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Instruments is a performance-analysis and testing tool for iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS, and macOS apps.

Instruments Documentation

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Profiling UITest case always terminates in the middle of testing, which never occurs during normal testing?
In my iOS project, there is an infrequent crash related to virtual memory problem. Therefore, I plan to use UITest in combination with Product/Perform Action/Profile "TestCaseName" to conduct Game Performance-type testing. This allows the automatic testing to continuously operate until the profile stops recording upon a crash. This enables me to observe the various states of the program at the time of the crash. However, I have found that the UITest using Profile is highly unstable. The UITestCase often terminates unexpectedly during execution, leading to failed tests (Instruments is still working). Sometimes, the app is terminated immediately after startup. It seems that the use of sleep() in the code can easily cause interruption issues, which do not occur during normal UI testing. I am wondering if anyone has experience using Profile for UITest and whether they have encountered the issues I described." Working Environment: XCode14.3.1, iPhone Device iOS17.2
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605
Jan ’24
OSSignposts not working after upgrade to Sonoma (14.2.1)
The Points of Interest Instrument is not recording any data when profiling my application on Sonoma. The same code is producing signposts when profiling on a computer running Sonoma. Here's what how the instruments screen looks: Note that there are no Points of Interest being recorded. I created a new project for this test and added code to emit signposts whenever the application becomes active or goes into the background. This is the code I'm using for the test (copied from forum post from a year ago). import os.signpost @main class AppDelegate: NSObject, NSApplicationDelegate { var window: NSWindow? var blackWindow: NSWindow? var alertWindow: NSWindow? static var originalAppDelegate: AppDelegate! var signposter: OSSignposter var signpostInterval: OSSignpostIntervalState? func applicationSupportsSecureRestorableState(_ app: NSApplication) -> Bool { return true } override init() { signposter = OSSignposter(subsystem: Bundle.main.bundleIdentifier ?? "unknown", category: .pointsOfInterest) super.init() assert(signposter.isEnabled) signposter.emitEvent(#function) } required init?(coder: NSCoder) { fatalError("init(coder:) has not been implemented") } func applicationWillResignActive(_ notifiction: Notification) { guard let interval = signpostInterval else { assertionFailure("no interval") return } print("backgrounding, ending active state") signposter.endInterval("active", interval) } func applicationDidBecomeActive(_ notification: Notification) { print("begin active state") signpostInterval = signposter.beginInterval("active") } } Is anyone else having this problem? I tested this on my development machine (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2019) running Sonoma 14.2.1. The problem occurs even with a clean install of Sonoma onto an external boot disk. The same code produces this screenshot when running in Ventura 13.6.1.
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1.2k
Jan ’24
XPC, memory allocation, and much confusion
I asked a similar question last year, and got no responses. I've written a much simpler (no network extension!) case that seems to demonstrate what I'm confused about. Simple app with an XPC service. I have an ObjectiveC class TestObject which has an NSString* and an NSData* (which I never actually use). I have a protocol defined in Swift: @objc protocol XPCTestServiceProtocol { func logData(entry: TestObject) -> Void func logData(entry: TestObject, completion: ((String) -> Void)) } In the Switt XPC service, the code is: class XPCTestService: NSObject, XPCTestServiceProtocol { var totalBytes = 0 var lastName = "" @objc func logData(entry: TestObject) { totalBytes += (entry.data?.count ?? 0) } @objc func logData(entry: TestObject, completion: ((String) -> Void)) { totalBytes += (entry.data?.count ?? 0) completion("Finished") } I've got this code in the ObjC app: id<XPCTestServiceProtocol> proxy = [self.connection remoteObjectProxyWithErrorHandler:^(NSError* error) { self.stopRun = YES; NSLog(@"Proxy got error %@", error); }]; while (self.stopRun == NO) { @synchronized (self) { NSNumber *objNum = [NSNumber numberWithUnsignedLongLong:self.count++]; NSString *objName = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"Object %@", objNum]; TestObject __weak *toWeak = to; #if USE_COMPLETION [proxy logDataWithEntry:to completion:^(NSString *str) { to = nil; }]; #else [proxy logDataWithEntry:to]; #endif } } attached to a start button (and self.stopRun is set by a stop button, this is all super simple). So I run that, start the test, and things start going (122k calls/second it says). According to Activity Monitor, my app is using about 1gbyte after 20 seconds or so. However, if I run it under Instruments' Leaks template... Activity Monitor says it's used only about 60mbytes. (And at the end of the run, Instruments says it's used about 30mbytes.) Now... if I use the completion and a synchronous proxy, then even without Instruments, Activity Monitor says it's 60mbytes or so. Is the memory reported by Activity Monitor real? Or not real?
