Padb

Overview

Padb stands for Parallel Application Debugger. It is a Job Inspection Tool for examining and debugging parallel programs. It, primarily, simplifies the process of gathering stack traces on compute clusters, however, it also supports a wide range of other functions. It supports a number of parallel environments and it works out-of-the-box on the majority of clusters. It is an open source, non-interactive, command line, script-able tool intended for use by programmers and system administrators alike.

More information: http://padb.pittman.org.uk/

Usage

You can check the versions installed in Gadi with a module query:

$ module avail padb

We normally recommend using the latest version available and always recommend to specify the version number with the module command:

$ module load padb/3.2

For more details on using modules see our modules help guide at https://opus.nci.org.au/display/Help/Environment+Modules.

Common Usage

Show current active jobs under PBS:

$ padb --show-jobs

Target a specific jobID, and reports is process state:

$ padb <jobID> --proc-summary

Target a specific jobID, and report its MPI message queue, stack traceback, etc.

$ padb --full-report=<jobID>

Stack Trace

Target a specific jobID, and report its stack trace for a given MPI process (rank):

$ padb <jobID> --stack-trace --tree --rank <MPI rank ID>

Target a specific jobID, and report its stack trace including information about parameters and local variables for a given MPI process (rank):

$ padb <jobID> --stack-trace --tree --rank <MPI rank ID> -O stack-shows-locals=1 -O stack-shows-params=1

MPI Message Queue

Target a specific jobID, and reports its MPI message queues:

$ padb <jobID> --mpi-queue

Process Progress Watch

Target a specific jobID, and report its MPI process progress over a period of time:

$ padb <jobID> --mpi-watch --watch -O watch-clears-screen=no

For more detailed usage please refer to Padb's "Mode of operation" web page http://padb.pittman.org.uk/modes.html or Padb's help information:

# Load module, always specify version number.
$ module load padb/3.2

$ padb --help