Tools Release Notes

We sold a product called Method R Tools until 2018-05-09, when we integrated the Tools feature set into Method R Workbench 8.0.

Tools 4.1.3.4 (2018-02-02)

Application

• 6772: Documented installation prerequisites at method-r.com/installation-prerequisites. mrtools for Linux now requires 64-bit Linux and glibc 2.15 or a compatible GNU C library.
• 6765: Simplified product download process and created a new self-service trial license key generator.
• 6755: Check for Updates… now uses a restartable, multi-threaded download manager to make software updates faster and easier.

Tools 4.1.2.0 (2017-08-04)

Application

• 6562: “Your license will expire in %d days!” dialog Yes button now points to method-r.com/pricing.
• 6561: Fixed a bug causing license keys not to be recognized for the 30-day subscription product.

Tools 4.1.1.2 (2017-07-03)

Application

• 6532: Fixed a bug in which Help > License text box state becomes inconsistent with the “Edit license key” check box.
• 6530: Updated Help > Release Notes URL.

Tools 4.1.0.26 (2017-06-19)

General

• 6449: Fixed a bug causing the .method-r directory to be created in the wrong place on Linux and Microsoft Windows.
• 6409: Incorporated new Profiler 7 license management features into the application and command line tools.
• 6174: Made mrls and mrskew much faster when using --scanmax=0.
• 6074: Rewrote man page Synopsis sections to adhere to the standard Unix format.
• 5934: Documented glibc version requirements in mrprof man page.

Application

• 6489: Access Cary Millsap’s The Method R Guide to Mastering Oracle Trace Data from within the application.
• 6481: New Check for Updates… feature makes upgrading easy.
• 6454: New Help menu.
• 6447: New splash page to view during startup.
• 6446: Fixed a bug causing the output window on Linux to render in a variable pitch font by default.
• 6176: Fixed a bug in which the “Response time by line number for a given call name pattern” report used an incorrect regular expression for the default value SQL\*Net message from client.
• 5930: Fixed a bug causing a modified report not to be identified as “(modified)”.
• 5929: Fixed a bug preventing macOS users from being able to drag trace files to the Method R Tools application dock icon.
• 5928: Fixed a bug causing an infinite loop to occur upon dropping a file into the Files panel.
• 5906: Fixed a bug in which Bash emulator didn’t pass double-quoted “\” through to the called program.
• 5716: Improved how the application handles insufficient Java runtime environment (JRE) version.
• 4892: New “Cancel” link allows you to cancel the execution of a running report.

mrcallrm

• 6264: Fixed man page typo.

mrls

• 6512: Fixed a bug causing mrls to show “’ (No such file or directory)” warning when encountering a file whose name contains a carriage return character.

mrskew

• 6265: Added --top=0 to calls.rc.
• 6064: mrskew now recognizes Oracle Database 12.2 hexadecimal cursor IDs.
• 5983: Fixed a bug causing “Use of uninitialized value…” warnings for some queries upon files with BINDS lines in them.
• 5949: New $uid, $lid, $len, $oct expression variables expose the corresponding values on PARSING IN CURSOR lines.
• 5947: Changed definition of exp.rc to not use --name=:all, which will eliminate some unwanted side-effects.
• 5946: In accordance with Tow-Millsap law, --top argument now defaults to 10 instead of 20.
• 5932: Fixed a bug causing “Use of uninitialized value…” warnings for queries referencing $plh upon older trace files with no plh fields in them.

Tools 4.0.0.59 (2015-12-21)

General

• 5965: Removed spaces from distribution filenames.
• 5897: Renamed Linux x86 bundle file to connote its 64-bit architecture requirement.
• 5883: New ReadMe.txt file aids with installing Method R Tools.
• 5872: Renamed Method R Tools administrative directory in $HOME/.method-r to mrtools.
• 5839: Fixed a bug that would cause programs to execute $HOME/.mrwhatever.rc twice when the current working directory is the home directory (which is always when running the application).
• 5833: Fixed a bug that caused a “Cannot find “mrskew” in podpath…” error to be listed in a Resources/bin/doc/*.htmlerr file for each product.
• 5792: Fixed a bug that can cause the application to encounter an Initialization Error.
• 5778: Improved consistency of .rc file documentation across the product.
• 5773: Removed .rc file tracing from --verbose=2 because of confusion with specifying --verbose on both the command line and in ~/.mrskew.rc or ./.mrskew.rc. You can now trace .rc file processing with --debug=1 or greater.
• 5771: Renamed distribution .rc files to have a .rc extension.
• 5770: Fixed a bug causing utilities to report an error when using the --verbose command line argument in a .rc file.
• 5652: --verbose output now writes to STDOUT instead of STDERR.
• 5645: New “more than one file matches --rc='%s'” warning prevents you from accidentally using a .rc file that you didn’t intend.
• 5641: New --initrc (and --noinitrc) option allows you to specify whether you want a program to open its ~/.program.rc (in your home directory) and ./.program.rc (in your current working directory) upon startup.
• 5639: Tuned up --usage and --help options; --help now produces more information for each product.
• 5638: Modified the spec for --verbose and --debug options to make them more consistent and easier to use.
• 5630: -? now acts as an alias for --help.
• 5624: Fixed a bug causing some --debug output to be written to STDOUT instead of STDERR.
• 5196: Method R Tools DMG file for macOS is now signed by Method R Corporation.
• 4713: New --listrc option causes your program to list its .rc files and exit.

Application

• 5893: Fixed a but causing Report Parameters dialog not to pass ‘\’ characters to the command line.
• 5838: New “Sharable statement texts by shared SQL id” report.
• 5837: New “Count of distinct statement texts grouped by shared SQL id” report.
• 5813: Added new “Database calls in chronological order” report.
• 5735: New File > Clear Files and Output feature makes it easy to clear your workspace for a new project.
• 5728: New File > Fix operation re-runs mrls with the --scanmax=0 option for all checked files.
• 5725: All STDERR and STDOUT from the Files panel now emits to the command output frame.
• 5711: Interface now looks gorgeous on Apple Retina Display devices (requires Java version 1.8).
• 5708: New File > Reload menu item reloads the Files panel.
• 5706: Added ellipsis to menu items that require more input than just the click.
• 5679: Improved Help menu gives access to all Method R Tools manual pages.
• 5675: Fixed a bug causing the “Open” button in the “Select Reports File” dialog (Preferences > Browse…) not to work properly.
• 5666: New font selector lets you choose which font you prefer for your Command Output window.
• 5665: All-new icons and buttons modernize the look of the interface.
• 5637: Command line parsing error and warning messages are now passed into the output panel.
• 5635: Added new “Response time by user experience (connection pool) for a given experience id” report.
• 5634: Added new “Response time by user experience (connection pool)” report.
• 5632: Now you can run mrcallrm from the graphical user interface to fix trace files that have unwanted think time in them.
• 5631: Commands displayed in the output window are now properly formatted so that you can run them in a Bash shell simply by copying and pasting the relevant content of the output window.
• 5629: Sample Output and Command Output panels now have Zoom In/Out/Reset controls. Use Ctrl =, Ctrl -, and Ctrl 0 in Linux and Windows, or ⌘=, ⌘-, and ⌘0 in Mac OS X.
• 5618: Updated the reports0.xml file to reflect the --name=:dbcall syntax change wherein the colon is now required as a keyword prefix.
• 5292: New File > Clear Files and Output menu option helps you clear your whole workspace (e.g., to begin a new project) with just one click.
• 5287: New “Response time by user experience (connection pool) for a given experience id” report makes it easy to drill into the new “Response time by user experience (connection pool)” report. This drill-down report helps you see exactly how the response time for a given experience was consumed.
• 5204: Graphical User Interface now uses the updated Method R Tools logos.
• 5193: Fixed a bug causing Preferences dialog Browse… button to sometimes open the wrong folder.
• 5189: We have eliminated the application User Guide, in accordance with our philosophy, “If the graphical interface requires a manual to use, then the interface isn’t finished yet.”
• 4984: “About” dialog now mentions the Method R Tools product name.
• 4969: Panel sizes are saved from one execution of Method R Tools to the next.
• 4902: Only allowed file type for Add operation is .trc.
• 4901: New reload button for the Files panel.
• 4898: New sample trace file—a “what segment lives at this address?” query on an Oracle Exadata system (the same one used in the Method R Profiler application)—offers more interesting trace data for education and exploration.
• 4890: Command text box now uses standard Bash shell quoting syntax, so you’ll no longer need to remember a special syntax for command quoting in the application.
• 4883: File management panel now transmits information about mrls errors and warnings into the Command Output window.
• 4799: File selection for reporting is now implemented via checkbox widgets, which persist your potentially complex file selections while allowing you to click within the trace files panel.
• 4796: Fixed alignment of command output panel columns.
• 4779: Undo for the command output frame’s Clear command prevents a mistaken click on the ‘X’ from becoming a regrettable mistake.
• 4732: Command text entry box now has a command history. Use Alt-↑ and Alt-↓ on Linux and Windows, and ⌥↑ and ⌥↓ on Mac OS X.

