diff --git a/README.ReleaseNotes b/README.ReleaseNotes index 1b69dbd587..0669e8d44a 100644 --- a/README.ReleaseNotes +++ b/README.ReleaseNotes @@ -239,6 +239,38 @@ bug prevented using hpcrun to profile programs launched with shell scripts. -- fixed bug in hpcstruct in getRealPath() that caused hpcstruct to sometimes report incorrect file names. + +Known issues: + +When profiling optimized code with HPCToolkit, one may find that a program +generates a significant number of "partial unwinds" where the call stack +can't be unwound all the way up to main. This more commonly happens on +x86-64 architectures than on PowerPC and ARM. A large number partial unwinds +may make it harder to use the top-down calling context view in hpcviewer, +which works best when call stacks unwind all the way up to main. Even +with significant numbers of partial unwinds, the bottom-up caller's view +and the flat view in hpcviewer can be used effectively for analyzing +performance. Ongoing work aims to improve call stack unwinding of +optimized code by employing compiler-generated unwinding information +where available in addition to using binary analysis to discover unwinding +recipes. + +On x86-64, hpcfnbounds occasionally is too aggressive about inferring the +presence of stripped functions in optimized programs. We have noticed +this particularly for optimized Fortran. This can cause "partial unwinds", +where a call stack can't be unwound fully up to main. Improving this +analysis is the subject of ongoing work. + +When using with the LLVM OpenMP runtime's OMPT support, measurements +of programs compiled with GCC using HPCToolkit's ompt branch sometimes +reveal implementation-level stack frames that belong to the OpenMP +runtime system. This will improve with the transition of HPCToolkit +and the LLVM OpenMP runtime to the new OMPT ABI designed for OpenMP +5.0. This transition should occur over the next 6 months. In the +meantime, there is nothing wrong with the quality of the information +collected. The only problem is HPCToolkit's measurements reveal more of +an implementation-level view of OpenMP than intended. + ---------------------------------------- HPCToolkit Version 2016.12, Dec 2016 ----------------------------------------