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976
Jan ’24
M1 macOS | Memory leaks while using APPLE shipped libcurl/8.1.2 (SecureTransport)
Hi, Machine: M1 sonoma 14.1.1 At my test I am using macOS shipped lib of curl, and its default LibreSSL, that is: curl 8.1.2 (x86_64-apple-darwin23.0) libcurl/8.1.2 (SecureTransport) LibreSSL/3.3.6 zlib/1.2.12 nghttp2/1.55.1 I am getting memory leaks while running the following test: void CallCurl() { CURL *hnd; hnd = curl_easy_init(); curl_easy_setopt(hnd, CURLOPT_URL, "https://www.google.com"); curl_easy_perform(hnd); curl_easy_cleanup(hnd); } I track the leaks with macOS instruments, and I see that all leaks are from libcrypto. The leaks are measured after curl_easy_cleanup. Examples for the leaks stack frames: serialize_ECPublicKey ECDSA_do_verify_new ossl_ecdsa_verify EVP_DigestVerifyFinal tls13_server_certificate_verify_recv tls13_handshake_perform tls13_legacy_connect ossl_connect_common ssl_cf_connect cf_setup_connect cf_hc_connect Curl_conn_connect multi_runsingle curl_multi_perform curl_easy_perform CallCurl() main start ccMallocECCryptor CCECCryptorImportKey ECDSA_do_verify_new ossl_ecdsa_verify EVP_DigestVerifyFinal tls13_server_certificate_verify_recv tls13_handshake_perform tls13_legacy_connect ossl_connect_common ssl_cf_connect cf_setup_connect cf_hc_connect Curl_conn_connect multi_runsingle curl_multi_perform curl_easy_perform CallCurl() main start ccMallocECCryptor CCECCryptorImportKey ECDSA_do_verify_new ossl_ecdsa_verify EVP_DigestVerifyFinal tls13_server_certificate_verify_recv tls13_handshake_perform tls13_legacy_connect ossl_connect_common ssl_cf_connect cf_setup_connect cf_hc_connect Curl_conn_connect multi_runsingle curl_multi_perform curl_easy_perform CallCurl() main start Any you familiar with memory leaks issues at curl that is shipped with macOS? Is there a workaround? Thx, Moshe.
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1.4k
Jan ’24
How can you run Instruments/Logger with a TestFlight app?
If I try to run Instrument's logger for an app downloaded from TestFlight it says "Permission to debug app name was denied". "Recover Suggestion: The app must be debuggable and signed with 'get-task-allow'. How do you make the app debuggable? (I tried creating an archive with the scheme set to Debug, but after uploading that to TestFlight, it doesn't appear. So presumably its not possible to upload an app built with debug scheme builds to TF?). Therefore how can I make a TF build debuggable?, and how to sign it with get-task-allow? Does it have to be a developer distribution .ipa rather than a TestFlight build to enable Instruments/Logger to run it?
