODE COVERAGE
Mono ships with a code coverage module. This module is activated by
using the Mono --profile=cov option. The format is:
\fB--profile=cov[:assembly-name[/namespace]] test-suite.exe\fR
.PP
By default code coverage will default to all the assemblies loaded,
you can limit this by specifying the assembly name, for example to
perform code coverage in the routines of your program use, for example
the following command line limits the code coverage to routines in the
"demo" assembly:
.nf
mono --profile=cov:demo demo.exe
.fi
.PP
Notice that the
.I assembly-name
does not include the extension.
.PP
You can further restrict the code coverage output by specifying a
namespace:
.nf
mono --profile=cov:demo/My.Utilities demo.exe
.fi
.PP
Which will only perform code coverage in the given assembly and
namespace.
.PP
Typical output looks like this:
.nf
Not covered: Class:.ctor ()
Not covered: Class:A ()
Not covered: Driver:.ctor ()
Not covered: Driver:method ()
Partial coverage: Driver:Main ()
offset 0x000a
.fi
.PP
The offsets displayed are IL offsets.
.PP
A more powerful coverage tool is available in the module `monocov'.
See the monocov(1) man page for details.
.SH DEBUGGING AIDS
To debug managed applications, you can use the
.B mdb
command, a command line debugger.
.PP
It is possible to obtain a stack trace of all the active threads in
Mono by sending the QUIT signal to Mono, you can do this from the
command line, like this:
.nf
kill -QUIT pid
.fi
Where pid is the Process ID of the Mono process you want to examine.
The process will continue running afterwards, but its state is not
guaranteed.
.PP
.B Important:
this is a last-resort mechanism for debugging applications and should
not be used to monitor or probe a production application. The
integrity of the runtime after sending this signal is not guaranteed
and the application might crash or terminate at any given point
afterwards.
.PP
The \fB--debug=casts\fR option can be used to get more detailed
information for Invalid Cast operations, it will provide information
about the types involved.
.PP
You can use the MONO_LOG_LEVEL and MONO_LOG_MASK environment variables
to get verbose debugging output about the execution of your
application within Mono.
.PP
The
.I MONO_LOG_LEVEL
environment variable if set, the logging level is changed to the set
value. Possible values are "error", "critical", "warning", "message",
"info", "debug". The default value is "error". Messages with a logging
level greater then or equal to the log level will be printed to
stdout/stderr.
.PP
Use "info" to track the dynamic loading of assemblies.
.PP
.PP
Use the
.I MONO_LOG_MASK
environment variable to limit the extent of the messages you get:
If set, the log mask is changed to the set value. Possible values are
"asm" (assembly loader), "type", "dll" (native library loader), "gc"
(garbage collector), "cfg" (config file loader), "aot" (precompiler),
"security" (e.g. Moonlight CoreCLR support) and "all".
The default value is "all". Changing the mask value allows you to display only
messages for a certain component. You can use multiple masks by comma
separating them. For example to see config file messages and assembly loader
messages set you mask to "asm,cfg".
.PP
The following is a common use to track down problems with P/Invoke:
.nf
$ MONO_LOG_LEVEL="debug" MONO_LOG_MASK="dll" mono glue.exe
.fi
.PP
.SH SERIALIZATION
Mono's XML serialization engine by default will use a reflection-based
approach to serialize which might be slow for continuous processing
(web service applications). The serialization engine will determine
when a class must use a hand-tuned serializer based on a few
parameters and if needed it will produce a customized C# serializer
for your types at runtime. This customized serializer then gets
dynamically loaded into your application.
.PP
You can control this with the MONO_XMLSERIALIZER_THS environment
variable.
.PP
The possible values are
.B `no'
to disable the use of a C# customized
serializer, or an integer that is the minimum number of uses before
the runtime will produce a custom serializer (0 will produce a
custom serializer on the first access, 50 will produce a serializer on
the 50th use). Mono will fallback to an interpreted serializer if the
serializer generation somehow fails. This behavior can be disabled
by setting the option
.B `nofallback'
(for example: MONO_XMLSERIALIZER_THS=0,nofallback).
.SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
.TP
\fBGC_DONT_GC\fR
Turns off the garbage collection in Mono. This should be only used
for debugging purposes
.TP
\fBLVM_COUNT\fR
When Mono is compiled with LLVM support, this instructs the runtime to
stop using LLVM after the specified number of methods are JITed.
This is a tool used in diagnostics to help isolate problems in the
code generation backend. For example \fBLLVM_COUNT=10\fR would only
compile 10 methods with LLVM and then switch to the Mono JIT engine.
