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Author Archives: brucedawson
The Easy Ones – Three Bugs Hiding in the Open
I write a lot about investigations into tricky bugs – CPU defects, kernel bugs, transient 4-GB memory allocations – but most bugs are not that esoteric. Sometimes tracking down a bug is as simple as paying attention to server dashboards, … Continue reading
Posted in Bugs, Code analysis, Code Reliability, Debugging, Floating Point, Linux, Performance
Tagged coding values
20 Comments
GDI leaks and the importance of luck
In May 2019 I was asked to look at a potentially serious Chrome bug. I initially misdiagnosed it as unimportant, thus wasting two valuable weeks, and when I rejoined the investigation it was the number one browser-process crash in Chrome’s … Continue reading
What Outranks Thread Priority?
This investigation started, as so many of mine do, with me minding my own business, not looking for trouble. In this case all I was doing was opening my laptop lid and trying to log on. The first few times … Continue reading
Posted in Investigative Reporting, Performance, uiforetw, xperf
Tagged laptops, standby, Windows
8 Comments
Big Project Build Times–Chromium
A twitter discussion on build times and source-file sizes got me interested in doing some analysis of Chromium build times. I had some ideas about what I would find (lots of small source files causing much of the build time) … Continue reading
Creating a Public Symbol Server, Easily
I’ve been a big fan of symbol servers for years. They are a part of the Microsoft/Windows ecosystem that is far better than anything I have seen for other operating systems. With Microsoft’s and Chrome’s symbol servers configured I can … Continue reading
Bulk ETW Trace Analysis in C#
ETW traces record a wealth of information about how a Windows system is behaving. When analyzing a new and unknown problem there is no replacement for loading the trace into WPA and following the clues to a solution. The thrill … Continue reading
O(n^2), again, now in WMI
I recently hit some multi-minute delays on my workstation. After investigating I found that the problem was due to a lock being held for five minutes, and during that time the lock-holder was mostly just spinning in a nine-instruction loop. … Continue reading
Posted in Investigative Reporting, Programming, Rants, uiforetw, xperf
Tagged complexity, ETW, O(n^2), performance, WMI
45 Comments
Heap Snapshots–Tracing All Heap Allocations
I’ve recently started using heap snapshots on Windows to track heap allocations. I was able to use heap snapshots to record call stacks for all outstanding allocations in Chrome’s browser process over a full two weeks, letting me account for … Continue reading
Posted in Documentation, Performance, Programming, uiforetw, xperf
Tagged heap snapshots, memory
16 Comments
63 Cores Blocked by Seven Instructions
I seem to have a habit of writing about super powerful machines whose many cores are laid low by misuse of locks. So. Yeah. It’s that again. But this one seems particularly impressive. I mean, how often do you have … Continue reading
Posted in Investigative Reporting, Performance, Programming, uiforetw, xperf
Tagged ETW, ntfs, wpa
37 Comments
We Need a Carbon Tax, Now, That Goes Up Over Time
If we tax fossil fuels – making them more expensive – then the awesome power and creativity of the free market will create diverse alternatives and efficiencies with minimal additional government intervention. We will ultimately save money, be healthier, and … Continue reading
