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dotnet-dsrouter

This article applies to: ✔️ .NET 6.0 SDK and later versions

Install

To install the latest release version of the dotnet-dsrouter NuGet package, use the dotnet tool install command:

dotnet tool install --global dotnet-dsrouter

Synopsis

dotnet-dsrouter [-?, -h, --help] [--version] <command>

Description

The dotnet-dsrouter connects diagnostic tooling like dotnet-trace and dotnet-counters to .NET applications running on Android, iOS, and tvOS, regardless of whether they're running as an emulator, simulator, or on the device itself. Diagnostic tooling uses local inter-process communication (IPC) (Named Pipe, Unix Domain Socket) to connect and communicate with a .NET runtime. .NET applications running in sandboxed environments on emulators, simulators, and devices need alternative ways to communicate. The dotnet-dsrouter injects itself between existing diagnostic tooling and .NET mobile applications and creates a local representation of the application. The dotnet-dsrouter enables diagnostic tools to communicate with a remote .NET runtime as if it has been running on the local machine.

The communication between diagnostic tooling and dotnet-dsrouter uses the same IPC (Named Pipe, Unix Domain Socket) as used when connecting to a local .NET runtime. dotnet-dsrouter uses TCP/IP in its communication with remote .NET runtime and support several different connectivity scenarios to handle different needs and requirements used by different platforms. dotnet-dsrouter also implements additional support to simplify connectivity configuration when running in emulator, simulator, and on physical device attached over USB.

Note

dotnet-dsrouter is intended for development and testing and it's highly recommended to run dotnet-dsrouter over loopback interface (for example, 127.0.0.1, [::1]). The connectivity features and port forwarding capabilities of dotnet-dsrouter handles all scenarios using local emulator, simulator or physical device connected over USB.

Warning

Binding TCP server endpoint to anything except loopback interface (localhost, 127.0.0.1 or [::1]) is not recommended. Any connections towards TCP server endpoint will be unauthenticated and unencrypted. dotnet-dsrouter is intended for development use and should only be run in development and testing environments.

Detailed usage of dotnet-dsrouter together with mobile applications is outline by respective .NET SDKs. This document will only include a couple of examples on how to run diagnostic tools against .NET application running on Android. For in-depth details on configuration and scenarios, see Diagnostics Tracing.

Options

  • -?|-h|--help

    Shows command-line help.

  • --version

    Displays the version of the dotnet-dsrouter utility.

Commands

Command
dotnet-dsrouter client-server
dotnet-dsrouter server-server
dotnet-dsrouter server-client
dotnet-dsrouter client-client

dotnet-dsrouter client-server

Start a .NET application diagnostics server routing local IPC server and remote TCP client. The router is configured using an IPC client (connecting diagnostic tool IPC server) and a TCP/IP server (accepting runtime TCP client).

Synopsis

dotnet-dsrouter client-server
    [-ipcc|--ipc-client <ipcClient>]
    [-tcps|--tcp-server <tcpServer>]
    [-rt|--runtime-timeout <timeout>]
    [-v|--verbose <level>]
    [-fp|--forward-port <platform>]

Options

  • -ipcc, --ipc-client <ipcClient>

    Specifies the diagnostic tool diagnostics server IPC address (--diagnostic-port argument). Router connects to the diagnostic tool IPC server when establishing a new route between the runtime and the diagnostic tool.

  • -tcps, --tcp-server <tcpServer>

    Specifies the router TCP/IP address using format [host]:[port]. Router can bind one (127.0.0.1, [::1], 0.0.0.0, [::], IPv4 address, IPv6 address, hostname) or all (*) interfaces. Launches the runtime using the DOTNET_DiagnosticPorts environment variable and connects the router TCP server during startup.

  • -rt, --runtime-timeout <runtimeTimeout>

    Automatically shuts down router if no runtime connects to it before the specified timeout (seconds). If not specified, router won't trigger an automatic shutdown.

  • -v, --verbose <verbose>

    Enables verbose logging (debug|trace).