mrcallrm

• 5647: Fixed a bug causing mrcallrm to duplicate the TZ string at the end of timestamps that already have a TZ string.
• 5625: Fixed a bug that could cause --comment to put comment lines into incorrect places in the output.
• 5623: New --inplace=extension option modifies your trace file in place while creating a backup copy of your file with the extension you specify.
• 5297: New --thinktime=float option lets you easily remove ‘SQL*Net message from client’ calls with ela values greater than a threshold you specify.

mrkey

• 5591: --newline argument causes mrkey to terminate its output with a “\n” character.
• 5219: New --delimiter=string argument defines the string to use between keys when there are multiple keys in the output.
• 5199: Fixed typos in manual page.

mrls

• 5853: Changed default to --precision=6.
• 5370: Fixed a bug that incorrectly attributed the first timestamp in the trace file to the first tim value, even if there were other timestamps in the file that more obviously correlated to that first tim.

mrskew

• 5876: New $call_id variable is an alias for $line_number, and new $call_name variable is an alias for $nam.
• 5835: New sharable-texts.rc file shows texts of statements that could have been shared, and how much time their PARSE calls consumed.
• 5812: New calls.rc file lists database calls in chronological order.
• 5811: Use the better self-documenting --alldepths instead of --where1=1 within all.rc.
• 5678: New $oracle_release expression variable works just like $service_name, $module_name, etc. variables upon match of trace lines containing the Oracle Release number.
• 5667: --verbose option now defaults to --verbose=1, which shows information vital to understanding the mrskew output. You may use --verbose=0 if you prefer the compact table-only output.
• 5622: New aliases $cur_id and $ses_id may be easier for some people to remember than $cid and $sid.
• 5621: New --sort default value is --sort=2nd,4nd,1sa. This makes sorting by default more deterministic.
• 5619: Changed the name of the $version variable to $oraver, to match the --oraver option name.
• 5617: Changed syntax of --name keywords to require a colon before the keyword; for example, --name=:all. This allows users to use --name=all as a regular pattern to match Oracle timed event names containing the string “all”.
• 5610: Renamed txnz .rc file to “exp.rc”, a friendlier and easier-to-remember name for the .rc file that groups trace data into experiences.
• 5609: Fixed a bug causing command options of the form --where='$exp_id>==42' --name=VALUE to work incorrectly.
• 5608: Changed txnz.rc to use the new $experience_id variable.
• 5607: New $experience_id variable (alias $exp_id) is useful to group segments of a trace file created by a connection pooling application into chunks of trace data, each relating to a separate end-user experience.
• 5606: Fixed a bug causing --debug not to show the correct value of --where after the command line arguments have been processed. This information is now available by using the --verbose option.
• 5574: Added predicate --name=read to disk.rc and ssd.rc files.
• 5405: New --alldepths option provides an easy way to report across all recursive depths.
• 5368: New $client_driver variable allows you to reference CLIENT DRIVER trace file content.
• 5363: Fixed manpage omission of special --sort=(n|no|none) values.
• 5345: Included support for the kkscoacd line that is sometimes emitted in the BINDS section.
• 5307: New distinct-texts.rc file counts SQLID values that share the same SSQLID.
• 5294: Documented the default values for --timunit, --cpuunit, --oraver, and --depmin when mrskew reads from STDIN.
• 4532: mrskew renders better diagnostic information when expressions are invalid.

