2017-09-25

digging into mrskew internals

I'm spending some time working with Method-Rs trace file analyzer mrskew.
As the requirements are beyond simple analyses (here an example about the uncommon things to do) I'm consulting the documentation and all available information in detail. After many readings I started to take this part of the documentation serious:

EXPRESSIONS
Wherever mrskew requires an expression (such as in --group and --where option arguments), you may use any valid Perl expression consisting of:
Perl operators
Operators such as or xor and not , = ?: || && | ^ < > <= >= lt gt le ge == != <=> eq ne cmp + - . * / % =~ !~ ! ~ ** ...and so on. See http://perldoc.perl.org/perlop.html for details.
Perl builtin functions
Functions such as lc uc s/// int join split sprintf substr ...and so on. See http://perldoc.perl.org/perlfunc.html for details.
File::Basename functions
The functions fileparse, basename, and dirname. See http://perldoc.perl.org/File/Basename.html for details.
mrskew expression variables
Any of the variable names described in "EXPRESSION VARIABLES".
For more information about Perl expression syntax, see http://perldoc.perl.org/perl.html#Tutorials.

It's written "any valid Perl expression" and Jeff showed me a very clever example on StackOverflow. But that's not the end, it raised some questions:
Where in the work of mrskew is the specific expression executed?
What's the order of these expressions?
Can they interact?

A small testcase can answer some of these questions.

I used a very simple artificial tracefile:
Oracle Release 11.2
PARSING IN CURSOR #1 len=20 dep=0 uid=7 oct=6 lid=7 tim=2 hv=1 ad='1' sqlid='A'
insert
END OF STMT

EXEC #1:c=1,e=1,p=0,cr=0,cu=0,mis=0,r=0,dep=0,og=3,tim=100
EXEC #1:c=2,e=4,p=0,cr=0,cu=0,mis=0,r=0,dep=0,og=6,tim=400

a small rc file (rc file is used here to store parameters whenever it's boring to type them on command line):
--init='
 my $trace_string = "trace: ";
 my $test_string;
    sub xfrm {
   if ($_[0] eq "where0") {
     $test_string = $test_string . "x";}
   if ($_[0] eq "where1") {
     $test_string =~ s/x/u/g ;}  
      $trace_string = $trace_string . "$_[0]" . "{ $test_string } " . "[$line] -> ";
   
   if ($_[0] eq "group") {
     return $trace_string;}
  else {
    return $_[1]}
    }
'

this uses the --init parameter:
--init=stringExecute string, which must contain syntactically correct Perl code, before beginning file processing. The default value is --init=''.
There I'm setting 2 variables which will be used later.
Also a function xfrm is defined. Depending of the 1st parameter it does different things, always it extends the variable $trace_string with some additional parameters. When the 1st parameter is "group", this $trace_string is returned - my dirty hack for a print of a debug value.

Checking the manpage where an expression ls allowed for a parameter gives me this execution:
(slightly modified for better readability

mrskew --rc martin3.rc  \
  --select='xfrm( "select", 1)' \
  --where0='xfrm( "where0", 1)==1' \
  --where1='xfrm( "where1", 1)==1' \
  --group='xfrm( "group",1)' \
  berx2.trc

The idea is simple: wherever a expression is allowed, my generic function xfrm is called with the name of the mrskew-parameter as it's 1st parameter.

It's result provides some interesting insights:
Summary information by file (modified)
mrskew --rc martin3.rc  --select='xfrm( "select", 1)' --where0='xfrm( "where0", 1)==1' --where1='xfrm( "where1", 1)==1' --group='xfrm( "group",1)' berx2.trc "D:\TEMP\berx2.trc"
Run began 2017-09-25T09:54:40, lasted 0,445000 seconds

input files:
 'D:\TEMP\berx2.trc'

where expression:
 ((xfrm( "where0", 1)==1) and (xfrm( "where1", 1)==1)) and ($nam=~/(?^:(?i).+)/)

group expression:
 xfrm( "group",1)

matched call names:
 'EXEC'

'xfrm( "group",1)'                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 'xfrm( "select", 1)'       %  CALLS      MEAN       MIN       MAX
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  --------------------  ------  -----  --------  --------  --------
trace: where0{ x } [1] -> where1{ u } [1] -> where0{ ux } [4] -> where1{ uu } [4] -> where0{ uux } [5] -> where1{ uuu } [5] -> where0{ uuux } [6] -> where1{ uuuu } [6] -> select{ uuuu } [6] -> group{ uuuu } [6] ->                                                                                                          1.000000   50.0%      1  1.000000  1.000000  1.000000
trace: where0{ x } [1] -> where1{ u } [1] -> where0{ ux } [4] -> where1{ uu } [4] -> where0{ uux } [5] -> where1{ uuu } [5] -> where0{ uuux } [6] -> where1{ uuuu } [6] -> select{ uuuu } [6] -> group{ uuuu } [6] -> where0{ uuuux } [7] -> where1{ uuuuu } [7] -> select{ uuuuu } [7] -> group{ uuuuu } [7] ->               1.000000   50.0%      1  1.000000  1.000000  1.000000
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  --------------------  ------  -----  --------  --------  --------
TOTAL (2)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      2.000000  100.0%      2  1.000000  1.000000  1.000000
mrskew: file 'berx2.trc' does not exist

As the $trace_string is quite long I cut it down into pieces and my interpretation:
trace: where0{ x } [1] -> where1{ u } [1] -> 
where0 is called before where1
where1 can modify a variable set by where0 (the x becomes an u).

where0{ ux } [4] -> where1{ uu } [4] -> where0{ uux } [5] -> where1{ uuu } [5] -> 
where0 and where1 are NOT used in lines 2 & 3 of the trace file (PARSING IN CURSOR and the insert statement)

where0{ uuux } [6] -> where1{ uuuu } [6] -> select{ uuuu } [6] -> group{ uuuu } [6] -> 

in line 6 (EXEC) where0, where1, select and group functions are used (in that order)

where0{ uuuux } [7] -> where1{ uuuuu } [7] -> select{ uuuuu } [7] -> group{ uuuuu } [7] ->

the same is true for line 7.

There is probably more to identify as my simplified tracefile did not show all possible lines and their combination. But the possibility to run code inside mrskew at different positions, and even manipulate some values is shown. Even manipulating mrskews own variables might be of some interest, but it must be identified first where/when they are set and changed. This is open for the readers exercise, the method is shown here :-)

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