  • -fp, --forward-port <forwardPort>

    Enables port forwarding. The values are Android or iOS for TcpClient, and only Android for TcpServer. For Android, optionally set $ANDROID_HOME to a valid Android SDK path.

dotnet-dsrouter server-server

Start a .NET application diagnostics server routing local IPC client and remote TCP client. The router is configured using an IPC server (connecting to by diagnostic tools) and a TCP/IP server (accepting runtime TCP client).

Synopsis

dotnet-dsrouter server-server
    [-ipcs|--ipc-server <ipcServer>]
    [-tcps|--tcp-server <tcpServer>]
    [-rt|--runtime-timeout <timeout>]
    [-v|--verbose <level>]
    [-fp|--forward-port <platform>]

Options

  • -ipcs, --ipc-server <ipcServer>

    The diagnostics server IPC address to route. Router accepts IPC connections from diagnostic tools establishing a new route between runtime and diagnostic tool. If not specified, router will use the default IPC diagnostics server path.

  • -tcps, --tcp-server <tcpServer>

    The router TCP/IP address in the format [host]:[port]. Router can bind one (127.0.0.1, [::1], 0.0.0.0, [::], IPv4 address, IPv6 address, hostname) or all (*) interfaces. Launch runtime using DOTNET_DiagnosticPorts environment variable, connecting router TCP server during startup.

  • -rt, --runtime-timeout <runtimeTimeout>

    Automatically shuts down router if no runtime connects to it before the specified timeout (seconds). If not specified, router won't trigger an automatic shutdown.

  • -v, --verbose <verbose>

    Enables verbose logging (debug|trace).

  • -fp, --forward-port <forwardPort>

    Enables port forwarding. The values are Android or iOS for TcpClient, and only Android for TcpServer. For Android, optionally set $ANDROID_HOME to a valid Android SDK path.

dotnet-dsrouter server-client

Start a .NET application diagnostics server routing local IPC client and remote TCP server. The router is configured using an IPC server (connecting to by diagnostic tools) and a TCP/IP client (connecting runtime TCP server).

Synopsis

dotnet-dsrouter server-client
    [-ipcs|--ipc-server <ipcServer>]
    [-tcpc|--tcp-client <tcpClient>]
    [-rt|--runtime-timeout <timeout>]
    [-v|--verbose <level>]
    [-fp|--forward-port <platform>]

Options

  • -ipcs, --ipc-server <ipcServer>

    The diagnostics server IPC address to route. Router accepts IPC connections from diagnostic tools establishing a new route between the runtime and diagnostic tool. If not specified, router will use the default IPC diagnostics server path.

  • -tcpc, --tcp-client <tcpClient>

    The runtime TCP/IP address in the format [host]:[port]. Router can connect 127.0.0.1, [::1], IPv4 address, IPv6 address, hostname addresses. Launch the runtime using DOTNET_DiagnosticPorts environment variable to set up the listener.

  • -rt, --runtime-timeout <runtimeTimeout>

    Automatically shuts down router if no runtime connects to it before the specified timeout (seconds). If not specified, router won't trigger an automatic shutdown.

  • -v, --verbose <verbose>

    Enables verbose logging (debug|trace).

  • -fp, --forward-port <forwardPort>

    Enables port forwarding. The values are Android or iOS for TcpClient, and only Android for TcpServer. For Android, optionally set $ANDROID_HOME to a valid Android SDK path.

dotnet-dsrouter client-client

Start a .NET application diagnostics server routing local IPC server and remote TCP server. The router is configured using an IPC client (connecting diagnostic tool IPC server) and a TCP/IP client (connecting runtime TCP server).

Synopsis

dotnet-dsrouter client-client
    [-ipcc|--ipc-client <ipcClient>]
    [-tcpc|--tcp-client <tcpClient>]
    [-rt|--runtime-timeout <timeout>]
    [-v|--verbose <level>]
    [-fp|--forward-port <platform>]

Options

  • -ipcc, --ipc-client <ipcClient>

    The diagnostic tool diagnostics server IPC address (--diagnostic-port argument). Router connects to the diagnostic tool IPC server when establishing a new route between runtime and diagnostic tool.

  • -tcpc, --tcp-client <tcpClient>

    The runtime TCP/IP address in the format [host]:[port]. Router can connect 127.0.0.1, [::1], IPv4 address, IPv6 address, hostname addresses. Launch the runtime using DOTNET_DiagnosticPorts environment variable to set up listener.