Tools 3.1.0.4 (2014-01-31)

General

• 5046: Method R Tools is certified for use with Mac OS X Mavericks.

Application

• 4899: Fixed a bug in which the Method R Tools GUI would ignore some operations executed the first time after a GUI startup.
• 4897: Rearranged reports list for easier navigation.
• 1567: New reports show LIO and PIO count grouped by SQL ID.

mrkey

• 4914: New mrkey filter makes it easy to write batch scripts for mrskew where a report can drill deeper into the results produced by a prior report.

mrls

• 5002: Added description of --start option to the manual page SYNOPSIS section.
• 4988: Added --format option with valid values tab and css.
• 4907: New --none option turns off printing of all columns except for R and FILE, so that you can additively define, from scratch, which columns you want in your output.

mrskew

• 5187: New variable names $line_number, $file_name, $service_name, $module_name, $action_name, $session_id, $serial_number will be easier for some people to remember.
• 5177: mrskew now recognizes pre-11g BINDS section format.
• 5184: New txnz rc file groups trace lines by a new transaction identifier that is reset upon every occurrence of a long-latency “SQL*Net message from client” call.
• 5182: Fixed a bug in which mrskew would append a CR on each placeholder value when processing a trace file that uses CRLF line terminators.
• 4989: New $ssql and $ssqlid expression variables allow you to group, filter, and select using the shareable version of your SQL and PL/SQL statements.
• 4987: Added --format, --pform, and --pfact options.
• 4966: New $container_id expression variable allows you to group, filter, and select using the new Oracle Database 12c CONTAINER ID value.
• 4925: mrskew can now read from STDIN. This is helpful for large zipped files, which you may now process with, e.g., gunzip -c big_file.gz | mrskew --depmin=1. Note the new options --depmin and --oraver allow you to set $depmin and $version values that mrskew can’t calculate when its input comes from STDIN.
• 4915: --dashes is now the default value, to facilitate use of the new mrkey filter.

mrtimfix

• 5008: Improved warning messages, and added --show and --summary options.
• 4994: Each warning message printed to STDERR now states explicitly that the warning applies to the content of the output file.
• 4992: Removed references to --nowait option (which doesn’t exist) and corrected mistakes in the manual page.
• 4991: New --summary and --show options provide control over a summary section that aggregates warnings by warning type.
• 4081: New warnings indicate when Oracle bugs (e.g., 7561762, 7522002) have created detectably incorrect trace file timing values.

Tools 3.0.2.3 (2013-03-12)

GUI

• 4886: Created better diagnostics for situations in which the software hasn’t been installed properly.
• 4833: Fixed errors that occurred because of double quote delimiters used in the reports0.xml file (was a problem on Microsoft Windows only).

Tools 3.0.1.3 (2013-03-05)

General

• 4877: Fixed a bug resulting in improper license creation on some Windows implementations, and improved licensing diagnostics for all platforms.
• 4878: All tools now display a warning message when you use an unrecognized --dformat or --tformat value.

GUI

• 4829: Removed report “Response time not accounted for between dbcalls by file name and line number”. Because the definition of $uafbc depends on $tim1prior, which itself does not account for WAIT lines, the results of the report were unreliable.

mrcallrm

• 4825: Fixed a bug causing a timestamp line not to be adjusted properly when it immediately precedes a call line that’s being removed.

mrls

• 4869: Documentation improvements: added --end option and improved description for --details option in SYNOPSIS section; mentioned default values for --end, --start, and --units options in DESCRIPTION section. Also eliminated --nohuman option, because it is an irreversible shorthand.

mrskew

• 4873: mrskew now recognizes the dep value on PARSING IN CURSOR lines.

Tools 3.0.0.13 (2012-10-29)

General

• 4631: all: Fixed a bug in which using a command like mrskew --man | more would fail to execute properly the first time after opening a new shell.

