3 .\" (C) 2003 Ximian, Inc.
5 .\" Miguel de Icaza (miguel@gnu.org)
7 .de Sp \" Vertical space (when we can't use .PP)
13 mono \- Mono's ECMA-CLI native code generator (Just-in-Time and Ahead-of-Time)
16 .B mono [options] file [arguments...]
18 \fImono\fP is a runtime implementation of the ECMA Common Language
19 Infrastructure. This can be used to run ECMA and .NET applications.
21 The runtime contains a native code generator that transforms the
22 Common Intermediate Language into native code.
24 The code generator can operate in two modes: just in time compilation
25 (JIT) or ahead of time compilation (AOT). Since code can be
26 dynamically loaded, the runtime environment and the JIT are always
27 present, even if code is compiled ahead of time.
29 The runtime loads ths specified
36 is an ECMA assembly. They typically have a .exe or .dll extension.
38 The runtime provides a number of configuration options for running
39 applications, for developping and debugging, and for testing and
40 debugging the runtime itself.
42 The following options are available:
45 This option is used to precompile the CIL code in the specified
46 assembly to native code. The generated code is stored in a file with
47 the extension .so. This file will be automatically picked up by the
48 runtime when the assembly is executed.
50 This pre-compiles the methods, but the original assembly is still
51 required to execute as this one contains the metadata and exception
52 information which is not availble on the generated file. When
53 precompiling code, you might want to compile with all optimizations
54 (-O=all). Pre-compiled code is position independent code.
56 Pre compilation is just a mechanism to reduce startup time, and avoid
57 just-in-time compilation costs. The original assembly must still be
58 present, as the metadata is contained there.
60 .I "--config filename"
61 Load the specified configuration file instead of the default one(s).
62 The default files are /etc/mono/config and ~/.mono/config or the file
63 specified in the MONO_CONFIG environment variable, if set. See the
64 mono-config(5) man page for details on the format of this file.
67 Displays usage instructions.
69 .I "--optimize=MODE", "-O=mode"
70 MODE is a comma separated list of optimizations. They also allow
71 optimizations to be turned off by prefixing the optimization name with
74 The following optimizations are implemented:
76 all Turn on all optimizations
77 peephole Peephole postpass
78 branch Branch optimizations
79 inline Inline method calls
80 cfold Constant folding
81 consprop Constant propagation
82 copyprop Copy propagation
83 deadce Dead code elimination
84 linears Linear scan global reg allocation
85 cmov Conditional moves
86 shared Emit per-domain code
87 sched Instruction scheduling
88 intrins Intrinsic method implementations
89 tailc Tail recursion and tail calls
90 loop Loop related optimizations
91 leaf Leaf procedures optimizations
92 profile Use profiling information
95 For example, to enable all the optimization but dead code
96 elimination and inlining, you can use:
98 -O=all,-deadce,-inline
102 Prints JIT version information.
105 .SH DEVELOPMENT OPTIONS
106 The following options are used to help when developing a JITed application.
109 Turns on the debugging mode in the runtime. If an assembly was
110 compiled with debugging information, it will produce line number
111 information for stack traces.
113 .I "--profile[=profiler[:profiler_args]]"
114 Instructs the runtime to collect profiling information about execution
115 times and memory allocation, and dump it at the end of the execution.
116 If a profiler is not specified, the default profiler is used. profiler_args
117 is a profiler-specific string of options for the profiler itself.
120 .SH JIT MAINTAINER OPTIONS
121 The maintainer options are only used by those developing the runtime
122 itself, and not typically of interest to runtime users or developers.
125 This compiles a method (namespace.name:methodname), this is used for
126 testing the compiler performance or to examine the output of the code
130 Compiles all the methods in an assembly. This is used to test the
131 compiler performance or to examine the output of the code generator
133 .I "--graph=TYPE METHOD"
134 This generates a postscript file with a graph with the details about
135 the specified method (namespace.name:methodname). This requires `dot'
136 and ghostview to be installed (it expects Ghostview to be called
139 The following graphs are available:
141 cfg Control Flow Graph (CFG)
143 code CFG showing code
144 ssa CFG showing code after SSA translation
145 optcode CFG showing code after IR optimizations
148 Some graphs will only be available if certain optimizations are turned
152 Instruct the runtime on the number of times that the method specified
153 by --compile (or all the methods if --compileall is used) to be
154 compiled. This is used for testing the code generator performance.
157 Increases the verbosity level, each time it is listed, increases the
158 verbosity level to include more information (including, for example,
159 a disassembly of the native code produced, code selector info etc.).
162 Inserts a breakpoint before the method whose name is `method'
163 (namespace.class:methodname). Use `Main' as method name to insert a
164 breakpoint on the application's main method.
167 Inserts a breakpoint on exceptions. This allows you to debug your
168 application with a native debugger when an exception is thrown.
171 Shows method names as they are invoked.
174 .SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
177 Turns off the garbage collection in Mono. This should be only used
178 for debugging purposes
181 Provides a search path to the runtime where to look for library files.
182 Directories are separated by the platform path separator (colons on unix). Example:
183 .B /home/username/lib:/usr/local/mono/lib
185 .I "MONO_DISABLE_SHM"
186 If this variable is set, it disables the Windows I/O Emulation layer,
187 and handles (files, events, mutexes, pipes) will not be shared across
188 processes. This option is only available on Unix.
191 If set, this variable overrides the default system configuration directory
192 ($PREFIX/etc). It's used to locate machine.config file.
195 If set, this variable overrides the default runtime configuration file
196 ($PREFIX/etc/mono/config). The --config command line options overrides the
197 environment variable.
199 On Unix assemblies are loaded from the installation lib directory. If you set
200 `prefix' to /usr, the assemblies will be located in /usr/lib. On
201 Windows, the assemblies are loaded from the directory where mono and
204 /etc/mono/config, ~/.mono/config
206 Mono runtime configuration file. See the mono-config(5) manual page
207 for more information.
209 Visit http://mail.ximian.com/mailman/mono-list for details.
211 Visit: http://www.go-mono.com for details
213 .BR mcs(1), mint(1), monodis(1), mono-config(5)