.\"
.\" mono manual page.
-.\" (C) Ximian, Inc.
+.\" (C) 2003 Ximian, Inc.
+.\" (C) 2004-2005 Novell, Inc.
.\" Author:
.\" Miguel de Icaza (miguel@gnu.org)
.\"
+.de Sp \" Vertical space (when we can't use .PP)
+.if t .sp .5v
+.if n .sp
+..
.TH Mono "Mono 1.0"
.SH NAME
-mono \- Mono ECMA-CLI Just in Time compiler.
+mono \- Mono's ECMA-CLI native code generator (Just-in-Time and Ahead-of-Time)
.SH SYNOPSIS
.PP
-.B mono
-[\-\-help] [\-d] [\-\-debug-asm] [\-\-debug-forest] [\-\-trace-calls]
-[\-\-compile name] [\-\-ncompile num] [\-\-noinline] [\-\-profile]
-[\-\-debug=[format]] [\-\-debug-args args] [\-\-break name] [\-\-precompile name]
-[\-\-config filename]
-program.exe [arguments...]
+.B mono [options] file [arguments...]
.SH DESCRIPTION
-The \fImono\fP program is a Just in Time compiler for ECMA CLI byte
-codes. It translates dynamically a CIL stream into native code.
-.I program.exe
+\fImono\fP is a runtime implementation of the ECMA Common Language
+Infrastructure. This can be used to run ECMA and .NET applications.
+.PP
+The runtime contains a native code generator that transforms the
+Common Intermediate Language into native code.
+.PP
+The code generator can operate in two modes: just in time compilation
+(JIT) or ahead of time compilation (AOT). Since code can be
+dynamically loaded, the runtime environment and the JIT are always
+present, even if code is compiled ahead of time.
+.PP
+The runtime loads ths specified
+.I file
and optionally passes
the
.I arguments
-to it.
-.SH OPTIONS
-The following options are supported:
+to it. The
+.I file
+is an ECMA assembly. They typically have a .exe or .dll extension.
+.PP
+The runtime provides a number of configuration options for running
+applications, for developping and debugging, and for testing and
+debugging the runtime itself.
+.SH RUNTIME OPTIONS
+The following options are available:
.TP
-.I "--help", "-h"
-Displays usage instructions.
-.I "--share-code"
-This mode makes the LoaderOptimization for Application Domains default
-to sharing code. This results in slower code, but enables code
-sharing across application domains. The default is to maximize for
-speed, but disallow JITed code sharing across domains. See
-System.LoaderOptimization for more information
+.I "--aot"
+This option is used to precompile the CIL code in the specified
+assembly to native code. The generated code is stored in a file with
+the extension .so. This file will be automatically picked up by the
+runtime when the assembly is executed.
+.Sp
+Ahead-of-Time compilation is most useful if you use it in combination
+with the -O=all,-shared flag which enables all of the optimizations in
+the code generator to be performed. Some of those optimizations are
+not practical for Just-in-Time compilation since they might be very
+time consuming.
+.Sp
+Unlike the .NET Framework, Ahead-of-Time compilation will not generate
+domain independent code: it generates the same code that the
+Just-in-Time compiler would produce. Since most applications use a
+single domain, this is fine. If you want to optimize the generated
+code for use in multi-domain applications, consider using the
+-O=shared flag.
+.Sp
+This pre-compiles the methods, but the original assembly is still
+required to execute as this one contains the metadata and exception
+information which is not availble on the generated file. When
+precompiling code, you might want to compile with all optimizations
+(-O=all). Pre-compiled code is position independent code.
+.Sp
+Pre compilation is just a mechanism to reduce startup time, and avoid
+just-in-time compilation costs. The original assembly must still be
+present, as the metadata is contained there.
.TP
.I "--config filename"
Load the specified configuration file instead of the default one(s).
The default files are /etc/mono/config and ~/.mono/config or the file
-specified in the MONO_CONFIG environment variable, if set.
+specified in the MONO_CONFIG environment variable, if set. See the
+mono-config(5) man page for details on the format of this file.
