[/
 / Copyright (c) 2003-2012 Christopher M. Kohlhoff (chris at kohlhoff dot com)
 /
 / Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying
 / file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt)
 /]

[section:handler_tracking Handler Tracking]

To aid in debugging asynchronous programs, Boost.Asio provides support for handler
tracking. When enabled by defining `BOOST_ASIO_ENABLE_HANDLER_TRACKING`, Boost.Asio
writes debugging output to the standard error stream. The output records
asynchronous operations and the relationships between their handlers.

[teletype]
This feature is useful when debugging and you need to know how your
asynchronous operations are chained together, or what the pending asynchronous
operations are. As an illustration, here is the output when you run the HTTP
Server example, handle a single request, then shut down via Ctrl+C:

  @asio|1298160085.070638|0*1|signal_set@0x7fff50528f40.async_wait
  @asio|1298160085.070888|0*2|socket@0x7fff50528f60.async_accept
  @asio|1298160085.070913|0|resolver@0x7fff50528e28.cancel
  @asio|1298160118.075438|>2|ec=asio.system:0
  @asio|1298160118.075472|2*3|socket@0xb39048.async_receive
  @asio|1298160118.075507|2*4|socket@0x7fff50528f60.async_accept
  @asio|1298160118.075527|<2|
  @asio|1298160118.075540|>3|ec=asio.system:0,bytes_transferred=122
  @asio|1298160118.075731|3*5|socket@0xb39048.async_send
  @asio|1298160118.075778|<3|
  @asio|1298160118.075793|>5|ec=asio.system:0,bytes_transferred=156
  @asio|1298160118.075831|5|socket@0xb39048.close
  @asio|1298160118.075855|<5|
  @asio|1298160122.827317|>1|ec=asio.system:0,signal_number=2
  @asio|1298160122.827333|1|socket@0x7fff50528f60.close
  @asio|1298160122.827359|<1|
  @asio|1298160122.827370|>4|ec=asio.system:125
  @asio|1298160122.827378|<4|
  @asio|1298160122.827394|0|signal_set@0x7fff50528f40.cancel

Each line is of the form:

  <tag>|<timestamp>|<action>|<description>

The `<tag>` is always `@asio`, and is used to identify and extract the handler
tracking messages from the program output.

The `<timestamp>` is seconds and microseconds from 1 Jan 1970 UTC.

The `<action>` takes one of the following forms:

[variablelist
  [
    [>n]
    [The program entered the handler number `n`. The `<description>` shows the
    arguments to the handler.]
  ]
  [
    [<n]
    [The program left handler number `n`.]
  ]
  [
    [!n]
    [The program left handler number n due to an exception.]
  ]
  [
    [~n]
    [The handler number `n` was destroyed without having been invoked. This is
    usually the case for any unfinished asynchronous operations when the
    `io_service` is destroyed.]
  ]
  [
    [n*m]
    [The handler number `n` created a new asynchronous operation with completion
    handler number `m`. The `<description>` shows what asynchronous operation
    was started.]
  ]
  [
    [n]
    [The handler number n performed some other operation. The `<description>`
    shows what function was called. Currently only `close()` and `cancel()`
    operations are logged, as these may affect the state of pending
    asynchronous operations.]
  ]
]

Where the `<description>` shows a synchronous or asynchronous operation, the
format is `<object-type>@<pointer>.<operation>`. For handler entry, it shows a
comma-separated list of arguments and their values.

As shown above, Each handler is assigned a numeric identifier. Where the
handler tracking output shows a handler number of 0, it means that the action
was performed outside of any handler.

[heading Visual Representations]

The handler tracking output may be post-processed using the included
[^handlerviz.pl] tool to create a visual representation of the handlers
(requires the GraphViz tool [^dot]).
[c++]

[endsect]
