# Amida Users Guide - Recording an execution trace

## Table of Contents

- Installation
- How to use Amida
  - Record an execution trace of a Java program
  - Apply phase detection to a trace
  - Visualize a phase or a trace as sequence diagrams
  - Configuration
- Current Status of Amida
- Contact Information

## Record an execution trace of a Java program

The first thing to do is to compile a Java program to be analyzed. If you would like to only visualize an example data in a distribution archive, please skip this section.

The current version includes `amida-agent.jar`, that is an implementation of byte code transformation, to record an execution trace of a Java program. Amida has a configuration dialog to execute a Java program with the amida-agent.

You can execute Amida as follows.

    (Windows) java -classpath swt.jar;trove-2.0.3.jar;amida.jar amida.Amida
    (Other)   java -classpath swt.jar:trove-2.0.3.jar:amida.jar amida.Amida

Select `[Profile a Java program]` in its menu.

`Amida Profiler Launcher` dialog have widgets to specify a Java program information.

This is an example to execute a scheduler program.

`[Profiler]` tab includes options for a profiler. You must specify `[Log Output Directory]`.

Then, you have to click on `Save` button in order to save the configuration to a `.ini` file. This is because `amida-agent.jar` needs the configuration file for its execution.

After saving a configuration, `[Execution]` tab shows a command line to execute a Java program with a profiler.

Clicking on `[Profile the Java Program]` button launches the Java program. `[Execute the command as a batch file for Windows]` button saves the command line as a batch file and executes it.

After an execution, log files are stored to a new directory, whose name is the same as timestamp, created in `Log Output Directory`. You may apply phase detection, or simply visualize a log file.