MPC: adding additional DEFINES

Written by marcelpetrick on May 25, 2018

Some weeks ago I noticed how the qDebug()-output could be enriched, so that in bigger solutions with a lot of different “unknown” components a reported error could be immediately pinned. And you save writing always __FILE__ and __LINE__. Referres to this post.
But the problem was that with the mpc-buildsystem it was unknown to me how to force it to put this DEFINE into the vcxproj-files.

It can be done via the “macros”-statement!

So I worked on my Python-skills and wrote a short script which iterates the given path recursively and fixes all mpc-files by checking for the position of the line with the last closingbrace “}” and then it adds before that position the line. Of course, the experts know several thousand ways to improve that script – but I am currently happy with it. It works, it is debug-able (.sh, I look at you!) and I will use the skeleton also for some other tasks.
It can be found (like most Python-snippets) at: https://github.com/marcelpetrick/pythonCollection

import fileinput
import sys
import os

#------------------------------------------
def addMacroToFile(filename, newStatement):
    #print("called addMacroToFile:", filename, determinePositionOfLastBrace(filename))

    returnValue = "fail"
    posLastBrace = determinePositionOfLastBrace(filename)
    posCurrentLine = 1
    for line in fileinput.input(filename, inplace=True):
        # add additional line in case of matching last brace
        if posCurrentLine == posLastBrace:
            sys.stdout.write(newStatement)
            sys.stdout.write("\n") # newline, else it would be put just before the brace
            returnValue = "success"

        sys.stdout.write(line) # prints without additional newline (on windows)
        posCurrentLine += 1

    return returnValue

#------------------------------------------
# return the position of the last brace.
# possible improvement: in case of some malformed mpc: skip ..
def determinePositionOfLastBrace(filename):
    lastPos = -1
    position = 1
    with open(filename, "r") as file: #has implicit close - which is nice
        for line in file:
            if line.__contains__("}"):
                lastPos = position
            position += 1

    return lastPos

# ------------------------------------------
# find all mpb/mpc files
def fixAllFilesRecursively(path, suffix, newStatement):
    for dirname, dirnames, filenames in os.walk(path):
        for filename in filenames:
            full_path = os.path.join(dirname, filename)
            if full_path.endswith(suffix):
                print(full_path)
                wasSuccessful = addMacroToFile(full_path, newStatement)
                if wasSuccessful == "success":
                    print("  modified :)")

        # prevent recursion into those subdirs with meta-data
        if '.svn' in dirnames:
            dirnames.remove('.svn')
        if '.git' in dirnames:
            dirnames.remove('.git')

#------------------------------------------
#------------------------------------------

path = "D:\Repo_INS_RADARNX"
suffix = "mpc"
newStatement = "	macros += QT_MESSAGELOGCONTEXT"
# TODO possible improvement: prevent double application of the added macro ..
fixAllFilesRecursively(path, suffix, newStatement)

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import fileinput

import sys

import os

#------------------------------------------

def addMacroToFile(filename, newStatement):

#print("called addMacroToFile:", filename, determinePositionOfLastBrace(filename))

returnValue = "fail"

posLastBrace = determinePositionOfLastBrace(filename)

posCurrentLine = 1

for line in fileinput.input(filename, inplace=True):

# add additional line in case of matching last brace

if posCurrentLine == posLastBrace:

sys.stdout.write(newStatement)

sys.stdout.write("\n") # newline, else it would be put just before the brace

returnValue = "success"

sys.stdout.write(line) # prints without additional newline (on windows)

posCurrentLine += 1

return returnValue

#------------------------------------------

# return the position of the last brace.

# possible improvement: in case of some malformed mpc: skip ..

def determinePositionOfLastBrace(filename):

lastPos = -1

position = 1

with open(filename, "r") as file: #has implicit close - which is nice

for line in file:

if line.__contains__("}"):

lastPos = position

position += 1

return lastPos

# ------------------------------------------

# find all mpb/mpc files

def fixAllFilesRecursively(path, suffix, newStatement):

for dirname, dirnames, filenames in os.walk(path):

for filename in filenames:

full_path = os.path.join(dirname, filename)

if full_path.endswith(suffix):

print(full_path)

wasSuccessful = addMacroToFile(full_path, newStatement)

if wasSuccessful == "success":

print(" modified :)")

# prevent recursion into those subdirs with meta-data

if '.svn' in dirnames:

dirnames.remove('.svn')

if '.git' in dirnames:

dirnames.remove('.git')

#------------------------------------------

path = "D:\Repo_INS_RADARNX"

suffix = "mpc"

newStatement = " macros += QT_MESSAGELOGCONTEXT"

# TODO possible improvement: prevent double application of the added macro ..

fixAllFilesRecursively(path, suffix, newStatement)

Preventing the crash of the performance-profiler from Visual Studio (2013-2017) due to Meltdown-/Spectre-patches

Written by marcelpetrick on May 24, 2018

I needed some analytical help from Visual Studio (due to the fact that MTuner and AQTimer could not work properly with our suite). So, I build my solution, fire up the “Performance Profiling” in VS2015 and *zump* computer reboots.
Discussions and investigations led to the thesis that some Windows-patches are the culprit, because they prevent that previously used hooks are usable.
So, setting those two lines in an admin-enabled cmd.exe (plus reboot) lead to alleviation:

