Intel® Inspector Tutorial: Analyzing Threading Errors in a C++ Sample Application for Windows* OS

Tutorial

  • 2021.1
  • 12/04/2020
  • Public Content
Contents

Visual Studio* IDE: Choose Project and Build Application

Intel® Inspector
 is a dynamic memory and threading error checking tool for users developing serial and multithreaded applications on Windows* and Linux* operating systems. This topic is part of a
tutorial
 that shows how to find and fix
threading
 errors using the
Intel Inspector
 and a
C++
 sample application.
Follow these steps only if you are using the
Intel Inspector
 plug-in to the Visual Studio* IDE to complete this tutorial.
To create an application the
Intel Inspector
 can inspect for threading errors:

Get Software Tools

You need the following tools to try tutorial steps yourself using the
tachyon_insp_xe
 sample application:
  • Intel Inspector
     installation package and license
  • .zip
     file extraction utility
  • Supported compiler (see
    Release Notes
     for more information)
Acquire the
Intel Inspector
If you do not already have access to the
Intel Inspector
, you can download an evaluation copy from http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-software-evaluation-center/.
Install and Set Up the
Intel Inspector
 Sample Applications
  1. Copy the
    tachyon_insp_xe.zip
     file from the
    <install-dir>\samples\<locale>\C++\
     directory to a writable directory or share on your system. The default
    <install-dir>
     is below
    C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\
    (on certain systems, instead of
    Program Files (x86)
    , the directory name is
    Program Files
    ).
  2. Extract the sample from the
    .zip
     file.
  • Samples are non-deterministic. Your screens may vary from the screen captures shown throughout this tutorial.
  • Samples are designed only to illustrate the
    Intel Inspector
     features; they do not represent best practices for creating code.

Open a Visual Studio* Solution

  1. Choose
    File
    Open
    Project/Solution
    .
  2. In the
    Open Project
     dialog box, open the
    tachyon_insp_xe\vc10\tachyon_insp_xe.sln
     file to display the
    tachyon_insp_xe
     solution in the
    Solution Explorer
    .
    The
    tachyon_insp_xe.sln
     solution was created using the Visual Studio* 2010 IDE. If the Visual Studio* conversion wizard appears, follow the steps to convert the solution to run on your installed version of the Visual Studio* IDE.

Choose a Startup Project

If the
find_and_fix_threading_errors
 project is not the startup project (project typeface in the
Solution Explorer
 is not bold),
  1. Right-click the
    find_and_fix_threading_errors
     project in the
    Solution Explorer
    .
  2. Choose
    Set as StartUp Project
    , which changes the project typeface to bold.

Understand Optimal Compiler/Linker Settings

You can use the
Intel® Inspector
 to analyze memory and threading errors in both debug and release modes of C++ and Fortran binaries; however, applications compiled/linked in debug mode using the following settings produce the most accurate and complete analysis results.
Compiler/Linker Property
Correct C/C++ Setting
Impact If Not Set Correctly
Debug information
Enabled (
/Zi
 or
/ZI
)
Missing file/line information
Optimization
Disabled (
/Od
)
Incorrect file/line information
Dynamic runtime library
Selected (
/MD
 or
/MDd
)
False positives or missing code locations
Basic runtime error checks
Disabled (do not use
/RTC
;
Default
 option in Visual Studio* IDE)
False positives
Compiler/Linker Property
Correct Fortran Setting
Impact If Not Set Correctly
Debug information
Enabled (
/debug:full
)
Missing file/line information
Optimization
Disabled (
/Od
)
Incorrect file/line information
Dynamic runtime library
Selected (
/libs:dll/threads
 or
libs:dll/threads/dbglibs
 )
False positives or missing code locations
Basic runtime error checks
None (
/check:none
)
False positives
The sample code is already set. Follow these steps if you need to change settings for your application.
  1. If the
    Solutions Configuration
     drop-down on the Visual Studio*
    Standard
     toolbar is set to
    Release
    , change it to
    Debug
    .
  2. Right-click the
    find_and_fix_threading_errors
     project in the
    Solution Explorer
    , then choose
    Properties
     to display the
    Property Pages
     dialog box.
  3. In the left pane, choose
    Configuration Properties
    C/C++
    .
    • Choose
      General
       and verify the
      Debug Information Format
       field is set to
      Program Database (/Zi)
       or
      Program Database for Edit & Continue (/ZI)
      .
    • Choose
      Optimization
       and verify the
      Optimization
       field is set to
      Disabled (/Od)
      .
    • Choose
      Code Generation
      . Verify the
      Runtime Library
       field is set to
      Multi-threaded DLL (/MD)
       or
      Multi-threaded Debug DLL (/MDd)
       and the
      Basic Runtime Checks
       field is set to
      Default
      .
  4. In the left pane, choose
    Configuration Properties
    Linker
    Debugging
     and verify the
    Generate Debug Info
     field is set to
    Yes (/DEBUG)
    .
  5. Click the
    Apply
     button, then click the
    OK
     button to close the
    Property Pages
     dialog box.

Build and Test the Application

  1. Choose
    Build
    Solution
     to build all projects in the solution.
  2. Check the messages in the
    Output
     window to confirm the build succeeded.
  3. Choose
    Debug
    Start Without Debugging
     to test the application.
  4. Check for non-deterministic application output similar to the following:
    Application output
    Notice the off-color dots in the image. The cause: Threading errors.

Product and Performance Information

1

Performance varies by use, configuration and other factors. Learn more at www.Intel.com/PerformanceIndex.