\fBLLVM_COUNT=0\fR would disable the LLVM engine altogether.
.TP
\fBMONO_AOT_CACHE\fR
If set, this variable will instruct Mono to ahead-of-time compile new
assemblies on demand and store the result into a cache in
~/.mono/aot-cache.
.TP
\fBMONO_ASPNET_INHIBIT_SETTINGSMAP\fR
Mono contains a feature which allows modifying settings in the .config files shipped
with Mono by using config section mappers. The mappers and the mapping rules are
defined in the $prefix/etc/mono/2.0/settings.map file and, optionally, in the
settings.map file found in the top-level directory of your ASP.NET application.
Both files are read by System.Web on application startup, if they are found at the
above locations. If you don't want the mapping to be performed you can set this
variable in your environment before starting the application and no action will
be taken.
.TP
\fBMONO_ASPNET_WEBCONFIG_CACHESIZE\fR
Mono has a cache of ConfigSection objects for speeding up WebConfigurationManager
queries. Its default size is 100 items, and when more items are needed, cache
evictions start happening. If evictions are too frequent this could impose
unnecessary overhead, which could be avoided by using this environment variable
to set up a higher cache size (or to lower memory requirements by decreasing it).
.TP
\fBMONO_CAIRO_DEBUG_DISPOSE\fR
If set, causes Mono.Cairo to collect stack traces when objects are allocated,
so that the finalization/Dispose warnings include information about the
instance's origin.
.TP
\fBMONO_CFG_DIR\fR
If set, this variable overrides the default system configuration directory
($PREFIX/etc). It's used to locate machine.config file.
.TP
\fBMONO_COM\fR
Sets the style of COM interop. If the value of this variable is "MS"
Mono will use string marhsalling routines from the liboleaut32 for the
BSTR type library, any other values will use the mono-builtin BSTR
string marshalling.
.TP
\fBMONO_CONFIG\fR
If set, this variable overrides the default runtime configuration file
($PREFIX/etc/mono/config). The --config command line options overrides the
environment variable.
.TP
\fBMONO_CPU_ARCH\fR
Override the automatic cpu detection mechanism. Currently used only on arm.
The format of the value is as follows:
.nf
"armvV [thumb]"
.fi
where V is the architecture number 4, 5, 6, 7 and the options can be currently be
"thunb". Example:
.nf
MONO_CPU_ARCH="armv4 thumb" mono ...
.fi
.TP
\fBMONO_DISABLE_AIO\fR
If set, tells mono NOT to attempt using native asynchronous I/O services. In
that case, a default select/poll implementation is used. Currently only epoll()
is supported.
.TP
\fBMONO_DISABLE_MANAGED_COLLATION\fR
If this environment variable is `yes', the runtime uses unmanaged
collation (which actually means no culture-sensitive collation). It
internally disables managed collation functionality invoked via the
members of System.Globalization.CompareInfo class. Collation is
enabled by default.
.TP
\fBMONO_DISABLE_SHM\fR
Unix only: If set, disables the shared memory files used for
cross-process handles: process have only private handles. This means
that process and thread handles are not available to other processes,
and named mutexes, named events and named semaphores are not visible
between processes.
.Sp
This is can also be enabled by default by passing the
"--disable-shared-handles" option to configure.
.Sp
This is the default from mono 2.8 onwards.
.TP
\fBMONO_DISABLE_SHARED_AREA\fR
Unix only: If set, disable usage of shared memory for exposing
performance counters. This means it will not be possible to both
externally read performance counters from this processes or read
those of external processes.
.TP
\fBMONO_DNS\fR
When set, enables the use of a fully managed DNS resolver instead of the
regular libc functions. This resolver performs much better when multiple
queries are run in parallel.
Note that /etc/nsswitch.conf will be ignored.
.TP
\fBMONO_EGD_SOCKET\fR
For platforms that do not otherwise have a way of obtaining random bytes
this can be set to the name of a file system socket on which an egd or
prngd daemon is listening.
.TP
\fBMONO_ENABLE_SHM\fR
Unix only: Enable support for cross-process handles. Cross-process
handles are used to expose process handles, thread handles, named
mutexes, named events and named semaphores across Unix processes.
.TP
\fBMONO_ENV_OPTIONS\fR
This environment variable allows you to pass command line arguments to
a Mono process through the environment. This is useful for example
to force all of your Mono processes to use LLVM or SGEN without having
to modify any launch scripts.
.TP
\fBMONO_ENV_OPTIONS\fR
Used to pass extra options to the debugger agent in the runtime, as they were passed
using --debugger-agent=.