Under UNIX, a running OpenEdge process (_progress, _proapsv or _mprosrv) can be sent a signal so that it will generate a C stack trace and then resume execution.
This is particularly useful under runaway process conditions in order to find exactly in which functions the process is spinning by sending several signals in succession. Information can also be used to understand what a "hanging" process is actually waiting for. Example: a message from the network or a user-interface interaction.
Any signal that is sent to a specific process can only be carried out by the root user or a user that belongs to the same UNIX Group as the user under which the process is running if the suid bit is appropriately set on the executable.
Ensure that the Operating System is configured to generate system dumps.
- ulimit -a can be used to identify if core size has been set.
- ulimit -c can be used to set the core file size to unlimited or some value like 524288.
SIGUSR1 is a special signal that causes the process to dump a procore and protrace.pid file, but does not have the process exit.
This is a OpenEdge feature. Non-OpenEdge executables will react differently, if at all, to signal SIGUSR1.
The following syntax as root where
ulimit -c is not disabled and there are
no suid or hardlimits preventing core file generation, will produce a file named "protrace.<PID>" in the directory where the process was started from, containing a readable stack trace:
$ kill -SIGUSR1 <PID>
Before sending the signal:
- Ensure the PID exists with ps -ef | grep <pid> for example.
- Do not pass 1 as the PID, -1 is the “init”process.
- Make sure the PID has no children – this is often overlooked.
- SIGUSR1 is not trapped in the shell executing the cmd. If trap is set at the shell level the OpenEdge process will never receive the signal. The UNIX trap command first needs to be removed from scripts used to invoke _progres or any other OpenEdge executables. Type "trap" at the command line to confirm if the shell has any traps set.
SIGUSR1 translates to the following signals on the following Operating Systems:
Operating Signal
System Number
--------------- ------
AIX 30(*)
HP-UX 16
HP Tru64 30
RedHat Linux 10
Solaris 16
UnixWare N/A
(*) Under AIX this feature is only available starting with OpenEdge 10.1A; in previous releases, Progress executable's are built to simply ignore SIGUSR1.
For example:
- Under RedHat Linux, issuing kill -SIGUSR1 is the same as issuing kill -10.
- Under Solaris, SIGUSR1 maps to signal 16, but the stack traces obtained by issuing kill -16 are of no use.
Since OpenEdge 10.1C further enhancements were introduced to protrace output by providing an ABL stack trace with a list of persistent procedures or classes that are in memory and their handle ID's along with the C stack trace for any ABL client process (which includes the WebSpeed and AppServer agents). This Enhancement PSC00183237/OE00147006 is available on both UNIX and WINDOWS platforms. It is advisable to upgrade to OpenEdge 11.6.4, 11.7.0 or later when using this feature on Linux. For further details refer to Articles:
