Intel® Advisor User Guide

ID 766448
Date 10/31/2024
Public
Document Table of Contents

Memory Watch

Occurs when a task accesses a memory location marked by an ANNOTATE_OBSERVE_USES annotation. In this case, this problem provides informational feedback only and no action is required. This is useful for finding uses of specified memory locations while a task is executing.

One of the following has occurred:

Problem type: Memory watch

Problem type: Memory watch

Problem type: Memory watch

ID

Code Location

Description

1

Parallel site

If present, represents the location and associated call stack of the parallel site containing the Memory Watch problem.

2

Watch start

Represents the location and its associated call stack where an ANNOTATE_OBSERVE_USES() annotation marks a memory location.

3

Read

Represents the location and associated call stack where a task read the watched memory location.

4

Write

Represents the location and associated call stack where a task wrote the watched memory location.

5

Update

Represents the location and associated call stack where a task read and wrote the watched memory location.

Example

void watch_memory()
{
   ANNOTATE_OBSERVE_USES(&watch, sizeof(watch));  // Watch start
   ANNOTATE_SITE_BEGIN(watch_site);               // Parallel site
   {
       ANNOTATE_TASK_BEGIN(watch_task1);
       {
           ANNOTATE_LOCK_ACQUIRE(&watch);
           watch++; /* watch memory */            // Read and/or Write
           ANNOTATE_LOCK_RELEASE(&watch);
       }
       ANNOTATE_TASK_END();
       ANNOTATE_TASK_BEGIN(watch_task2);
       {
           ANNOTATE_LOCK_ACQUIRE(&watch);
           watch++; /* watch memory */            // Read and/or Write
           ANNOTATE_LOCK_RELEASE(&watch);
       }
       ANNOTATE_TASK_END();
   }
   ANNOTATE_SITE_END();
   ANNOTATE_CLEAR_USES(&watch);
}

This example reports all places that use the memory location referenced by watch during the call to watch_memory().

Possible Correction Strategies

To use ANNOTATE_OBSERVE_USES to help you correct an incidental sharing problem, do the following to mark places where you may be able replace uses of a shared memory location with uses of a non-shared memory location:

  1. Add an ANNOTATE_OBSERVE_USES annotation to the task.

  2. Find all uses of the shared memory location in the dynamic extent of the task.