massif-visualizer1

Usage

Overview

Massif Visualizer is a tool that visualizes massif data. You run your application in Valgrind with --tool=massif and then open the generated massif.out.%pid in the visualizer. Gzip or Bzip2 compressed massif files can also be opened transparently.

The application consists of three parts:

The Overview Chart

The first thing you'll notice is a nice chart that displays the same as e.g. ms_print does in Ascii-Art: total memory consumption over time.

Massif-Visualizer goes beyond that by additionally showing the top most cost-intensive locations in your code as a stacked graph below the total cost. The graph also reacts on user-interaction.

This view you can use for:

The Snapshot Data Tree

Directly next to the above chart, you'll see a tree with all of the massif data. The tree items are colored depending on their cost, with red opaque being the most interesting (peak) elements. Green/transparent items are negligible and don't add significant cost to your application.

You can also search the tree and when you select something in it, the snapshot gets highlighted in the overview chart and the call graph gets updated.

The Call Graph for Detailed Snapshots

Massif generates a few detailed snapshots that essentially make up the tree. If you want to get an overview in a more comfortable way than the simple tree view, switch over to the detailed snapshot tab and see the tree visualized as a call graph. Zoom in, zoom out, use the birds eye view and see what contributes to a given snapshot. Note that function calls with the same memory cost are grouped to easily find the interesting parts.

Options