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965
Feb ’24
Xcode 15: Not able to attach system extension process to Instruments tool
Xcode Version 15.2 (15C500b) After upgrading Xcode from 14 to 15.2 I am not able to attach system extension (packettunnel) process to Instruments tools for memory debugging. Same is working fine with Xcode 14. Error displayed: "Process No Longer Exists". But the service is running and is listed in process list. % ps -ax | grep -i pkttunnel | grep -v grep 61910 ?? 0:01.04 /Library/SystemExtensions/5F4AF6EF-****-****-****-F11****9CE78/com.******.client.*****-Client.***ui.***pkttunnel.systemextension/Contents/MacOS/com.******.client.*****-Client.***ui.***pkttunnel.systemextension Note: I am able to attach a normal program to Instruments tool for memory debugging, I have noticed this issue with system extension processes only.
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865
Feb ’24
Instruments — How to measure large memory copies
What's the best way in Instruments, to measure the amount of time spent on large memory copies? For a very simple example, when directly calling memcpy? Memory copying does not show up in the time profiler, it's not a VM cache miss or zeroing event, etc so it doesn't show there, it doesn't (as far as I can tell) show up in the system trace, and there aren't any other choices.
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752
Feb ’24
os_signpost not working on macOS device, works on iOS device
I have an iOS app that uses os_signpost API for instrumentation. When I profile it from Xcode on real iOS device, it works as expected. When I profile its macCatalyst variant (using the identical code) on the same Mac where Xcode is running, the os_signpost Instrument does not show anything, not even the Apple provided signposts that are otherwise visible on the iOS. How do I make it work?
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1.2k
Mar ’24
An address of the top frame's IP is always off by 1 in *-profile tables
Hi! Is there a reason why trace's *-profile tables (time-profile, cpu-profile, counters-profile) always use an instruction pointer value that is 1 byte larger than what should be a true instruction pointer value? Odd valued IPs on Apple M2 are definitely incorrect as instructions have to be word-aligned. It's also worth mentioning that addresses in "source" tables ("time-sample" for "time-profile", "kdebug-counters-with-pmi-sample" for "cpu-profile" and "counters-profile") are correct (or, at least, are correctly aligned aligned). Here's an example: % xctrace version xctrace version 15.2 (15C500b) # run recording % xctrace record --template "Time Profile" --output TP.trace --launch /bin/dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/null bs=1024 count=1048576 # extract "source" table % xctrace export --input TP.trace --xpath='/trace-toc/run[1]/data/table[@schema="time-sample"]' > tp.time-sample.xml # extract "derived" table % xctrace export --input TP.trace --xpath='/trace-toc/run[1]/data/table[@schema="time-profile"]' > tp.time-profile.xml % xmllint --xpath '//row[1]' tp.time-sample.xml <row><sample-time id="1" fmt="00:00.040.502">40502000</sample-time><thread id="2" fmt="Main Thread 0x37c2d0a (dd, pid: 32471)"><tid id="3" fmt="0x37c2d0a">58469642</tid><process id="4" fmt="dd (32471)"><pid id="5" fmt="32471">32471</pid><device-session id="6" fmt="TODO">TODO</device-session></process></thread><core id="7" fmt="CPU 4 (P Core)">4</core><thread-state id="8" fmt="Running">Running</thread-state><sentinel/><kperf-bt id="9" fmt="PC:0x1863149fc, 3 frames, 1 regs, pid: 32471"><text-addresses id="10" fmt="frag 1717">6546645708 6546360308 0</text-addresses><text-address id="11" fmt="0x1863149fc">6546344444</text-address><process ref="4"/><register-content id="12" fmt="0x2e4c00018635e2cc">3336041430521340620</register-content></kperf-bt><time-sample-kind id="13" fmt="Timer Fired">0</time-sample-kind></row> % xmllint --xpath '//row[1]' tp.time-profile.xml <row><sample-time id="1" fmt="00:00.040.502">40502000</sample-time><thread id="2" fmt="Main Thread 0x37c2d0a (dd, pid: 32471)"><tid id="3" fmt="0x37c2d0a">58469642</tid><process id="4" fmt="dd (32471)"><pid id="5" fmt="32471">32471</pid><device-session id="6" fmt="TODO">TODO</device-session></process></thread><process ref="4"/><core id="7" fmt="CPU 4 (P Core)">4</core><thread-state id="8" fmt="Running">Running</thread-state><weight id="9" fmt="1.00 ms">1000000</weight><backtrace id="10"><frame id="11" name="0x1863149fd" addr="0x1863149fd"><binary id="12" name="dyld" UUID="324E4AD9-E01F-3183-B09F-3E20B326643A" arch="arm64e" load-addr="0x186313000" path="/usr/lib/dyld"/></frame><frame id="13" name="0x18635e2cc" addr="0x18635e2cc"><binary ref="12"/></frame><frame id="14" name="start" addr="0x1863187f4"><binary ref="12"/></frame></backtrace></row> As you can see, <kperf-bt id="9" fmt="PC:0x1863149fc, 3 frames, 1 regs, pid: 32471"> refers to a properly aligned address, but the address from <backtrace id="10"><frame id="11" name="0x1863149fd" addr="0x1863149fd">... is off by one. It seems like only an address from the top frame is incorrect, as others are aligned properly. The same issue exists for "CPU Profile" and "CPU Counters" instruments and could be reproduced on macOs running on both x86-64 and Apple-Silicon CPUs.
