Callstack Filters

Callstack filters are filters operating over allocation properties that are sequences of strings (potentially with some other data). Currently, this means allocation callstacks, where the strings are file names with line/column information.

String Filters

A string filter can have three shapes: an actual string value, a regex, or a match anything / wildcard filter represented by the string "...". This wildcard filter is discussed in its own section below.

A string value is simply given as a value. To match precisely the string "file_name", one only needs to write file_name. So, a filter that matches precisely the list of strings [ "file_name_1", "file_name_2" ] will be written

A regex on the other hand has to be written between #" and "#. If we want the same filter as above, but want to relax the first string description to be file_name_<i> where <i> is a single digit, we write the filter as

The Wildcard Filter

The wildcard filter, written ..., lazily (in general, see below) matches a repetition of any string-like element of the list. To break this definition down, let us separate two cases: the first one is when ... is not followed by another string-like filter, and second one is when it is followed by another filter.

In the first case, ... simply matches everything. Consider for instance the filter

This filter matches any list of strings that starts with a string accepted by the first regex filter. The following lists of strings are all accepted by the filter above.

• [ file_name_0 ]
• [ file_name_7 anything at all ]
• [ file_name_3 file_name_7 ]

Now, there is one case when ... is not actually lazy: when the n string-filters after it are not .... In this case, all elements of the list but the n last ones will be skipped, leaving them for the n last string filters.

For this reason

does work as expected. For example, on the string list

[ "some_file_name" "file_name_7" "another_file_name" "file_name_0" ]

a lazy behavior would not match. First, ... would match anything up to and excluding a string recognized by #"file_name_[0-9]"#. So ... would match some_file_name, but that's it since file_name_7 is a match for #"file_name_[0-9]"#. Hence the filter would reject this list of strings, because there should be nothing left after the match for #"file_name_[0-9]"#. But there are still another_file_name and file_name_0 left.

Instead, the filter works as expected. ... discards all elements but the last one file_name_0, which is accepted by #"file_name_[0-9]"#.

Callstack (Location) Filters

Allocation callstack information is a list of tuples containing:

• the name of the file,
• the line in the file,
• a column range.

Currently, the range information is ignored. The line in the file is not, and one can specify a line constraint while writing a callstack filter. The normal syntax is

<string-filter>:<line-filter>

Now, a line filter has two basic shapes

• _: anything,
• <number>: an actual value.

It can also be a range:

• [<basic-line-filter>, <basic-line-filter>]: a potentially open range.

Line Filter Examples

Callstack Filter Examples

Whitespaces are inserted for readability but are not needed: