Running the tool from the command line

If you installed IBM® Monitoring and Diagnostic Tools - Garbage Collection and Memory Visualizer (GCMV) in Eclipse, you can run it from a command window instead of starting it from the Eclipse GUI. Both options produce an HTML report, but when you use the command line you have less flexibility and control over how you view the data.

Use the following command to run GCMV from a command-line prompt:

eclipse_installation_directory/eclipse -nosplash -application com.ibm.java.diagnostics.visualizer.headless.application gcmv_arguments

Where gcmv_arguments is a list of command-line arguments, described in the following text.

Several files are produced by the command. Open the index.html file to view the parsed log data.

Command-line arguments

-f file[other files]: Specify the file or files to process. You can supply a list of files, separated by the default separator character for your operating system.
-d directory: Specify a directory; the command processes all the files in that directory.
-o name: Specify a folder for the output. If the folder does not exist the command creates it. If you do not specify a folder, output files are saved in the folder where you run the command.
-p preferences file: Specify exported preferences to re-import. Create the preferences file by running GCMV within the hosting product, then exporting a template. The template stores the GCMV configuration, including display units, the data to be displayed, and settings that are specified in the Preferences menu item (this item might be under the Window or File menu, depending on your hosting product). Use this option to control your view of the data.
-display widthxheight: Set the display dimensions for generated images
-generateTableData: Saves the parsed data to a file in .csv format. Specifying this option for large log files can increase heap consumption and processing time.

The following command analyzes the gc.log file and writes a report to the reportOut folder:

eclipse -nosplash -application com.ibm.java.diagnostics.visualizer.headless.application -o reportOut -f gc.log