Method And System For Self-Optimizing Path-Based Object Allocation Tracking

A computer-implemented method for monitoring memory allocation during execution of an application in a distributed computing environment, comprising:

• identifying a first set of execution paths in an application using a control flow graph, where each node in the control flow graph belongs to only one identified execution path and the application resides on a computing device;
• for each identified execution path in the first set of execution paths, instrumenting a given execution path with an allocation counter, where the allocation counter in the given execution path increments in response to execution of the given execution path and the allocation counter reports a count value of the allocation counter;
• collecting count values from the allocation counters instrumented in the first set of execution paths;
• identifying a second set of execution paths in the application using the count values collected from the allocation counters instrumented in the first set of execution paths, where the second set of execution paths includes one or more execution paths that differ from the execution paths in the first set of execution paths;
• for each identified execution path in the second set of execution paths, determining a location for an allocation counter in an identified execution path, where the location for the allocation counter in the identified execution path is an edge in the control flow graph along the identified execution path that is least shared amongst the identified execution paths;
• and
• for each identified execution path in the second set of execution paths, re-instrumenting the identified execution path with only one allocation counter.

A computer-implemented system for monitoring memory allocation during execution of an application in a distributed computing environment, comprising:

• an agent instrumented on a host computing device, where the application resides on the host computing device and is executed by a processor of the host computing device, where the agent includes:
• a control flow extractor configured to receive bytecode for the application and construct a control flow graph for the application from the bytecode;
• a path builder configured to identify execution paths in the application such that each node in the control flow graph belongs to only one identified execution path;
• a counter positioner configured to receive the identified execution paths from the path builder and, for each identified execution path, determines a location for an allocation counter in a given execution path;
• and
• instrumentor configured to receive the determined locations of the allocation counters and, for each identified execution path, instruments the given execution path with an allocation counter at the determined location for the given execution path, where the allocation counter increments in response to execution of the given execution path and reports a count value for the allocation counter.