NSIGHT ECLIPSE EDITION

DG-06450-001 _v7.0 | August 2014

Getting Started Guide

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1. Introduction.........................................................................................1
1.1. About Nsight Eclipse Edition............................................................................1
Chapter 2. New and Noteworthy............................................................................. 2
2.1. New in Nsight Eclipse Edition 6.5..................................................................... 2
2.2. New in Nsight Eclipse Edition 6.0..................................................................... 2
2.3. New in Nsight Eclipse Edition 5.5..................................................................... 4
Chapter 3. Using Nsight Eclipse Edition..................................................................... 6
3.1. Installing Nsight Eclipse Edition........................................................................ 6
3.1.1. Installing CUDA Toolkit............................................................................. 6
3.1.2. Mac OS X Additional Notes........................................................................ 6
3.2. Running Nsight Eclipse Edition......................................................................... 7
3.3. Creating a New Project..................................................................................7
3.4. Importing CUDA Samples................................................................................ 8
3.5. Debugging CUDA Applications...........................................................................9
3.6. Remote development of CUDA Applications........................................................ 10
3.7. Debugging Remote CUDA Applications............................................................... 13
3.8. Profiling CUDA applications............................................................................18
3.9. More Information........................................................................................ 19
Appendix A. Platform Requirements....................................................................... 20
Appendix B. Known Issues.................................................................................... 21

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 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 Nsight main window after creating a new project .............................................. 8

Figure 2 Debugging CUDA application .......................................................................10

Figure 3 Debugging remote CUDA application ............................................................. 18

Figure 4 Profiling CUDA Application ......................................................................... 19

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Chapter 1.
INTRODUCTION

This guide introduces Nsight Eclipse Edition and provides instructions necessary to start
using this tool. For a detailed description of Nsight features consult the integrated help
available from inside Nsight.

1.1. About Nsight Eclipse Edition

NVIDIA® Nsight™ Eclipse Edition is a unified CPU plus GPU integrated development
environment (IDE) for developing CUDA® applications on Linux and Mac OS X for the
x86 and ARM platforms. It is designed to help developers on all stages of the software
development process. Nsight Eclipse Edition is bundled in the NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit,
so installing the CUDA Toolkit also installs Nsight. The principal features are as follows:
‣ Source editor with extended support for CUDA C and C++ syntax
‣ Projects and files management with version control management system integration.
CVS and Git are supported out of the box with integrations for other systems
available separately as IDE plug-ins.
‣ Configurable makefile-based NVCC build integration
‣ Graphical user interface for debugging heterogeneous applications
‣ Visual profiler with source code correlation for optimizing GPU code performance
Nsight Eclipse Edition is based on the popular Eclipse Platform and supports a wide
range of the third-party extensions and plug-ins including:
‣ Version control management systems support
‣ Compiler integrations
‣ Language IDEs
‣ Application lifecycle management and collaboration solutions
For more information about Eclipse Platform, visit http://eclipse.org

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Chapter 2.
NEW AND NOTEWORTHY

2.1. New in Nsight Eclipse Edition 6.5

Stability release
Version 6.5 improves the stability of network connections to target systems and fixes
an an occasional hang that could occur after profiling CUDA applications in earlier
versions.

2.2. New in Nsight Eclipse Edition 6.0

Running Or Profiling Applications Remotely
In addition to remote debugging support introduced in Nsight Eclipse Edition 5.5,
Nsight Eclipse Edition 6.0 is also able to run and profile applications on remote
systems.
To run or profile on a remote system, select Remote C/C++ Applicaton from the drop-
down on the main toolbar.

Building Projects On A Remote System

Nsight Eclipse Edition can now perform build on a remote system. Following actions
will be performed:

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 New and Noteworthy

1. Nsight will connect to a remote system and will synchronize copies of the
project files between local and remote systems. User may be prompted to resolve
conflicts if there are any.
2. make will be executed on a remote system to build the project.
3. Build results will be copied back to the local system.

Building project remotely requires Git to be available and set up on both the local
and the remote system.

