The Performance Validator API
There are some features of Performance Validator that are useful to call directly from your program, including tracking of memory in custom heap managers.
Performance Validator has an API that makes this possible; just include svlPVAPI.c and svlPVAPI.h to your codebase. There is no library to link to, dlls to copy.
Source files
The source files can be found in the API directory in the Performance Validator install directory.
svlPVAPI.h
svlPVAPI.c
Just add these files to your project and build.
If you are using precompiled headers you will need to disable them for svlPVAPI.c.
Working with services?
If you are working with services you to attach Performance Validator to a service and to start Performance Validator, you should use the NT Service API, not the functions in this API.
All the other functions in this API can be used with applications and with services.
Unicode or ANSI?
All the API functions are provided in Unicode and ANSI variants where strings are used. We've also provided a character width neutral #define in the same fashion that the Windows.h header files do.
For example the function for naming a heap is provided as pvSetHeapNameA(), pvSetHeapNameW() with the character width neutral pvSetHeapName() mapping to pvSetHeapNameW() for unicode and pvSetHeapNameA() for ANSI.
In this document we're going to use TCHAR like the Window.h header files do.
Loading the Profiler
For most use cases won't need to load the profiler, as the profiler will have been loaded when your launched your program from Performance Validator, or when you injected into your program using Inject or Wait For Application.
However if you're running your program from outside of Performance Validator and want to load the profiler from inside your program you can use pvLoadProfiler() to do that. You'll then need to call pvStartProfiler() to start it.
Function Definition:
extern "C"
void pvLoadProfiler();
If you are using services, you should use the NT Service API to attach Performance Validator to your service, not the functions in this API.
Starting the Profiler
To start the profiler from your API code you need to call the function "startProfiler" from your code before you call any API functions. Ideally you should call this function as early in your program as possible.
Function Definition:
extern "C"
void pvStartProfiler();
If you prefer to start the profiler from the user interface or command line you can omit the startProfiler() call. You can leave it present if you wish to start Performance Validator from your program.
All the API functions are declared as extern "C", so C as well as C++ users can use them.
If you are using services, you should use the NT Service API to start Performance Validator, not the functions in this API.
pvSetThreadNameA()
Sets the name of a thread.
extern "C"
void pvSetThreadNameA(DWORD threadID
const char *name);
pvSetThreadNameW()
Sets the name of a thread.
extern "C"
void pvSetThreadNameW(DWORD threadID
const wchar_t *name);
pvSetCollect()
Enables or disables data collection - i.e. whether data is sent to Performance Validator from your target application.
extern "C"
void pvSetCollect(int enable); // TRUE to enable, FALSE to disable
Returns whether data collection is on.
extern "C"
int pvGetCollect(); // Returns TRUE or FALSE
Calling API functions using GetProcAddress
If you don't want to use the svlPVAPI.c/h files you can use GetProcAddress to find the interface functions in the Performance Validator DLL.
The interface functions have different names and do not use C++ name mangling, but have identical parameters to the API functions.
To determine the function name take any native API name, replace the leading pv with api. For example pvSetThreadNameW() becomes apiSetThreadNameW();
Example usage
HMODULE getValidatorModule()
{
HMODULE hModule;
hModule = GetModuleHandle("svlPerformanceThreadValidatorStub6432.dll"); // 32 bit DLL with 64 bit Performance Validator GUI
if (hModule == NULL)
hModule = GetModuleHandle("svlPerformanceValidatorStub_x64.dll"); // 64 bit DLL with 64 bit Performance Validator GUI
if (hModule == NULL)
hModule = GetModuleHandle("svlPerformanceValidatorStub.dll"); // 32 bit DLL with 32 bit Performance Validator GUI
return hModule;
}
HMODULE hMod;
// get module, will only succeed if Performance Validator launched this app or is injected into this app
hMod = getValidatorModule();
if (hMod != NULL)
{
// MV is present, lookup the function and call it to set a watermark for this location in the code
pvSetNameW_FUNC pFunc;
// "apiSetThreadNameW" is equivalent to linking against "pvSetThreadNameW"
pFunc = (pvSetNameW_FUNC)GetProcAddress(hMod, "apiSetThreadNameW");
if (pFunc != NULL)
{
(*pFunc)(threadName);
}
}
API functions and their GetProcAddress names
For any API functions not listed, try looking up the name in svlMemoryValidatorStub.dll using depends.exe
Other exported functions
You may see some other functions exported from svlThreadValidatorStub.dll(_x64).dll.
These other functions are for Thread Validator's use. Using them may damage memory locations and/or crash your code. Best not to use them!