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management" /v FeatureSettingsOverride /t REG_DWORD /d 3 /f
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management" /v FeatureSettingsOverrideMask /t REG_DWORD /d 3 /f

1 2	reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management" /v FeatureSettingsOverride /t REG_DWORD /d 3 /f reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management" /v FeatureSettingsOverrideMask /t REG_DWORD /d 3 /f

static code analysis: PVS Studio

Written by marcelpetrick on May 4, 2018

I am using a new static code analysis-tool for some weeks now and it turns out quite handy: PVS Studio.
It integrates quite well into Visual Studio and you can run the analysis of projects or the whole solution. Doing this can take a while, because all includes are analyzed as well – which is nice. For a single developer a trial-license is for evaluation enough – if you can refrain from the really nice “jump to the culprit”-functionality.
It looks like it detects more errors than cppcheck (another tool which I use now for years on several platforms) and without doubt: none of the reported lines were false positives!

Of course, there is always the discussion with colleagues if those tools help. But I will repeat it again: why not buy & apply them and get a lot of troubleshooting for zero investment of creativity and time!
The screenshot hints out (for instance) that some breaks are missing in the switch-case – and yes, the resulting symptoms were already reported as bug in JIRA.

backup often, backup early: Duplicati

Written by marcelpetrick on May 1, 2018

I wanted an open source-solution which allows to backup locally and remote certain directories (or whole PC). I found some month ago duplicati and used it for good at work, where it currently backups the content of the whole SSD-partitions to some interal hard disk (not the most secure backup, I know. But given to the constraints still better than no backup at all.)
At home the content of the two home-directories (Linux) is transferred to a shared folder on the Synology-NAS.
duplicati on wikipedia // code under GNU LGPL

I can just repeat: working without a backup is the best path to failure.
In my history as “computer technician” I have ruined several drives and especially when you just want to do a default, simple operation (*cough* move a partion on a hard drive *cough*), everything fails and there is no way to revert back to the original state. Never again 🙂

QT_MESSAGELOGCONTEXT: more detailed qDebug()

Written by marcelpetrick on April 19, 2018

Add to your environment:

QT_MESSAGE_PATTERN="(%{file} : %{line}) :: %{message}"

1	QT_MESSAGE_PATTERN="(%{file} : %{line}) :: %{message}"

Windows: set either via “set” or via RapidEnvironmentEditor.
In case of a no-debug-build, add QT_MESSAGELOGCONTEXT to DEFINES in the pro-file.

(Open question: if there are just mpc/vcxproj-files, then how to trigger?)

robocopy: transfer huge repositories between PCs

Written by marcelpetrick on April 16, 2018

Average rates of 24% on 1 GBit-connected PCs with SSD were achieved! 🙂

############################

my favorite parameters:
/NP – no status
/ETA
/E – with subdirs
/MIR – mirros (like /E with /PURGE)
/MT – multithreading
/XD – exclude the subversion-metadata

resulting command

robocopy source target /NP /MIR /MT:8 /XD .svn

1	robocopy source target /NP /MIR /MT:8 /XD .svn

note: multithreading with 32 threads was slower than with just 8: 10 min vs. 7 min for 18 GiByte files of varying size

photo-backup:

robocopy C:\Users\MarcelP\Desktop\digikamResults\20201028_mixedLastYears\2019 Z:\2019 /MIR /MT:8 /E /PURGE

1	robocopy C:\Users\MarcelP\Desktop\digikamResults\20201028_mixedLastYears\2019 Z:\2019 /MIR /MT:8 /E /PURGE

Convert .pro to .vcxproj (qmake to Visual Studio-project)

Written by marcelpetrick on April 5, 2018

0. Change this particualar line inside the *.pro:

# app is working for build and processing with qtcreator, vcapp is for visual studio
#TEMPLATE = app
TEMPLATE = vcapp

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# app is working for build and processing with qtcreator, vcapp is for visual studio

#TEMPLATE = app

TEMPLATE = vcapp

1. run qmake against that pro-file
2. load the vcxproj with Visual Studio

edit: or do it with the original pro-file just like the wiki.qt.io suggests:

qmake -tp vc test.pro

1	qmake -tp vc test.pro

Cullendula

Written by marcelpetrick on April 3, 2018

Small program to pick out the best shots of the vast amount of taken pictures per session (excursion). The name itself is a wordplay of the plant Calendula and the activity “to cull” (slang for sorting the photos).

url for the repository: https://github.com/marcelpetrick/Cullendula/
development time for fully usable version 0.1: one day
used technologies: C++ and Qt – my favorite ones <3

VS2015: after start the solution-explorer just shows error-messages ..

Written by marcelpetrick on March 29, 2018

Error message:
Exception details:
System.ComponentModel.Composition.ImportCardinalityMismatchException: No exports were found that match the constraint:
ContractName

Delete that folder:
%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\12.0\ComponentModelCache

Found via SO..

VisualStudio-Addin for Qt

Written by marcelpetrick on March 22, 2018

The source for the current downloads: https://download.qt.io/official_releases/vsaddin/ (for MSVC 2013, 2015 and 2017), because I had to (again) search for the installation-files.