+.TP
+.I "--help", "-h"
+Displays usage instructions.
.TP
-.I "--noinline"
-Disables the code inliner.
-.SH DEBUGGING OPTIONS
-The following options are used to debug, or perfomance test the JIT
-compiler:
+.I "--optimize=MODE", "-O=mode"
+MODE is a comma separated list of optimizations. They also allow
+optimizations to be turned off by prefixing the optimization name with
+a minus sign.
+.Sp
+The following optimizations are implemented:
+.nf
+ all Turn on all optimizations
+ peephole Peephole postpass
+ branch Branch optimizations
+ inline Inline method calls
+ cfold Constant folding
+ consprop Constant propagation
+ copyprop Copy propagation
+ deadce Dead code elimination
+ linears Linear scan global reg allocation
+ cmov Conditional moves
+ shared Emit per-domain code
+ sched Instruction scheduling
+ intrins Intrinsic method implementations
+ tailc Tail recursion and tail calls
+ loop Loop related optimizations
+ fcmov Fast x86 FP compares
+ leaf Leaf procedures optimizations
+ aot Usage of Ahead Of Time compiled code
+ precomp Precompile all methods before executing Main
+ abcrem Array bound checks removal
+ ssapre SSA based Partial Redundancy Elimination
+.fi
+.Sp
+For example, to enable all the optimization but dead code
+elimination and inlining, you can use:
+.nf
+ -O=all,-deadce,-inline
+.fi
.TP
-.I "--trace-calls"
-Shows method names as they are invoked.
+.I "--security"
+Activate the security manager (experimental feature in 1.1). This allows
+mono to support declarative security attributes (e.g. execution of, CAS
+or non-CAS, security demands). The security manager is OFF by default
+(experimental).
.TP
-.I "--dump-asm"
-Displays the generated code as methods are invoked.
+.I "-V", "--version"
+Prints JIT version information.
+
+
+.SH DEVELOPMENT OPTIONS
+The following options are used to help when developing a JITed application.
+.TP
+.I "--debug"
+Turns on the debugging mode in the runtime. If an assembly was
+compiled with debugging information, it will produce line number
+information for stack traces.
+.TP
+.I "--profile[=profiler[:profiler_args]]"
+Instructs the runtime to collect profiling information about execution
+times and memory allocation, and dump it at the end of the execution.
+If a profiler is not specified, the default profiler is used.
+.Sp
+Mono has a built-in profiler called `default' (and is also the default
+if no arguments are specified), but developers can write custom
+profilers as shared libraries. The shared library must be called
+`mono-profiler-NAME.so' where `NAME' is the name of your profiler.
+.Sp
+For a sample of the custom profilers look in the Mono source tree for
+in the samples/profiler.c.
+.Sp
+The
+.I profiler_args
+is a profiler-specific string of options for the profiler itself.
+.Sp
+The default profiler is called `default' and it accepts `alloc' to
+profile memory consumption by the application; `time' to profile the
+time spent on each routine and `stat' to perform sample statistical
+profiling. If no options are provided the default is `alloc,time'.
+.Sp
+For example:
+.nf
+ mono --profile program.exe
+.fi
+.Sp
+That will run the program with the default profiler and will do time
+and allocation profiling.
+.Sp
+.nf
+ mono --profile=default:stat,alloc program.exe
+.fi
+Will do sample statistical profiling and allocation profiling on
+program.exe.
.TP
-.I "--dump-forest"
-Displays the basic blocks and the forest of trees that is
-created from a stream of CIL opcodes.
+.nf
+ mono --profile=custom program.exe
+.fi
+.Sp
+In the above sample Mono will load the user defined profiler from the
+shared library `mono-profiler-custom.so'.
+.SH JIT MAINTAINER OPTIONS
+The maintainer options are only used by those developing the runtime
+itself, and not typically of interest to runtime users or developers.
.TP
.I "--compile name"
-Compiles the method on the given class (namespace.name:methodname) or
-all classes in the given image (@imagename).
