VisualVM launcher error

Question

I'm trying to use the Eclipse VisualVM launcher. It seems pretty nice, except that it seems to spawn an instance if VisualVM too late to do any profiling of my application. My application finishes execution before the profiler is even initialized; once it starts up, an error window pops up, saying: cannot open requested application. It then shows VM running Eclipse (labeled "org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main"). How can I get it to wait for my application and do proper profiling?

score 17 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 09 '12 at 07:41

17

This is probably too late, but I had the same problem, and setting a breakpoint and then starting in debugging mode didn't help at all. I eventually found out that VisualVM saves its temporary data in the folder %TMP%/hsperfdata_[username], on my Windows machine that folder was C:\Users\Jacob\AppData\Local\Temp\hsperfdata_Jacob for instance. It turned out that the process did not have sufficient permissions to access that folder, so I relaxed the permissions on it and now it works just fine. Hope this is useful for someone having the same problem!

answered Sep 09 '12 at 07:41

avlund

252
1
4

In my case I was on Windows 10 and my user name contained capital letters that were not represented in hsperfdata. After renaming the folder with the correct user name, everything worked. – Janothan Apr 04 '19 at 15:47
outstanding, thx – FARS Jan 15 '23 at 05:32

Konrad Reiche · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-09T21:22:29.910

12

I know that problem. The only poor man's solution I always came up with is:

Set a breakpoint in your source code
Start your program in debug mode
Connect the profiler
Let the program continue

It just takes a bit time for VisualVM to inject the profiling agent into your VM and I am pretty sure that it allows only remote profiling.

As an alternative you could use YourKit, it can profile your application from the very start. This way the profiling agent is injected on VM startup:

java -agentpath:c:\yourkit\yjpagent.dll FooClass

I am curious why VisualVM does not offer this option, since its technically possible. Anyway I think the debug trick is a good solution from within Eclipse, unless you are also interested in the class loading etc.

edited Aug 09 '12 at 21:22

answered Aug 09 '12 at 21:16

Konrad Reiche

27,743
15
106
143

Couldn't you just Thread.sleep() while it's working itself out? – Ryan Amos Aug 09 '12 at 21:21
@RyanAmos That's also possible, I have done this before I came over the trick with Debug Mode. I didn't like to time it together with `Timer.sleep`, either your have to wait until `sleep` wears off or the attaching does take too long. – Konrad Reiche Aug 09 '12 at 21:23
YourKit is too expensive. Thanks for the help! – Nate Glenn Aug 10 '12 at 14:07
@NateGlenn For commerical use you mean? – Konrad Reiche Aug 10 '12 at 14:19
For the current problem, yeah. I do need a profiler for academic occasions as well. – Nate Glenn Aug 11 '12 at 01:28
Thank you! The cost of setting a simple breakpoint is very worthwhile :-) – Pereira Aug 23 '18 at 21:52

score 7 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 12 '13 at 13:21

7

On Windows, run Eclipse as Administrator.

answered Aug 12 '13 at 13:21

Andres

10,561
4
45
63

This worked great for me on Windows 8. Thanks Andres! – Ned Twigg Jun 16 '14 at 04:22
what about eclipse on macOS ? – prnjn Sep 16 '19 at 20:04

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 21 '13 at 20:21

0

This is a dumb solution, but works. Here it goes:

Add an infinite loop wrapper to your application, say "while(true) { your_app }".

The timing noises will also even out as your program runs longer.

answered Sep 21 '13 at 20:21

HaiXin Tie

1,999
3
17
14

VisualVM launcher error

4 Answers4

Linked