Target systems for remote build can be setup during project creation with the New
CUDA Project wizard or on the Build/Target Systems project property page

ARMv7 Cross Development Support

Nsight Eclipse Edition can now target Linux systems running on ARMv7 processors.

Please consult CUDA Toolkit Release Notes for information on enabling ARMv7
cross development support in CUDA Toolkit

CPU archicture for the project can be set during project creation with the New CUDA
Project wizard or using the Build/Target Systems project property page

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 New and Noteworthy

Cached And Extrapolated Values In Visual Debugger

cuda-gdb now reports cached and extrapolated values for variables in device code that
were optimized out by the compiler.

2.3. New in Nsight Eclipse Edition 5.5

Remote Debugging Support
Nsight supports debugging CUDA applications running on remote systems. Nsight
can both upload for debugging executable built locally and debug executable built
remotely.
Kernel Launch Trace
Debug view now shows CDP launch trace.
CDP Project Support
CDP support can be enabled from a new project wizard during project creation or
from project properties for existing projects.

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 New and Noteworthy

Software Preemption Support

Software preeption debugging can be enabled from Nsight preferences.

Software preemption debugging is BETA and is only available on SM 3.5 and later
devices. Consult cuda-gdb manual before enabling this setting.

Floating Point Memory Rendering

Floating-point rendering support was added to the memory view.
Remote System Explorer
Nsight Eclipse Edition now includes Remote System Explorer plug-in. This plugin
enables accessing remote systems for file transfer, shell access and listing running
processes.
Eclipse Platform Update
Nsight Eclipse Edition 5.5 is based on Eclipse Platform 3.8.2 and Eclipse CDT 8.1.2
introducing a number of new features and enhancements to existing features.

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Chapter 3.
USING NSIGHT ECLIPSE EDITION

3.1. Installing Nsight Eclipse Edition

Nsight Eclipse Edition is installed as a part of the CUDA Toolkit package.

3.1.1. Installing CUDA Toolkit

To install CUDA Toolkit:

1. Visit the NVIDIA CUDA Zone download page:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda_get.html
2. Select appropriate operating system. Nsight Eclipse Edition is available in Mac OS X
and Linux toolkit packages.
3. Download and install the CUDA Driver.
4. Download and install the CUDA Toolkit.
5. Follow instructions to configure CUDA Driver and Toolkit on your system.

3.1.2. Mac OS X Additional Notes

Nsight Eclipse Edition requires Java Runtime Environment (JRE) to be available on the
local system. Compatible JRE is included in CUDA Toolkit package on Linux platform.
Mac OS X users need to have JDK 7 or later installed on their system, which can be
downloaded from Oracle's Java website
Nsight Eclipse Edition relies on command-line development tools to be installed on the
system. To install those command-line tools, Xcode must be installed first.
Once Xcode is installed, the command-line tools can be installed by running the
following command:

$ xcode-select --install

Note: It is recommended to re-run the above command if Xcode is upgraded.

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 Using Nsight Eclipse Edition

You can verify that the toolchain is installed by running the following command:

$ /usr/bin/cc --version

3.2. Running Nsight Eclipse Edition

To run Nsight from the command line type

nsight

On Linux systems, Nsight is also available from Gnome, KDE and Unity desktop menus.

On the first run Nsight will ask to pick a workspace location. The workspace is a folder
where Nsight will store its settings, local files history and caches. An empty folder
should be selected to avoid overwriting existing files.
The main Nsight window will open after the workspace location is selected. The main
window is divided into the following areas:
‣ Editor - displays source files that are opened for editing.
‣ Project Explorer - displays project files
‣ Outline - displays structure of the source file in the current editor.
‣ Problems - displays errors and warnings detected by static code analysis in IDE or by
a compiler during the build.
‣ Console - displays make output during the build or output from the running
application.

3.3. Creating a New Project

1. From the main menu, open the new project wizard - File > New... > CUDA C/C++
Project
2. Specify the project name and project files location.
3. Select CUDA Runtime Project to create a simple CUDA runtime application.
4. Specify the project parameters on the next wizard page.

