2004-11-08 Ben Maurer <bmaurer@ximian.com>

[mono-project.git] / man / mono.1

.\" 
.\" mono manual page.
.\" (C) 2003 Ximian, 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's ECMA-CLI native code generator (Just-in-Time and Ahead-of-Time)
.SH SYNOPSIS
.PP
.B mono [options] file [arguments...]
.SH DESCRIPTION
\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.  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 "--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.  See the
mono-config(5) man page for details on the format of this file.
.TP
.I "--help", "-h"
Displays usage instructions.
.TP
.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
             leaf       Leaf procedures optimizations
             profile    Use profiling information
.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 "-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. profiler_args 
is a profiler-specific string of options for the profiler itself.
.PP
The default profiler accepts -time and -alloc to options to disable
the time profiling or the memory allocation profilng.
.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"
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 "--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"). 
.PP
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 "--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 "-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).  Use `Main' as method name to insert a
breakpoint on the application's main method.
.TP
.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 "--trace[=expression]"
Shows method names as they are invoked.  By default all methods are
traced. 
.PP
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. 
.PP
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
If you are interested in debugging P/Invoke problems with your
application, you might want to use:
.nf
        $ MONO_LOG_LEVEL="debug" MONO_LOG_MASK="dll" mono glue.exe
.fi
.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 `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 "GC_DONT_GC"
Turns off the garbage collection in Mono.  This should be only used
for debugging purposes
.TP
.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 "MONO_CFG_DIR"
If set, this variable overrides the default system configuration directory
($PREFIX/etc). It's used to locate machine.config file.
.TP
.I "MONO_CONFIG"
If set, this variable overrides the default runtime configuration file
($PREFIX/etc/mono/config). The --config command line options overrides the
environment variable.
.TP
.I "MONO_DEBUG"
If set, enables some features of the runtime useful for debugging.
It makes the runtime display the stack traces for all the threads
running and exit when mono is interrupted (Ctrl-C) and print some
additional messages on error conditions. It may not exit cleanly. Use at
your own risk.
.TP
.I "MONO_DISABLE_AIO"
If set, tells mono NOT to attempt using native asynchronous I/O services. In
that case, the threadpool is used for asynchronous I/O on files and sockets.
.TP
.I "MONO_DISABLE_SHM"
If this variable is set, it disables the shared memory part of the
Windows I/O Emulation layer, and handles (files, events, mutexes,
pipes) will not be shared across processes.  Process creation is also
disabled.  This option is only available on Unix.
.TP
.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"
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.
.TP
.I "MONO_LOG_MASK"
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), "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_THREADS_PER_CPU"
Sets the maximum number of threads in the threadpool per CPU. The default is
50 for non-windows systems and 25 for windows.
.TP
.I "MONO_TRACE"
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.
See the System.Diagnostics.DefaultTraceListener documentation for more
information.
.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_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_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 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
/etc/mono/config, ~/.mono/config
.PP
Mono runtime configuration file.  See the mono-config(5) manual page
for more information.
.SH MAILING LISTS
Visit http://mail.ximian.com/mailman/mono-list for details.
.SH WEB SITE
Visit: http://www.go-mono.com for details
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR mcs(1), mint(1), monodis(1), mono-config(5).
.PP
For ASP.NET-related documentation, see the xsp(1) manual page