How interesting a stack trace can be, or how geeky I am?
I was profiling FbNetExternalEngine to squeeze a bit more performance from the code and as I was going through stack traces, hot paths and allocations, I realized (again), how geeky I am. I was looking into a stack trace and found it fascinating.
Here’s an example of such stack trace.
Example!Example.Procedures.IncrementInteger(int? i) Line 9 C#
FbNetExternalEngineManaged.dll!FbNetExternalEngineManaged.Interop.ResultSet.Fetch() Line 28 C#
FbNetExternalEnginePlugin.DLL!FbNetExternalEnginePlugin::ResultSet::fetch(Firebird::ThrowStatusWrapper* status) Line 24 C++
FbNetExternalEnginePlugin.DLL!Firebird::IExternalResultSetBaseImpl<FbNetExternalEnginePlugin::ResultSet,Firebird::ThrowStatusWrapper,Firebird::IDisposableImpl<FbNetExternalEnginePlugin::ResultSet,Firebird::ThrowStatusWrapper,Firebird::Inherit<Firebird::IVersionedImpl<FbNetExternalEnginePlugin::ResultSet,Firebird::ThrowStatusWrapper,Firebird::Inherit<Firebird::IExternalResultSet> > > > >::cloopfetchDispatcher(Firebird::IExternalResultSet* self, Firebird::IStatus* status) Line 11666 C++
[Native to Managed Transition]
engine12.dll!00007ff956b88972() Unknown
engine12.dll!00007ff956b8fa42() Unknown
engine12.dll!00007ff956b61ea6() Unknown
engine12.dll!00007ff956b62182() Unknown
engine12.dll!00007ff956b62383() Unknown
engine12.dll!00007ff956b62bd5() Unknown
engine12.dll!00007ff956af451b() Unknown
engine12.dll!00007ff956af4aaf() Unknown
engine12.dll!00007ff956b61ea6() Unknown
engine12.dll!00007ff956b62182() Unknown
engine12.dll!00007ff956b62383() Unknown
engine12.dll!00007ff956b627e2() Unknown
engine12.dll!00007ff956bb0f92() Unknown
engine12.dll!00007ff956a4f7af() Unknown
engine12.dll!00007ff956a435b2() Unknown
engine12.dll!00007ff956bd311a() Unknown
engine12.dll!00007ff956bd3e26() Unknown
fbclient.dll!00007ff96274c462() Unknown
fbclient.dll!00007ff9627383ba() Unknown
fbclient.dll!00007ff96274971f() Unknown
[Managed to Native Transition]
FB_1224668872.dll!<Unknown function> Unknown
FirebirdSql.Data.FirebirdClient.dll!FirebirdSql.Data.Client.Native.FesStatement.Execute() Line 328 C#
FirebirdSql.Data.FirebirdClient.dll!FirebirdSql.Data.FirebirdClient.FbCommand.ExecuteCommand(System.Data.CommandBehavior behavior, bool returnsSet) Line 1202 C#
FirebirdSql.Data.FirebirdClient.dll!FirebirdSql.Data.FirebirdClient.FbCommand.ExecuteCommand(System.Data.CommandBehavior behavior) Line 1164 C#
FirebirdSql.Data.FirebirdClient.dll!FirebirdSql.Data.FirebirdClient.FbCommand.ExecuteNonQuery() Line 467 C#
Tests.exe!Tests.Integration.ProcedureTests.ExecutableProcedureTest(string procedure, object[] inputs, object[] outputs) Line 140 C#
[Native to Managed Transition]
[Managed to Native Transition]
nunit.framework.dll!NUnit.Framework.Internal.Reflect.InvokeMethod(System.Reflection.MethodInfo method, object fixture, object[] args) Unknown
nunit.framework.dll!NUnit.Framework.Internal.MethodWrapper.Invoke(object fixture, object[] args) Unknown
nunit.framework.dll!NUnit.Framework.Internal.Commands.TestMethodCommand.RunNonAsyncTestMethod(NUnit.Framework.Internal.TestExecutionContext context) Unknown
nunit.framework.dll!NUnit.Framework.Internal.Commands.TestMethodCommand.RunTestMethod(NUnit.Framework.Internal.TestExecutionContext context) Unknown
nunit.framework.dll!NUnit.Framework.Internal.Commands.TestMethodCommand.Execute(NUnit.Framework.Internal.TestExecutionContext context) Unknown
nunit.framework.dll!NUnit.Framework.Internal.Commands.TestActionCommand.Execute(NUnit.Framework.Internal.TestExecutionContext context) Unknown
nunit.framework.dll!NUnit.Framework.Internal.Commands.SetUpTearDownCommand.Execute(NUnit.Framework.Internal.TestExecutionContext context) Unknown
nunit.framework.dll!NUnit.Framework.Internal.Execution.SimpleWorkItem.PerformWork() Unknown
nunit.framework.dll!NUnit.Framework.Internal.Execution.WorkItem.RunTest() Unknown