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593
Mar ’24
Tracking domains - Network Instrument Points of Interest
Hello, This relates to NSTrackingDomains for Privacy Manifest. Following doc here https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/detecting-when-your-app-contacts-domains-that-may-be-profiling-users. (Also, I'm quite new to using the Network Instrument). I'm not seeing any "Points of Interest" but I know my app has domains that should be shown as "Faults". Do I need to os_log to my Objective-C codebase. I don't have access to the code of various 3rd party SDKs. The doc mentioned above made it sound like these domains should automagically appear. Thanks!
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Mar ’24
How do I see the actual leaked bytes Instruments has identified for me?
I am using the Leaks instrument, and it has identified a bunch of 32 and 48 byte "Malloc" leaks. I would like to see a hex dump of some (or all) of those areas. I think if I can see what is in them I can get a better idea about what is triggering the leak. I'm pretty sure it is a real leak. What is the easy way to do this? Can it be done inside instruments, or do I need to run my app under instruments and also attach via lldb and hexdump from lldb? (can I attach lldb and instruments at the same time?) If it matters I'm debugging an iPadOS app, and it is written in Swift plus ObjC, plus ObjC++, oh, and some straight C++.
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708
Mar ’24
Apply Fixups taking too long during iOS app launch
Hello everyone, Our iOS app is taking too long to launch. On checking the launch profile, we are seeing that most of the launch time is being spent in applying fixups which is taking more than a second and at times even more to complete. Our deployment target is iOS 15+. We have checked using dyld_info that our binary uses chained fixups. Since chained fixups are enabled, page-in linking should also be enabled for our app as per this WWDC session. Can someone please help us understand why the fixups application is taking this long and how can we improve it? Thanks.
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718
Apr ’24
Unknown network connection Xcode instruments
Users have reported unusually high data usage with my app. So to investigate I have profiled in instruments. My app as expected in using minimal data. However in instruments I see an "Unknown" process. Which sends around 1mb of data every 2 seconds. Can anyone explain what unknown process is? Sorry my question is vague but I'm at the beginning of understanding the instruments outputs so your help is so very much appreciated.
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548
May ’24
Is it possible to run instruments an App without being connected to Xcode?
I'm currently supporting an app where one of the dependencies we use had an update. The app is an iPad only app that is meant to be run as a kiosk (guided access, single app mode). After the dependency update for the casing of the tablet / kiosk, we noticed an uptick in errors that may or may not have been associated with the recent 3rd party software update. I wanted to verify if the update had an impact on our production kiosks. To get a good idea of whether or not the update for casework's library had a negative impact, though, I would need to run instruments on a tablet while it's in the case. There's only one power cable to the iPad and the cable that would be used to connect directly to a Mac / Xcode is the same cable that connects to the casework. Is it possible to run instruments, and then retrieve data, from an app that's not directly connected to Xcode? Or is it possible for Xcode to somehow connect via a running instance of an app remotely?
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751
May ’24