By default Nsight will automatically detect and target CUDA hardware available
locally. Nsight will default to SM 2.0 if no CUDA hardware is detected.

5. Complete the wizard.

The project will be shown in the Project Explorer view and source editor will be
opened.
6. Build the project by clicking on the hammer button on the main toolbar.

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 Using Nsight Eclipse Edition

Figure 1 Nsight main window after creating a new project

3.4. Importing CUDA Samples

The CUDA samples are an optional component of the CUDA Toolkit installation. Nsight
provides a mechanism to import these samples and work with them easily:

Samples that use the CUDA driver API (suffixed with "Drv") are not supported by
Nsight.

1. From the main menu, open the new project wizard - File > New... > CUDA C/C++
Project
2. Specify the project name and project files location.
3. Select Import CUDA Sample under Executable in the Project type tree.
4. On the next wizard page select project sample you want to import. Press Next...
5. Specify the project parameters on the next wizard page.
6. Complete the wizard.
The project will be shown in the Project Explorer view and source editor will be
opened.

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 Using Nsight Eclipse Edition

7. Build the project by clicking on the hammer button on the main toolbar.

3.5. Debugging CUDA Applications

Nsight must be running and at least one project must exist.

GPUs used to run X11 (on Linux) or Aqua (on Mac) cannot be used to debug CUDA
applications in Nsight Eclipse Edition. Consult cuda-gdb documentation for details.

1. In the Project Explorer view, select project you want to debug. Make sure the project
executable is compiled and no error markers are shown on the project.
2. On the main window toolbar press Debug button (green bug).
3. You will be offered to switch perspective when you run debugger for the first time.
Click "Yes".
Perspective is a window layout preset specifically designed for a particular task.
4. Application will suspend in the main function. At this point there is no GPU code
running.
5. Add a breakpoint in the device code. Resume the application.

Debugger will break when application reaches the breakpoint. You can now explore
your CUDA device state, step through your GPU code or resume the application.

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 Using Nsight Eclipse Edition

Figure 2 Debugging CUDA application

3.6. Remote development of CUDA Applications

Nsight Eclipse Edition also supports remote development of CUDA application starting
with CUDA Toolkit 6.0. The picture below shows how Nsight Eclipse Edition can be
used for local as well as remote development:

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 Using Nsight Eclipse Edition

For remote development you do not need any NVIDIA GPU on your host system. The
remote target system can be a Linux desktop system with NVIDIA GPU or an ARM
based Jetson TK1 system. Nsight IDE and UI tools are only available for x86 systems.
Nsight supports two remote development modes: the cross compilation mode and the
remote synchronized project mode.
In the cross compilation mode the project resides on the host system and the cross
compilation is also done on the host system. The cross compilation mode is only
supported on Ubuntu x86 host system.

To cross compile select the target cross compile architecture in CPU architecture drop
down:

In the remote synchronized project mode the project resides on the host system and
gets synchronized with the remote target system. The compilation gets done natively on
the target system. The remote synchronized project mode is supported on both Mac OS
X and Linux x86 systems.

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 Using Nsight Eclipse Edition

To create native remote build using remote synchronized project mode click on
Manage... button to add a remote system, then select the project path, toolkit and the
CPU architecture of the target system:

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 Using Nsight Eclipse Edition

To synchronize projects between the host and target system, install and configure git on
both the local and remote systems as follows:
‣ git config --global user.name <anyname>
‣ git config --global user.email <anyemail>

3.7. Debugging Remote CUDA Applications

Remote debugging is available starting with CUDA Toolkit 5.5. A dedicated GPU is
not required to use Nsight remote debugging UI. A dedicated GPU is still required on
the debug target. Only Linux targets are supported. Debug host and target may run
different operating systems or have different CPU architectures. The remote machine
must be accessible via SSH and CUDA Toolkit must be installed on both machines.