+This compiles a method (namespace.name:methodname), this is used for
+testing the compiler performance or to examine the output of the code
+generator.
.TP
-.I "--ncompile"
-Compiles the method a number of times. If no argument is specified,
-the method will be compiled a thousand times.
-.SH DEVELOPMENT OPTIONS
-The following options are used to debug a JITed application. They're
-only useful when running the JIT in a debugger:
+.I "--compileall"
+Compiles all the methods in an assembly. This is used to test the
+compiler performance or to examine the output of the code generator
+.TP
+.I "--graph=TYPE METHOD"
+This generates a postscript file with a graph with the details about
+the specified method (namespace.name:methodname). This requires `dot'
+and ghostview to be installed (it expects Ghostview to be called
+"gv").
+.Sp
+The following graphs are available:
+.nf
+ cfg Control Flow Graph (CFG)
+ dtree Dominator Tree
+ code CFG showing code
+ ssa CFG showing code after SSA translation
+ optcode CFG showing code after IR optimizations
+.fi
+.Sp
+Some graphs will only be available if certain optimizations are turned
+on.
.TP
-.I "--debug=[format]"
-Writes out debug information in the given format or in the default format.
-See DEBUGGING FORMATS for details.
+.I "--ncompile"
+Instruct the runtime on the number of times that the method specified
+by --compile (or all the methods if --compileall is used) to be
+compiled. This is used for testing the code generator performance.
.TP
-.I "--debug-args args"
-Comma-separated list of additional arguments for the symbol writer.
-See DEBUGGING FORMATS for details.
+.I "-v", "--verbose"
+Increases the verbosity level, each time it is listed, increases the
+verbosity level to include more information (including, for example,
+a disassembly of the native code produced, code selector info etc.).
.TP
.I "--break method"
Inserts a breakpoint before the method whose name is `method'
-(namespace.class:methodname).
+(namespace.class:methodname). Use `Main' as method name to insert a
+breakpoint on the application's main method.
.TP
-.I "--precompile name"
-Compiles the given class (namespace.name), method (namespace.name:methodname)
-or all classes in the given image (@imagename) before executing the main
-application.
+.I "--breakonex"
+Inserts a breakpoint on exceptions. This allows you to debug your
+application with a native debugger when an exception is thrown.
.TP
-.I "--profile"
-Collect profiling information and dump it at the end of the process.
-.SH DEBUGGING FORMATS
-The following debugging formats are currently supported:
+.I "--trace[=expression]"
+Shows method names as they are invoked. By default all methods are
+traced.
+.Sp
+The trace can be customized to include or exclude methods, classes or
+assemblies. A trace expression is a comma separated list of targets,
+each target can be prefixed with a minus sign to turn off a particular
+target. The words `program' and `all' have special meaning.
+`program' refers to the main program being executed, and `all' means
+all the method calls.
+.Sp
+Assemblies are specified by their name, for example, to trace all
+calls in the System assembly, use:
+.nf
+
+ mono --trace=System app.exe
+
+.fi
+Classes are specified with the T: prefix. For example, to trace all
+calls to the System.String class, use:
+.nf
+
+ mono --trace=T:System.String app.exe
+
+.fi
+And individual methods are referenced with the M: prefix, and the
+standar method notation:
+.nf
+
+ mono --trace=M:System.Console:WriteLine app.exe
+
+.fi
+As previously noted, various rules can be specified at once:
+.nf
+
+ mono --trace=T:System.String,T:System.Random app.exe
+
+.fi
+You can exclude pieces, the next example traces calls to
+System.String except for the System.String:Concat method.
+.nf
+
+ mono --trace=T:System.String,-M:System.String:Concat
+
+.fi
+Finally, namespaces can be specified using the N: prefix:
+.nf
+
+ mono --trace=N:System.Xml
+
+.fi
+.SH DEBUGGING
+.PP
+You can use the MONO_LOG_LEVEL and MONO_LOG_MASK environment variables
+to get verbose debugging output about the execution of your
+application within Mono.
