Configuring TotalView to Launch the Visualizer

TotalView can automatically launch the Visualizer when it is named in a Variable window, or the Action Point > Properties or the Tools > Evaluate dialog boxes. After TotalView launches the Visualizer, it sends data to the Visualizer's so you can visualize datasets as your program creates them.

If you disable visualization, TotalView silently ignores all attempts to use the Visualizer. This is useful when you want to execute some code containing evaluation points that do visualization and do not want to individually disable all these points.

To change the Visualizer launch options interactively, select File > Preferences, then select the Launch Strings Tab.

File > Preferences Launch Strings Page

You can now:

• If you use a customized command to start a visualizer, enter its startup command in the Command edit box. Entering information in this field is discussed a little later in this section.
   
• Change the auto launch option. If you want to disable visualization, clear the Enable Visualizer Launch check box.
   
• Change the maximum permissible rank. Edit the value in the Maximum array rank edit field to save the data exported from the debugger or display it in a different visualizer. You can enter a number from 1 to 16.

  Setting the maximum permissible rank to either 1 or 2 (the default is 2) ensures that the TotalView Visualizer can use your data--the Visualizer displays only two dimensions of data. This limit does not apply to data saved in files or to visualizers that can display more than two dimensions of data.

• Clicking on the Defaults button sets options to their defaults. This reverts options to their defaults even if you have used X resources to change them.
   

If you disable visualization while the Visualizer is running, TotalView closes its connection to the Visualizer. If you reenable visualization, TotalView launches a new Visualizer process the next time you visualize something.

You can change the shell command that TotalView uses to launch the visualizer by editing the Visualizer launch command. (You would use this if you are running a different visualizer.) Or, you can save this information for viewing at another time. For example, you can save visualization information by entering the following command:

    cat > your_file

Later, you can visualize this information by using either of the following commands:

visualize -persist < your_file 
visualize -file your_file

You can preset the visualizer launch options by setting X resources. For details, see X Resources.