  • -rt, --runtime-timeout <runtimeTimeout>

    Automatically shuts down router if no runtime connects to it before the specified timeout (seconds). If not specified, router won't trigger an automatic shutdown.

  • -v, --verbose <verbose>

    Enables verbose logging (debug|trace).

  • -fp, --forward-port <forwardPort>

    Enables port forwarding. The values are Android or iOS for TcpClient, and only Android for TcpServer. For Android, optionally set $ANDROID_HOME to a valid Android SDK path.

Collect a startup trace using dotnet-trace from a .NET application running on Android

Sometimes it may be useful to collect a trace of an application from its startup. The following steps illustrate the process of doing so targeting a .NET application running on Android. Since dotnet-dsrouter is run using port forwarding, the same scenario works against applications running on a local emulator and on a physical device attached over USB. dotnet-dsrouter attempts to automatically locate the Android SDK and adb needed to set up port forwarding. Optionally set $ANDROID_HOME to specify an Android SDK path.

  • Launch dotnet-dsrouter in server-server mode:

    dotnet-dsrouter server-server -ipcs ~/mylocalport -tcps 127.0.0.1:9000 --forward-port Android &

  • Set DOTNET_DiagnosticPorts environment variable using AndroidEnvironment:

    Create a file in the same directory as the .csproj using a name like app.env, add environment variables into file, DOTNET_DiagnosticPorts=127.0.0.1:9000,suspend and include following ItemGroup into .csproj:

    <ItemGroup Condition="'$(AndroidEnableProfiler)'=='true'">
  <AndroidEnvironment Include="app.env" />
</ItemGroup>

    It's also possible to set DOTNET_DiagnosticPorts using adb shell setprop:

    adb shell setprop debug.mono.profile '127.0.0.1:9000,suspend'

  • Build and launch the application using .NET Android SDK, and enable tracing by passing /p:AndroidEnableProfiler=true to MSBuild. Since the app has been configured to suspend on startup, it will connect back to the dotnet-dsrouter TCP/IP listener running on 127.0.0.1:9000 and wait for diagnostic tooling to connect before resuming application execution.

  • Start dotnet-trace in collect mode, connecting to dotnet-dsrouter IPC server, ~/mylocalport:

      dotnet-trace collect --diagnostic-port ~/mylocalport,connect

dotnet-trace will start a trace session and resume application that will now continue to execute. A stream of events will start to flow from the mobile application, through dotnet-dsrouter into dotnet-trace nettrace file. When done tracing, press Enter to make sure trace session is properly closed making sure nettrace file includes all needed data before application gets closed.

It's possible to run several trace sessions against the same running application over time, leave dotnet-dsrouter running and rerun dotnet-trace when a new trace session is needed.

dotnet-dsrouter can be left running in background and reused if an application is configured to connect using its address and port.

dotnet-dsrouter is tied to one running application at any time. If there are needs to trace several different applications at the same time, each application needs to use its own dotnet-dsrouter instance, by setting up a unique IPC, TCP/IP address pair in dotnet-dsrouter and configure different application instances to connect back to its unique dotnet-dsrouter instance.

If dotnet-dsrouter is run with --forward-port targeting Android and adb server, emulator or device gets restarted, all dotnet-dsrouter instances need to be restarted as well to restore port forwarding rules.

When done using dotnet-dsrouter, press Q or Ctrl + C to quit application.

Note

When running dotnet-dsrouter on Windows it will use Named Pipes for its IPC channel. Replace ~/mylocalport with mylocalport in above examples when running on Windows.

Note

TCP/IP port 9000 is just an example. Any free TCP/IP port can be used.

Note

Unix Domain Socket ~/mylocalport is just an example. Any free Unix Domain Socket file path can be used.

Collect a trace using dotnet-trace from a .NET application running on Android

If there's no need to collect a trace during application startup, it's possible to launch application in nosuspend mode, meaning runtime won't block at startup waiting for diagnostic tooling to connect before resuming execution. Most of the above-described scenario applies to this mode as well, just replace suspend with nosuspend in DOTNET_DiagnosticPorts environment variable to launch application in nosuspend mode.

See also