+.PP
+The
+.I MONO_LOG_LEVEL
+environment variable if set, the logging level is changed to the set
+value. Possible values are "error", "critical", "warning", "message",
+"info", "debug". The default value is "error". Messages with a logging
+level greater then or equal to the log level will be printed to
+stdout/stderr.
+.PP
+Use "info" to track the dynamic loading of assemblies.
+.PP
+.PP
+Use the
+.I MONO_LOG_MASK
+environment variable to limit the extent of the messages you get:
+If set, the log mask is changed to the set value. Possible values are
+"asm" (assembly loader), "type", "dll" (native library loader), "gc"
+(garbage collector), "cfg" (config file loader), "aot" (precompiler) and "all".
+The default value is "all". Changing the mask value allows you to display only
+messages for a certain component. You can use multiple masks by comma
+separating them. For example to see config file messages and assembly loader
+messages set you mask to "asm,cfg".
+.PP
+The following is a common use to track down problems with P/Invoke:
+.nf
+ $ MONO_LOG_LEVEL="debug" MONO_LOG_MASK="dll" mono glue.exe
+.fi
+.PP
+.SH SERIALIZATION
+Mono's XML serialization engine by default will use a reflection-based
+approach to serialize which might be slow for continous processing
+(web service applications). The serialization engine will determine
+when a class must use a hand-tuned serializer based on a few
+parameters and if needed it will produce a customized C# serializer
+for your types at runtime. This customized serializer then gets
+dynamically loaded into your application.
+.PP
+You can control this with the MONO_XMLSERIALIZER_THS environment
+variable.
+.PP
+The possible values are
+.B `no'
+to disable the use of a C# customized
+serializer, or an integer that is the minimum number of uses before
+the runtime will produce a custom serializer (0 will produce a
+custom serializer on the first access, 50 will produce a serializer on
+the 50th use).
+.SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
.TP
-.I "stabs"
-Writes out stabs debug information.
+.I "GC_DONT_GC"
+Turns off the garbage collection in Mono. This should be only used
+for debugging purposes
.TP
-.I "dwarf"
-Writes out dwarf debug information.
+.I "MONO_AOT_CACHE"
+If set, this variable will instruct Mono to ahead-of-time compile new
+assemblies on demand and store the result into a cache in
+~/.mono/aot-cache.
.TP
-.I "dwarf-plus"
-Uses an extended debugging information file which has been generated
-by MCS. This extended debugging information will allow you to debug
-C# source code rather than IL code. To use it, just run the JIT in
-your debugger and call "mono_debug_make_symbols" each time the program
-stops.
-.PP
-The "stabs" and "dwarf" formats support the following options:
+.I "MONO_ASPNET_NODELETE"
+If set to any value, temporary source files generated by ASP.NET support
+classes will not be removed. They will be kept in the user's temporary
+directory.
.TP
-.I "filename=FILENAME"
-Write debugging information into FILENAME. This file must be run through
-the assembler to create an object file.
+.I "MONO_CFG_DIR"
+If set, this variable overrides the default system configuration directory
+($PREFIX/etc). It's used to locate machine.config file.
.TP
-.I "objfile=FILENAME"
-When automatically assembling the symbol file, write the resulting object
-file into FILENAME.
+.I "MONO_CONFIG"
+If set, this variable overrides the default runtime configuration file
+($PREFIX/etc/mono/config). The --config command line options overrides the
+environment variable.
.TP
-.I "dont_assemble"
-Normally, the symbol file is automatically assembled to an object file
-when you call "mono_debug_make_symbols". Use this option to disable this
-behaviour.
+.I "MONO_DEBUG"
+If set, enables some features of the runtime useful for debugging.
+This variable should contain a comma separated list of debugging options.
+Currently, the following options are supported:
+.RS
+.ne 8
.TP
-.I "install_il_files"
-Put the generated *.il files in the same directory than the assembly they
-came from. The default is to put them into the current working directory.