Application

• 4794: Fixed a bug in which double-clicking a trace file triggered an UnsupportedOperation exception on some platforms.
• 4782: All-new User Guide.
• 4780: Cmd-A now selects all files in the files panel.
• 4778: Added new Help menu items to improve access to mrls and mrskew documentation.
• 4777: Added tool tips on script output buttons.
• 4776: Created better visual distinction between report customization area (middle of main panel) and script output area (bottom of main panel).
• 4775: Created a user-customizable reports.xml file that is separate from the config file containing stock reports, which will be replaced every MR Tools upgrade.
• 4754: Updated the tutorial to reflect changes in the graphical user interface.
• 4748: New View > Show Sample Report panel shows a sample report for each report over which you hover the cursor.
• 4747: Double-clicking a trace file in the file panel opens that file with the default application for trace files.
• 4744: Fixed a bug that could cause an ExecutionException: java.lang.NullPointerException: Command is null or empty. error the first time you try to run a parameterized report.
• 4742: Added new report “Response time by subroutine with think time removed”.
• 4740: Fixed a bug in which some of the normal “delete” keys (Del, Fn-Del, Cmd-Del, Backspace, etc.) didn’t remove files from the Files panel.
• 4739: Context menu no longer lingers and stays on top when you switch focus to another app.
• 4738: Fixed bug in which Preferences panel “Restore Default” button closed the panel without reloading the new file.
• 4736: Report Parameters panel can now supply a default value for a parameter, through use of the new <param default="string"/> attribute.
• 4735: New reports.xml file takes advantage of value binding feature provided by new <param> element.
• 4733: New undo/redo operations for file panel.
• 4730: Made buttons and tool tips consistent on application main page.
• 4729: Preferences “Reveal in Finder” button has been moved and iconized to diminish its appearance relative to the “Browse” and “Open” buttons.
• 4727: Pressing Enter within the custom report text box now executes the command without requiring you to press “Run”.
• 4723: Fixed a bug in which there was no way to reach the Preferences panel on the MR Tools for Windows build.
• 4718: Use basename($file) instead of $file in reports that use a file name in the --group expression, to narrow the output.
• 4711: New <param> element in reports.xml file allows you to bind values to tokens, which means you can specify values to use in specific reports at report run-time.
• 4710: New design integrates custom reporting into the front page of the application, minimizing clicks and maximizing workflow efficiency.
• 4709: Script output window “Save As”, “Copy to Clipboard”, and “Clear” buttons are deactivated if the script output panel is empty.
• 4708: Hover hint over “Run Report” button helps you remember to select some files if no files are chosen.
• 4707: New Preferences panel “Reveal in Finder” button makes it easy to open a Finder/Explorer window containing the Reports File.
• 4706: New preferences panel “Restore Default” button resets the Reports File back to the content shipped that was with the product.
• 4705: GUI saves script output between GUI sessions.
• 4702: MR Tools now ships with a sample trace file so you can get started using it right away, without even having to collect your own trace data.
• 4698: Preferences panel “OK” button now has default focus, which makes it easier to reload new report.xml file contents.
• 4697: Starting the GUI with a bad reports.xml file now shows error dialog and automatically pops the Preferences dialog.
• 4696: Preferences panel will report the specific XML parsing error if the reports.xml file is syntactically invalid.
• 4517: New MR Tools graphical user interface makes it easier to access commonly used reports and execute them upon saved groups of trace files.

mrcallrm

• 4466: Enhanced documentation to mention that Oracle timestamps in the input are converted to ISO 8601 timestamps in the output.

mrls

• 4721: Manual page explains negative recursive depth values in --dep output.
• 4627: Accurized trace file processing functions to give more precise start and end times.
• 4626: Left-align START and END column names.
• 4622: When using --tformat=iso8601, render timezone “-0000” to denote that the UTC time is known, but the local offset is not.
• 4621: --oraver option renamed to --ora to match the ORA column name. -o still works as before.
• 4620: Invalid --sort options now cause mrls to die rather than run silently with a sort on R.
• 4618: New --dashes option.
• 4614: New default value is --noend, which significantly clears the clutter of the default mrls output.
• 4613: New --start and --end options allow you to include or omit the START and END columns.
• 4611: Fixed a bug in which, e.g., mrls file.trc --details --nocpu would render CPU column regardless of the --nocpu option specification.
• 4610: The --csv option sets --precision=6, but now mrls honors your --precision=n value if you specify it on the command line after --csv.
• 4423: Refactored rendering code to create opportunity for new features and tools.
• 4422: New SIZE column shows size of file in bytes. New --[no]size option controls whether it appears.
• 4380: mrls no longer gives a false negative warning estimating task minimum dep value when -scanmaxis set to a value at least half as big as the number of lines in the input file.