nunit.framework.dll!NUnit.Framework.Internal.Execution.WorkItem.Execute() Unknown
nunit.framework.dll!NUnit.Framework.Internal.Execution.ParallelWorkItemDispatcher.Execute(NUnit.Framework.Internal.Execution.WorkItem work) Unknown
nunit.framework.dll!NUnit.Framework.Internal.Execution.ParallelWorkItemDispatcher.Dispatch(NUnit.Framework.Internal.Execution.WorkItem work) Unknown
nunit.framework.dll!NUnit.Framework.Internal.Execution.CompositeWorkItem.RunChildren() Unknown
nunit.framework.dll!NUnit.Framework.Internal.Execution.CompositeWorkItem.PerformWork() Unknown
nunit.framework.dll!NUnit.Framework.Internal.Execution.WorkItem.RunTest() Unknown
nunit.framework.dll!NUnit.Framework.Internal.Execution.WorkItem.Execute() Unknown
nunit.framework.dll!NUnit.Framework.Internal.Execution.ParallelWorkItemDispatcher.Execute(NUnit.Framework.Internal.Execution.WorkItem work) Unknown
nunit.framework.dll!NUnit.Framework.Internal.Execution.ParallelWorkItemDispatcher.Dispatch(NUnit.Framework.Internal.Execution.WorkItem work) Unknown
nunit.framework.dll!NUnit.Framework.Internal.Execution.CompositeWorkItem.RunChildren() Unknown
nunit.framework.dll!NUnit.Framework.Internal.Execution.CompositeWorkItem.PerformWork() Unknown
nunit.framework.dll!NUnit.Framework.Internal.Execution.WorkItem.RunTest() Unknown
nunit.framework.dll!NUnit.Framework.Internal.Execution.WorkItem.Execute() Unknown
nunit.framework.dll!NUnit.Framework.Internal.Execution.TestWorker.TestWorkerThreadProc() Unknown
mscorlib.dll!System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(System.Threading.ExecutionContext executionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback callback, object state, bool preserveSyncCtx) Unknown
mscorlib.dll!System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(System.Threading.ExecutionContext executionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback callback, object state, bool preserveSyncCtx) Unknown
mscorlib.dll!System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(System.Threading.ExecutionContext executionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback callback, object state) Unknown
mscorlib.dll!System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart() Unknown
[Native to Managed Transition]
kernel32.dll!00007ff9aaa52774() Unknown
ntdll.dll!00007ff9ab6a0d51() Unknown
It is a console application using NUnit Lite to execute tests. It uses Firebird Embedded where FbNetExternalEngine plugin is loaded and executing custom stored procedure written in C#.
Looking deeper under the covers is where I started smiling inside (and maybe even outside). So there’s a managed console application with NUnit (I’m ignoring the loading of .NET/CLR). That’s in turn running code that uses FirebirdClient and loads Firebird Embedded. It’s done by generating dynamic assembly in memory where all the DllImport attributes are. Once the code jumps out of this code, it goes into native code in fbembed.dll/fbclient.dll. That in turn goes into engine12.dll (in case of Firebird 3), which, as you can guess, is the main Firebird engine. Engine loads my plugin library (FbNetExternalEnginePlugin.dll), which is still native code (partially, it’s C++/CLI). My plugin then goes to managed code via FbNextExternalEngineManaged.dll. Yep, it’s back in managed code. Finally, the actual procedure implementation is in Example.dll (managed) where the stack trace originates. Or in short: NUnit (managed) → FirebirdClient (managed) → generated assembly (managed) → Firebird Embedded (native) → fbclient.dll (native) → engine12.dll (native) → FbNetExternalEnginePlugin.dll (native) → FbNetExternalEngineManaged.dll (managed) → Example.dll (managed).
Fascinating (the code, not my geekiness), isn’t it? All these imaginary cogwheels eventually turning and doing something.