If there is a firewall between the host and the target, it must be set up to let RSP
messages through, or SSH port-forwarding must be used.

1. Select Run>Debug an application menu item.

2. Select Debug an application on a remote system option.

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 Using Nsight Eclipse Edition

3. Type the full path to a local executable or select one using the Local file... button.

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 Using Nsight Eclipse Edition

4. Select a remote connection from a drop-down list or press the New... button to create
a new one.
5. If you are creating a new remote connection, select the SSH Only connection type,
press Next, and type the host name(or IP address) as well as the connection name and
description (both are optional) and then press Finish.

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 Using Nsight Eclipse Edition

6. Optional: Press Connect to verify the selected remote connection.

7. Press the Next button.
8. Type the full path to cuda-gdbserver on the remote system or select one using the
Browse... button.

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 Using Nsight Eclipse Edition

9. Click on "Add new path" or on the Browse... button to specify the path to the shared
libraries the remote application depends on.
10.Click on the Finish button to finish the new debug configuration wizard and start
debugging the application.
11.You will be offered to switch perspective when you run the debugger for the first
time. Click Yes.
Perspective is a window layout preset specifically designed for a particular task.

The debugger will stop at the application main routine. You can now set breakpoints, or
resume the application.

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 Using Nsight Eclipse Edition

Figure 3 Debugging remote CUDA application

3.8. Profiling CUDA applications

Nsight must be running and at least one project must exist. Profiler cannot be used when
debugging session is in progress.
Nsight Eclipse Edition profiling features are based on the NVIDIA Visual Profiler ( nvvp
) code. These two tools provide same features and have same user interface.

1. In the Project Explorer view, select project you want to profile. Make sure the project
executable is compiled and no error markers are shown on the project.
2. On the main window toolbar press the Profile button.
3. Press Yes when Nsight prompts to switch to the Profile perspective.

Nsight will switch to the Profile perspective and will display application execution
timeline.

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 Using Nsight Eclipse Edition

Figure 4 Profiling CUDA Application

3.9. More Information

Some of the topics not covered in this guide are:
‣ Navigating debugged application state
‣ Enabling cuda-memcheck integration when debugging GPU applications
‣ Attaching to running applications
‣ Measuring GPU code efficiency
‣ Refactoring CUDA C/C++ source code
‣ Accessing CVS and Git repositories
‣ Installing Nsight Eclipse Edition plug-ins
More information about these and other topics is available in the Nsight built-in
documentation. To access Nsight documentation select Help->Help Contents from the
Nsight main menu.
More information about CUDA, CUDA Toolkit and other tools is available on CUDA
web page at http://developer.nvidia.com/cuda

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Appendix A.
PLATFORM REQUIREMENTS

Nsight Eclipse Edition is supported on all Linux x86_64 versions and Mac OS X versions
supported by the CUDA Toolkit.
A CUDA-capable GPU is not required for writing and compiling your CUDA
application using Nsight Eclipse Edition. A CUDA-capable GPU is required for
debugging and profiling CUDA applications. Debugging is supported on all CUDA-
capable GPUs supported by the CUDA Toolkit.
A GPU that is running X11 (on Linux) or Aqua (on Mac) cannot be used to debug a
CUDA application and will be hidden from the application ran in the debugger. Such
GPU can still be used for profiling GPU applications.

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Appendix B.
KNOWN ISSUES

Executable must exist in order to start debug session for the first time
Nsight will not automatically perform build when starting debug session for a given
project for the first time. Build must be invoked manually. Nsight will automatically
rebuild executable when starting subsequent debug sessions.

To manually build the project, select it (or any file within the project) in a Project
Explorer view and click hammer icon on the main window toolbar.

Source editors may show error markers on a valid code for the files in newly
created projects.
These markers will be cleared after Nsight indexes included header files.

Mac OS X users may be prompted to install Java Runtime Environment (JRE) when
running Nsight Eclipse Edition for the first time.
Nsight Eclipse Edition requires functioning Java Runtime Environment to be present on
the local system to run.

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Notice
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Copyright
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