OS/2 Shareware BBS: 8 Other/08-Other.zip/pmqsiz.zip/PMQSIZ.DOC

Text File | 1995-04-25 | 11KB | 245 lines

---- The PM Queue Size Patch -----

SUMMARY:

 These patches may provide tremendous stability in OS/2 systems
 that suffer from desktop hangs, no-input in shells, invalid switching
 between the desktop and Window/DOS applications, and other
 ailments.  These patches are not meant to be a complete OS/2 fix,
 but may be lots of help.


-------------------------

THEORY:

 Every PM thread that sends PM messages or receives posted
 messages must have a queue to hold those messages until they are
 processed. Messages are very frequently put into those messages queues
 to be processed as the thread is able.  If more messages are put into
 the queue than the queue can hold, then it is reasonable to expect
 problems in the system, ranging from trivial glitches to system
 hangs.  The default size for these queues in OS/2 is only 10 messages.
 This seems very small considering the number of message-generating
 activities going on in a busy OS/2 system.

 Many OS/2 users experience problems in running OS/2 that I speculate
 are caused, or at least exacerbated, by this too-small queue.


-------------------------

HOW THIS PATCH WORKS:

 To test if this is really a serious problem, I have developed the
 tools you are receiving now to attempt to force queue sizes to
 be larger than the OS/2 default.  These patches work by overriding
 the size that applications specify for their queues,
 instead using a specified number that I recommend should be
 much bigger than 10.

 These tools do not alter every system queue, and they are limited
 in which queues can be changed and how big they can become.  Even
 with these limitations, if these patches result in a decrease in
 the number of desktop problems occuring in an OS/2 system, then
 I think we can assuredly recommend to IBM that they revisit
 this 10-queue problem and provide for us a *real* fix.  For me, with
 my limited tools and absolutely no access to the OS/2 source code,
 these patches were difficult to create.  To IBM engineers with the
 source code and great knowledge of OS/2, implementing this fix would
 be absolutely trivial.  Lets hope for an official solution soon.


-------------------------

THESE FILES:

 The files included here are:
   PMQSIZ.DOC - this file
   PMQSIZE.EXE - Warp patch for 32-bit PM-queue creation calls
   PMWPTCH.CMD - 2.11 patch for 32-bit PM-queue creation calls
   DMPQUEUE.CMD - Tool to view the code begin patched
   WINQLIST.CMD - Tool to show processes and queueu sizes

 The *.CMD files here require use of my CEnvi for OS/2 scripting
 language, which you can find as shareware as CENVI2.ZIP on
 CompuServe in OS2USER library 4, on internet at ftp.std.com in the
 /vendors/CEnvi-Cmm/share directory, or on many bulletin boards.
 These files have been tested with version 1.009 and 1.010 of
 CEnvi for OS/2, but I've no reason to believe they wouldn't
 work with earlier versions.  CENVI2.ZIP is shareware, and so
 you can use it under the shareware principles for up to 30
 days without paying, which will certainly be long enough to
 use it to apply these patches.  PMQSIZE.EXE is a compiled program
 and doesn't use CEnvi because if you use this patch then you
 must use it every day, and I thought it would be a dirty marketing
 gimmick to force you to purchase CEnvi just to fix this one
 problem.  (I'd certainly like everyone to try CEnvi, of
 course, since this is my bread and butter, how I pay the bills,
 feed the kids, etc... <g>)


-------------------------

APPLYING THE PATCH:

APPLYING THE PATCH FOR WARP: The Warp queue patch is PMQSIZE.EXE.
 Running PMQSIZE without any arguments will give a short USAGE
 description.  PMQSIZE alters the image in memory of the 32-bit
 WinCreateMsgQueue() call. It must be applied after PMSHELL has
 started, but as soon after as possible.  Assuming that you've
 installed PMQSIZE.EXE in the directory C:\PMQTOOL, and that you
 boot from drive C, I recommend that you put a line like this as
 the first line in C:\STARTUP.CMD:
    C:\PMQTOOL\PMQSIZE.EXE C:\OS2\DLL\PMWIN.DLL 223
 If you don't already have a file C:\STARTUP.CMD then create it
 with any text editor and make this file:
    C:\PMQTOOL\PMQSIZE.EXE C:\OS2\DLL\PMWIN.DLL 223
    EXIT

 An option to installing in STARTUP.CMD, is to add a line as
 THE LAST LINE IN CONFIG.SYS as follows:
    RUN=C:\PMQTOOL\PMQSIZE.EXE C:\OS2\DLL\PMWIN.DLL 222
 I haven't determined that this CONFIG.SYS method will work on
 all systems, but it does work on mine and many others.  If
 you want to be sure you can use both the CONFIG.SYS method and
 then STARTUP.CMD method--it won't hurt to do both.

 You can later use WINQLIST to determine if this patch "took hold".
 If you want to test PMQSIZE before putting it into STARTUP.CMD
 then just run from a command line, then start E.EXE and run
 WINQLIST.CMD too see if E.EXE has the queue size you specified
 with PMQSIZE.EXE, if so then add to first line of STARTUP.CMD
 and reboot.  The maximum size PMQSIZE.EXE accepts is 255.
 Note: PMQSIZE.EXE should be executed from STARTUP.CMD, not from
 the STARTUP folder of WPS.  If you don't already have a STARTUP.CMD
 file on your boot drive then create it with any text editor and
 add the call to PMQSIZE.EXE as the first line.

