Review request: White box testing API for HotSpot

[David Holmes]

Hi Mikael,

This seems to address my concerns with the previous implementation of 
this. Some further minor comments:

In whitebox.cpp:

  181         if (result != 0) {
  182           WhiteBox::set_used();

shouldn't the above be testing for == 0 ?

---

wbapi.java: normal Java naming style is to use camel-case for class 
names. Though as WB is itself an acronym I'd be okay with WBApi. In fact 
I'd be happy with anything other than initial lower-case :)

---

test/Makefile: does wbapitest need to be added to the phoney list?

---

Cheers,
David
-----


On 11/01/2012 5:27 AM, Mikael Gerdin wrote:
> Hi all
>
> Back from vacations now with an updated version of the webrev based on
> the feedback received in this thread.
> Changes include:
> * removed install target from makefiles
> * renamed flag form EnableWhiteBoxAPI to remove redundant Enable
> * installs wb.jar into jre/lib and made -XX:+WhiteBoxAPI add wb.jar to
> the boot class path from inside the VM.
>
> http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~mgerdin/wbapi/webrev.2/
>
> Thanks
> Mikael Gerdin
>
> On 2011-11-29 17:04, Mikael Gerdin wrote:
>> Hi
>>
>> I've been working on a white box testing API for HotSpot in order to
>> allow for improved precision in vm testing.
>>
>> The basic idea is to open up the possibility for tests written in Java
>> to call native methods which query or poke the vm in some way.
>>
>> The API is accessible by using the class sun/hotspot/WhiteBox which is
>> not intended to be available in public builds.
>> In order to allow the WhiteBox class access to the VM the
>> registerNatives function is linked to JVM_RegisterWhiteBoxMethods. That
>> function then links all the implementation functions using normal JNI
>> RegisterNatives.
>>
>> The API is not meant to be used by end users for any intent or purpose
>> and as such it is both guarded by "-XX:+UnlockDiagnosticVMOptions
>> -XX:+EnableWhiteboxAPI" and the fact that the class files will not be
>> present in an end user build of a JDK.
>> If the VM crashes after this API has been accessed a note will be
>> written in the hs_err file to signal that the API has been used.
>>
>> Webrev:
>> http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~stefank/mgerdin/wbapi.0/webrev/
>> (thanks to stefank for hosting my webrev :)
>>
>> CR:
>> I'll file a CR tomorrow.
>>
>> Change comments:
>>
>> make/jprt.properties
>>
>> Add a test target to make sure that the API is available on all
>> supported platforms
>>
>> make/**
>>
>> Makefile changes to build the class sun/hotspot/WhiteBox, put it in a
>> JAR file and copy it to the jre/lib/endorsed directory in the export
>> targets.
>> The BSD makefile changes are not tested since I don't have access to any
>> BSD/OSX machine to test them on.
>>
>> src/share/vm/prims/nativeLookup.cpp
>>
>> Special-case the method sun/hotspot/WhiteBox/registerNatives and link it
>> to JVM_RegisterWhiteBoxMethods
>>
>> src/share/vm/prims/whitebox.*
>>
>> The implementation of the white box API. The actual API functions are
>> only examples of what we want to be able to do using the API.
>>
>> src/share/vm/runtime/globals.hpp
>>
>> Add the command line flag
>>
>> src/share/vm/utilities/vmError.cpp
>>
>> Print a message in hs_err files when white box API has been used.
>>
>> test/Makefile
>>
>> Add a makefile test target for the white box API test
>>
>> test/sanity/wbapi.java
>>
>> JTreg test to ensure that the API works.
>>
>>
>> Thanks
>> /Mikael Gerdin
>