+.I "keep-delegates"
+This option will leak delegate trampolines that are no longer
+referenced as to present the user with more information about a
+delegate missuse. Basically a delegate instance might be created,
+passed to unmanaged code, and no references kept in managed code,
+which will garbage collect the code. With this option it is possible
+to track down the source of the problems.
.TP
-.I "dont_update_il_files"
-Normally, the *.il files are recreated if their assemblies have changed
-when you call "mono_debug_make_symbols". Use this option to disable this
-behaviour.
+.I "abort-on-sigsegv"
+This option will make the runtime abort when it receives a SIGSEGV signal
+while executing unmanaged (native) code. This is useful for debugging
+problems when interfacing with native code.
+.ne
+.RE
.TP
-.I "dont_create_il_files"
-Update the *.il files if their assemblies have changed, but only if the
-file already exists.
-.PP
-The "dwarf-plus" format supports the following options:
+.I "MONO_DISABLE_AIO"
+If set, tells mono NOT to attempt using native asynchronous I/O services. In
+that case, a default select/poll implementation is used. Currently only epoll()
+is supported.
.TP
-.I "dont_fallback"
-Don't fallback to normal dwarf2 if the symbol file cannot be found.
-.PP
+.I "MONO_EGD_SOCKET"
+For platforms that do not otherwise have a way of obtaining random bytes
+this can be set to the name of a file system socket on which an egd or
+prngd daemon is listening.
+.TP
+.I "MONO_EXTERNAL_ENCODINGS"
+If set, contains a colon-separated list of text encodings to try when
+turning externally-generated text (e.g. command-line arguments or
+filenames) into Unicode. The encoding names come from the list
+provided by iconv, and the special case "default_locale" which refers
+to the current locale's default encoding.
+.IP
+When reading externally-generated text strings UTF-8 is tried first,
+and then this list is tried in order with the first successful
+conversion ending the search. When writing external text (e.g. new
+filenames or arguments to new processes) the first item in this list
+is used, or UTF-8 if the environment variable is not set.
+.TP
+.I "MONO_GAC_PREFIX"
+Provides a prefix the runtime uses to look for Global Assembly Caches.
+Directories are separated by the platform path separator (colons on
+unix). MONO_GAC_PREFIX should point to the top directory of a prefixed
+install. Or to the directory provided in the gacutil /gacdir command. Example:
+.B /home/username/.mono:/usr/local/mono/
+.TP
+.I "MONO_LOG_LEVEL"
+The logging level, possible values are `error', `critical', `warning',
+`message', `info' and `debug'. See the DEBUGGING section for more
+details.
+.TP
+.I "MONO_LOG_MASK"
+Controls the domain of the Mono runtime that logging will apply to.
+If set, the log mask is changed to the set value. Possible values are
+"asm" (assembly loader), "type", "dll" (native library loader), "gc"
+(garbage collector), "cfg" (config file loader), "aot" (precompiler) and "all".
+The default value is "all". Changing the mask value allows you to display only
+messages for a certain component. You can use multiple masks by comma
+separating them. For example to see config file messages and assembly loader
+messages set you mask to "asm,cfg".
+.TP
+.I "MONO_MANAGED_WATCHER"
+If set to any value, System.IO.FileSystemWatcher will use the default
+managed implementation (slow). If unset, mono will try to use FAM under
+Unix systems and native API calls on Windows, falling back to the
+managed implementation on error.
+.TP
+.I "MONO_PATH"
+Provides a search path to the runtime where to look for library files.
+Directories are separated by the platform path separator (colons on unix). Example:
+.B /home/username/lib:/usr/local/mono/lib
+.TP
+.I "MONO_RTC"
+Experimental RTC support in the statistical profiler: if the user has
+the permission, more accurate statistics are gathered. The MONO_RTC
+value must be restricted to what the linux rtc allows: power of two
+from 64 to 8192 Hz. To enable higher frequencies like 4096 Hz, run as root:
+.nf
+ echo 4096 > /proc/sys/dev/rtc/max-user-freq
+.fi
+.Sp
+For example:
+.nf
+ MONO_RTC=4096 mono --profiler=default:stat program.exe
+.fi
+.TP
+.I "MONO_NO_TLS"
+Disable inlining of thread local accesses. Try setting this if you get a segfault
+early on in the execution of mono.
