Is there an API to have WinDBG-SOS-like features in .NET?
Given an object, I would like to know how many roots are keeping it alive at runtime from C# within the same process.
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I'm not sure that it's possible on the level of runtime. Optimized code can skip stack and go straight to CPU. So I'm wondering what output do you expect from this API? – Sergey.quixoticaxis.Ivanov Aug 19 '16 at 22:12
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No API. You want a memory profiler, of which there are several. Your favorite web search engine can help you out there. – Peter Duniho Aug 19 '16 at 22:12
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@Sergey.quixoticaxis.Ivanov basically what you can achieve with WinDBG; find the objects in memory and their roots. – Stefano d'Antonio Aug 20 '16 at 10:31
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@Uno I wanted to point out the fact that imho if it was added to runtime API then it would be strange 'cause it would be an API that gives reasonable information only for debug builds. – Sergey.quixoticaxis.Ivanov Aug 20 '16 at 14:31
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ClrMD
NuGet: https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.Diagnostics.Runtime
And I wrote a small example:
Stefano d'Antonio
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Yes there is. How all those profiles would work if not? This is called Profiling API: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms404386(v=vs.110).aspx .
The API itself is unmanaged (COM object). But there is nothing that could stop you to use it from managed code through a RCW.
I am not sure and in doubt if you can profile a process from within itself. I think the profiler must be in another process. Though I see no issue to have process to process communication and feed the data back to the profiled process through some communication method like named pipes.
Łukasz Rozmej
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Thanks, I'll have a look at the documentation later; do you also have any link to some example? – Stefano d'Antonio Aug 20 '16 at 10:32
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Sorry I was probably wrong about being able to write a managed profiler :( http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5736845/is-is-possible-to-use-profiling-api-right-from-c You can find interesting blog reference in that post – Łukasz Rozmej Aug 20 '16 at 22:26
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Digging deeper I found even more interesting things: http://www.topholt.com/c-clr-profiler/ http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/pex/wiki/Microsoft.ExtendedReflection.html – Łukasz Rozmej Aug 20 '16 at 22:32
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This looks like a very good starting point for your task: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3898078/obtaining-global-roots-from-net-programs – Łukasz Rozmej Aug 20 '16 at 22:46