 The PMQSIZE.EXE patch for Warp can be used dynamically at any time
 to change the size of queues being created.  If you're about to
 start a program that wants smaller queues, then you may want to
 run PMQSIZE with a smaller queue size before starting that program,
 then run again after starting the program with the old larger size.
 If the queue size specified is 0, then the code reverts to the
 original Warp default queue method, if the size is between 1 and
 127 (inclusive) then PMQSIZE will use one method for queue sizes,
 and between 128 and 255 (inclusive) PMQSIZE will use another
 method.  It hasn't been shown yet whether either method
 presents a problem where the other may not.

APPLYING THE PATCH FOR 2.11 (and possibly 2.1x).  The 2.11 patch
 is PMWPTCH.CMD.  Running PMWPTCH.CMD without any arguments gives
 a short usage description.  This patch alters the binary file
 PMWIN.DLL to change the 32-bit WinCreateMsgQueue() call.  Because
 it alters PMWIN.DLL it will not work while OS/2 and PMSHELL are
 running, because then PMWIN.DLL is being used, and so you must
 apply this patch to a PMWIN.DLL that is not being used.  To do so
 you should first make a backup copy of your PMWIN.DLL
 file and save it somewhere safe.  I REPEAT, MAKE A BACKUP COPY OF
 PMWIN.DLL and put that copy in a safe place.  Then copy PMWIN.DLL
 to a temporary location, for example:
   COPY C:\OS2\DLL\PMWIN.DLL A:\
 then apply this patch to the copy.  For example:
   PMWPTCH C:\PMWIN.DLL 222
 Now boot OS/2 from a floppy (use installation floppies if you
 haven't created boot floppies), and copy the patched file back
 to the original location. Example:
   COPY C:\PMWIN.DLL C:\OS2\DLL
 When you reboot, you can later use WINQLIST to determine if this
 patch "took hold".  The maximum size PMWPTCH.CMD accepts is 255.


DMPQUEUE.CMD - This will display the binary code around the running
 WinCreateMsgQueue() call.  If you're a geeky programmer like myself
 then you can decode these binaries to see what code the patch
 replaces.  If these patches don't work on your system then we may
 be able to figure something out together by looking at the output
 of DMPQUEUE.CMD.

WINQLIST.CMD - This will display the PM windows on your system and
 information about the queues they use.  You can use this before running
 the patch to learn about what programs use how many windows and
 what queue sizes.  After applying the patch then this program will
 let you know if the patch worked.  For example, if you specify the
 size of 111 in PMQSIZE.EXE or PMWPTCH.CMD, then run WINQLIST and all
 of the queues that are affected by the patch will have a size
 of 111.  If no queues have this size then the patch didn't work.
 Other queue sizes than 111 indicate either a call to the 16-bit
 version of WinCreateMsgQueue(), which these tools don't attempt to
 patch, or a queue created by some lower-level method.


-------------------------

REMOVING THE PATCH:

 To remove the 2.11 version of this patch (PMWPtch.cmd),
 reboot from floppy and replace the patched version of PMWIN.DLL with the
 original you saved before applying the patch.  To undo the Warp
 version of this patch (PMQSIZE.EXE) just remove or comment-out the
 call to PMQSIZE.EXE in STARTUP.CMD and CONFIG.SYS and reboot.


-------------------------

THANKS:

 Thanks to all the testers who tried this patch, reported their
 problems and successes, helped with the tedious process of
 remote-debugging, and suffered through a few non-bootable versions
 (you know who you are).  Thanks to Watcom for making a compiler IDE
 that is so very likely to hang WPS on large projects unless this
 patch is applied.  Thanks to Creative Systems Programming Corporation
 for making, in the form of Golden CommPass, a system-hanging program
 that was so darn good that I felt compelled to figure out why it hung
 instead of just dumping the program (as I would have done with any other
 program that causes so many hangs).  And thanks, finally, to IBM for
 supplying this challenging puzzle hidden within a great operating
 system.


-------------------------

DISCLAIMERS:

 I am not affiliated with IBM.  This patch was not created by IBM, and
 is not supported by IBM.  With this patch you are altering the
 operating system.  IBM will not take problem reports from users with
 this patch installed on their system.

 I've done my best to keep these patches safe; all versions of the patch
 attempt to determine that the patched area is valid by comparing memory
 against expected values, and will not patch if it looks wrong.  If these
 patches cause any damage then don't blame me.  I accept no responsibility
 for badness; I'm only trying to help.  Note that because this patch sets
 the queue size to a fixed value, it may actually be reducing the queue
 size for applications that are requesting a size larger than that fixed
 value.  Also, in a few circumstances a trap has been reported after
 applying the 2.11 version of this patch, but these reports have not been
 reproducible.  The CEnvi UNHANG utility does not cooperate well with
 this patch, and so you should stop using UNHANG while you're using
 this patch (hopefully, this patch makes UNHANG unnecessary anyway).

 If you find that these patches don't work, or cause errors then please
 let me know.  If you do experience errors then remove the patch following
 the "REMOVING THE PATCH" instructions above.  If your version of OS/2 is
 not supported by these patches then let me know and with your help I can
 try to add a new version.

 You may freely distribute these files as long as you keep all the files
 listed together in the same package, and make no alterations without
 first getting my approval.

 Good Luck.


-------------------------

 Brent "Hung no more" Noorda
 Nombas, Inc., President
 [phone]
 [e-mail]
 CIS: 72212,1622