mrskew

• 4770: LOBREAD and other dbcalls with no explicit cursor id value now use a non-zero value (-2) so that these calls don’t group with the same cursor ID as explicit cursor #0 calls.
• 4762: RPC BINDS sections now populate new @bind (and $bind[i]) expression variable.
• 4761: New --rc=all file gives a convenient shorthand for commonly used --name=all --where1=1 --top=0 --sort=1na --nohistogram command line options group.
• 4757: Users can now use basename, dirname, and fileparse functions in mrskew expressions.
• 4756: GUI “Response time not accounted for between dbcalls by file name and line number” report now uses the Perl basename() function upon $file in the --group expression, so the resulting report is not so wide.
• 4722: Manual page now mentions that --rc=mrnl is expensive and should normally be used only with a filter to restrict the number of lines to include in the output.
• 4712: New $parse_id and $exec_id expression variables allow grouping of sets of calls, which allows you to approximate end-user experience measurements even in uninstrumented applications.
• 4628: Fixed documentation bug that referred incorrectly to the file name p10.rc instead of simply p10.
• 4544: Fixed a bug in which mrskew rendered “file ‘%s’ is not a plain text file” when it should render “file ‘%s’ does not exist”.
• 4529: Corrected man page description of --where default value in $af entry of Expression Variables section.
• 4527: New --plabel permits renaming of ‘%’ column, and --csv output now renders percentages like “12.3%” as “0.123456”.
• 4503: Improved documentation for replacing Unicode characters in rc files on systems that do not properly render them.
• 4309: New @bind and $bind[i] expression variables associate placeholder variable values with dbcalls and syscalls. Now you can answer questions like, “Which set of bind values caused my executions and fetches to consume the most response time?”
• 4057: RPC EXEC lines now have access to $cursor_id, $hv, $sqlid, $sql values set by the most recent RPC CALL line.

Tools 2.1.0.8 (2011-12-01)

General

• 4413: New MRTOOLS_RCPATH variable specifies directories to search for files in --rc options.
• 4158: --verbose option now includes a section showing details about rc file processing.

mrls

• 4427: New --head option replaces --heading.

mrnl

• 4499: mrnl is no longer distributed. Its functions have been subsumed by mrskew –rc=mrnl.

mrskew

• 4506: Added documentation about platform-specific line continuation characters.
• 4504: --verbose now takes its default value from MRTOOLS_VERBOSE environment variable, which allows you to trace --rc processing.
• 4503: Improved documentation for replacing Unicode characters in rc files on systems that do not properly render them.
• 4497: New shorthands: --g for --group, --n for --name, --s for --select, --w for --where, --w1 for --where1.
• 4496: Created new --rc file called mrnl that mimics mrnl but with superior speed.
• 4495: New --where1 option with default value --where1='$dep==$depmin' allows you to use --where clause without having to remember to filter on recursive depth.
• 4494: Corrected an error in which --name=x doesn’t match --where='$dep==$depmin and $name eq "x"'
• 4491: Renamed $uaf variable to $uafwc (unaccounted-for within calls) to match new variable called $uafbc (unaccounted-for between calls).
• 4426: New --head and --foot options replace old --heading and --totals.
• 4421: New --separator option allows you to specify what string to use in separating output columns.
• 4418: No longer prints zero values for DURATION, %, and CALLS when call count is 0; the resulting output is much cleaner and faster for human brains to grok.
• 4417: We now distribute rc files that perform sophisticated grouping operations with a simple --rc=filename option specification.
• 4416: New --init option allows you to specify code to run in advance of the file processing.
• 4414: All-new --sort option syntax allows for multicolumn sorts in a compact notation that allows for type semantics (numeric or string) specification and ordering (descending or ascending) for each column. Deprecated --reverse and --noreverse.
• 4412: Deprecated --ebucket option, which was merely an inflexible means of accomplishing tasks that can be accomplished with the --group option.
• 4411: Renamed --label-group to --glabel, with shorthand --gl; renamed --label-select to --slabel, with shorthand --sl.
• 4407: New --csv option.
• 4406: New --commas option uses commas in number formatting.
• 4382: Fixed a bug causing large negative --select column values to misalign.
• 4383: New variables $tim0, $tim1, $tim1prior, and $uafbc allow for inspection of between-call unaccounted-for time.
• 4189: Refactored rendering code to create opportunity for new features and tools.

mrtim

• 4433: Revised upper bound for valid date ranges to 2038-01-17T00:00:00.999999Z.

Tools 2.0.6.0 (2011-08-26)

mrskew

• 4393: New --reverse option allows for sort inversion. Note that the default sort order when using --sort options that sort on column 1 now default to descending (--reverse) order.

Tools 2.0.5.0 (2011-08-24)

mrls

• 4377: Fixed alignment of FILE column heading.
• 4375: Estimate DEP value more accurately.
• 4368: Improved performance significantly for certain files. Internal testing shows >1,400x performance improvement for one very large file with no dep=0 call values in it.
• 4353: Throw a warning to STDERR when its START time is an estimate. Use --scanmax=0 to tell mrls to be more accurate, but note that this will take more time for larger files.

mrskew

• 4388: Fixed problem where non-call lines didn’t select in --where expressions properly.
• 4381: Fixed illegal division by zero at mrskew.pl line 699 when using --select='$row'.
• 4373: Properly interprets RPC lines as having $dep==0.
• 4371: Improved accuracy of profile output (default option) for large files containing no dep=0 dbcalls.

Tools 2.0.4.0 (2011-06-24)

General

• 4239: Man pages (--man option) are now aware of terminal width.

mrskew

• 4250: --sort numeric options (e.g., --sort=1n) now sort numeric and non-numeric data without nagging about data types.
• 4245: Interpret DOS-format \r\n-terminated $text values correctly.
• 4244: Clarified documentation of --name command line argument.
• 3999: New $sql expression variable allows grouping and filtering upon SQL text.

Tools 2.0.3.0 [beta-3] (2011-05-13)

General

• 4197: RPC EXEC calls now influence calculation of $depmin.
• 3704: Copy and paste of examples from online documentation now works without drama.

mrls

• 4202: Emit a warning to STDERR and the value * when it tries to render a date that’s beyond what the Perl time & date libraries can handle.
• 4200: Recognize Oracle8 “2001.06.06.17.02.10.000” timestamp format.

mrskew

• 4236: --sort option now takes a column number.
• 4235: Documentation corrected in descriptions of --label-group and --label-select.
• 4234: First column heading now defaults to CALL-NAME if --group='$name'; otherwise, column heading is simply ‘expr’ from --group='expr'.
• 4233: New --select option allows you to report on different expressions than just DURATION. Simplified definition of $c, $e, and $ela expression variables, and added new expression variables $af, $uaf, and $dur.
• 4231: Use hv=$hv as $sqlid value if $hv is available and thereâX !-!cs no $sqlid value (as in pre-11gR1 trace data).

mrtim

• 4204: Print * on STDOUT whenever the input tim value is out of range.

Tools 2.0.2.0 [beta-2] (2011-04-21)

General

• 4198: Fixed documentation to reflect that Oracle no longer uses 1,024-ns microseconds on some ports after version 11.2.0.1.
• 4190: Tools now run on MSWin32 operating systems.
• 4188: Tools now cascade through .product.rc files in the user’s home directory and the user’s current working directory unless disabled with --norc. Specifying --rc=filename on the command line no longer prevents the processing of options in those .product.rc files.
• 4187: The .rc file parser now recognizes [optional] end-of-line \ as a line continuation character.
• 4142: Version number set to 2.0.2.0.

mrskew

• 4199: Fixed bug causing --group='$ad' to emit Use of uninitialized value errors.
• 4196: Set the value of $dep for WAIT lines to $depmin instead of 0.

