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Supported Java VMs

The Profiler currently can profile applications running on the following JVMs:

  • A customized JFluid VM, based on the standard JDK 1.4.2 VM. This customized JVM is available as a separate NBM download at http://profiler.netbeans.org/download.html
  • A standard JDK 6 (also known as Mustang) Early Access VM starting from build 26, that can be downloaded from Mustang EA Web site.
  • A standard JDK 5.0_04 VM or newer. JDK 5.0.04 can be downloaded at http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/download.jsp.
    Note that JDK 5.0_04 is scheduled for release in summer 2005. Currently the functionality relevant for the Profiler is the same in JDK 6 and JDK 5.0_04, thus we further refer to them collectively as "JDK 5/6".

You can change the JVM that the Profiler uses when it launches an application for profiling, by choosing Profile > Global Settings, and selecting the Java Platform from the combo box. You can also specify Profiler to use the JVM specified in the application. To add or remove a JVM to the list in the combo box, click Manage Platforms to open the Java Platform Manager.

To use the bundled customized JVM, simply leave the field blank. When you attach the Profiler to the running or starting JVM, this setting is ignored, as the target JVM version is detected automatically.

Further details are given below.

The Special Customized JFluid Java VM

If your application requires JDK 1.4.2 to run, you have to use our special modified Javatm VM derived from HotSpottm VM 1.4.2_04 to profile it. This modified JVM is available as a separate .nbm module file. When you install the module, the JVM is placed into the userdir/modules/profiler-ea-vm directory. Here userdir is the user directory of the NetBeans IDE that runs the profiler - you can find that location in the Help -> About dialog. Normally it looks like (replace "johnsmith" with your login name in all examples below) /home/johnsmith/.netbeans/4.0 (on UNIX®) or c:\Documents and Settings\JonhSmith\.netbeans\4.0 (on Windows). If you need to start the application that you want to profile separately, i.e. not launch it from NetBeans, you can directly call the Java launcher located in the jre/bin subdir of the above directory.

How to configure the IDE if you run it on JDK 5.0:

JDK 1.4.2_04 VM cannot run classes compiled with the Java source code compiler from JDK 5/6. In these JDK versions, certain incompatible changes to the class file format have been made, resulting in the fact that older JVMs, not just JFluid JVM, cannot run .class files generated with JDK 5.0. If the Profiler discovers that the main class of the profiled application has an incompatible version number, it informs you about that and stops.

To be able to profile in the IDE that runs on JDK 5.0:

  1. Install JDK 1.4.x SDK on your machine
  2. Add it as a new Java platform in the IDE via Tools -> Java Platform Manager from the main menu
  3. Open Project Properties (choose Properties from the Project's contextual menu in the Projects window) and select this platform as the Java Platform for this project

Standard JDK 5/6 Java VMs

To profile applications on a JDK 5/6 VM supported by the Profiler, choose Profile > Global Settings from the main menu and choose the Java platform from the combo box.

Note that, unlike the customized JFluid VM, the standard JDK 5/6 VMs currently don't support attaching the tool to the running JVM. Attaching to the JVM on startup, also known as Direct attachment, is still available. Please see the Attaching the Profiler to the Local or Remote JVM section for details.