+.TP
+.I "MONO_SHARED_DIR"
+If set its the directory where the ".wapi" handle state is stored.
+This is the directory where the Windows I/O Emulation layer stores its
+shared state data (files, events, mutexes, pipes). By default Mono
+will store the ".wapi" directory in the users's home directory.
+.TP
+.I "MONO_THREADS_PER_CPU"
+The maximum number of threads in the general threadpool will be
+20 + (MONO_THREADS_PER_CPU * number of CPUs). The default value for this
+variable is 5.
+.TP
+.I "MONO_TRACE"
+Used for runtime tracing of method calls. The format of the comma separated
+trace options is:
+.nf
+
+ [-]M:method name
+ [-]N:namespace
+ [-]T:class name
+ [-]all
+ [-]program
+ disabled Trace output off upon start.
+
+.fi
+You can toggle trace output on/off sending a SIGUSR2 signal to the program.
+.TP
+.I "MONO_TRACE_LISTENER"
+If set, enables the System.Diagnostics.DefaultTraceListener, which will
+print the output of the System.Diagnostics Trace and Debug classes.
+It can be set to a filename, and to Console.Out or Console.Error to display
+output to standard output or standard error, respectively. If it's set to
+Console.Out or Console.Error you can append an optional prefix that will
+be used when writing messages like this: Console.Error:MyProgramName.
+See the System.Diagnostics.DefaultTraceListener documentation for more
+information.
+.TP
+.I "MONO_XMLSERIALIZER_THS"
+Controls the threshold for the XmlSerializer to produce a custom
+serializer for a given class instead of using the Reflection-based
+interpreter. The possible values are `no' to disable the use of a
+custom serializer or a number to indicate when the XmlSerializer
+should start serializing. The default value is 50, which means that
+the a custom serializer will be produced on the 50th use.
.SH FILES
-On Unix assemblies are lodaed from the installation lib directory. If you set
+On Unix assemblies are loaded from the installation lib directory. If you set
`prefix' to /usr, the assemblies will be located in /usr/lib. On
Windows, the assemblies are loaded from the directory where mono and
mint live.
.PP
+~/.mono/aot-cache
+.PP
+The directory for the ahead-of-time compiler demand creation
+assemblies are located.
+.PP
/etc/mono/config, ~/.mono/config
-.IP
+.PP
Mono runtime configuration file. See the mono-config(5) manual page
for more information.
+.PP
+~/.config/.mono/certs, /usr/share/.mono/certs
+.PP
+Contains Mono certificate stores for users / machine. See the certmgr(1)
+manual page for more information on managing certificate stores.
+.PP
+~/.config/.mono/keypairs, /usr/share/.mono/keypairs
+.PP
+Contains Mono cryptographic keypairs for users / machine. They can be
+accessed by using a CspParameters object with DSACryptoServiceProvider
+and RSACryptoServiceProvider classes.
+.PP
+~/.config/.isolatedstorage, ~/.local/share/.isolatedstorage, /usr/share/.isolatedstorage
+.PP
+Contains Mono isolated storage for non-roaming users, roaming users and
+local machine. Isolated storage can be accessed using the classes from
+the System.IO.IsolatedStorage namespace.
.SH MAILING LISTS
-Visit http://mail.ximian.com/mailman/mono-list for details.
+Visit http://lists.ximian.com/mailman/listinfo/mono-list for details.
.SH WEB SITE
-Visit: http://www.go-mono.com for details
+Visit: http://www.mono-project.com for details
.SH SEE ALSO
-.BR mcs(1), mint(1), monodis(1), mono-config(5)
-
-
+.BR mcs(1), mint(1), monodis(1), mono-config(5), certmgr(1).
+.PP
+For ASP.NET-related documentation, see the xsp(1) manual page
projects / mono.git / blobdiff