Tools 2.0.1.0 [beta-1] (2011-04-12)

General

• 3631: New more granular --verbose=n option.
• 3623: Updated EULA.
• 3597: Fixed bug in which tools wouldn’t search deeply enough into a trace file to find the earliest dbcall in the file for files such as those generated by ILO.

mrcallrm

• 3362: New tool removes dbcalls or syscalls from specified lines, adjusting tim and timestamp values appropriately.

mrls

• 4181: New --dep option.
• 4180: Report on timezones.
• 4172: New --tz option allows user to specify a time zone to use for printing time stamps.
• 4131: Default is now --noreverse. Secondary sort order is filename ascending.
• 4129: New --dep option shows a file’s top-level recursive depth.
• 4103: New SEC/TIM, EPOCH, and M columns reveal details of tim-to-time conversion for each file.
• 4048: If a trace file has no preamble, mrls will equate the first tim to the file’s mtime instead of ctime.
• 3978: New default --noall avoids hidden directories (directories whose names begin with ‘.’); you can override with --all (or -a).
• 3666: Fixed ungraceful fail on mrls f.zip.

mrskew

• 4179: No longer allow input in any form other than plain text files; this allows the code to calculate trace file metadata accurately for all allowable inputs.
• 4130: New $depmin expression variable, and new --where default value is $dep==$depmin.
• 4098: New --vwidth option that allows you to limit the width of the VALUE column, which can make it easier to paste mrskew output into documents and slides.
• 4095: Fixed --trcunit option, which previously did nothing.
• 4094: New --precision option.
• 4086: Use minimal necessary widths for numerical columns.
• 4079: Fixed bug in which VALUE column width calculation considered rows elided by --top.
• 4056: New option to sort by VALUE column numerically (e.g., when sorting --group='$line') in addition to pre-existing alphabetical sort.
• 4055: Recognize RPC EXEC calls.
• 4045: Fixed bug causing --usage option to malfunction.
• 4042: New expression variables: $service, $serv, $module, $mod, $action, $act, $session_id, $sid, $serial, $version, $v, $os, $sqlid, $ad, $call, $t.
• 4041: Fixed bug in which --where expressions containing and or or evaluated incorrectly.
• 4039: Match XCTEND dbcalls and provides new expression variables $rlbk and $rd_only.
• 4037: Match LOBREAD, LOBARRTMPFRE, etc. dbcalls.
• 4031: New --[no]histogram option that controls whether DURATION, CALLS, MEAN, MIN, MAX columns are rendered into the output.
• 4000: Fixed bug in which --name option values did not match case insensitively.
• 3968: New --ebucket option that produces a histogram grouped on a logarithmic scale by $ela value. Specifying --group='' is no longer allowed.
• 3965: New --sort option that allows you to sort on any output column you want.
• 3964: New --name=all option enables matching for all trace file lines (not just lines with dbcalls or syscalls on them).
• 3961: $call is a new alias for $name, $nam.
• 3960: Recognize $ad field in PARSING IN CURSOR lines.
• 3953: Fixed bug in which $text value wasn’t available within --group expressions.
• 3952: New default option values are --name='.+' --group='$name' --where='$dep==$depmin', which produces a standard accounted-for response time profile by subroutine call.
• 3951: Match CLOSE calls.
• 3946: Match the new 11g sqlid field.
• 3702: Removed line number from aggregation key when grouping with '$hv' or '$sqlid' for cursors that don’t have a PARSING IN CURSOR section to define a real hv or sqlid value.
• 3683: Improved performance of non-trivial --where and --group clause processing by about 30%.

mrtim

• 4067: New tool converts tim values to timestamps and vice versa.

mrtimfix

• 3917: New tool repairs Oracle trace files afflicted by an Oracle kernel bug that uses 1000-ns tim values for syscalls and 1024-ns tim values for dbcalls.

Tools 1.0.0 (2009-10-01)

mrls

• New tool creates Unix ls-style summarizations of Oracle trace files.

mrnl

• New tool tracks time line-by-line within an Oracle trace file.

mrskew

• New tool creates flexible, variable-dimension profiles.