Weird VTune GUI bug regarding related project paths

[Robert71]

This applies to the latest version of Windows VTune, 2023.1.0 and the previous version.

1. Create two directories, "a" and "ab" somewhere which we'll call Path1 and Path2. They should look like this:

    Path1: C:\Users\bugs\Documents\a
    Path2: C:\Users\bugs\Documents\ab

The only requirement to create the bug is that Path1 must be an initial sequence of Path2. Another example:

    Path1: C:\Users\bugs\Documents\a
    Path2: C:\Users\bugs\Documents\a\b\c

2. Put minimal C or C++ "Hello, world!" source files in the Path1 and Path2 directories.
Compile those files any way you like, "cl test.c" or use gcc, anything to get an exe file.

3. Start up the VTune GUI from the Windows Start menu.

4. Select "New Project..." in the VTune window. For location either type in Path1 or click the folder icon and choose Path1. Type in a short name for "Project name:" like x or y, and click "Create Project."

5. In the "What" window type in or select the executable in the Path1 directory (this step isn't even strictly necessary to see the bug, but it gives us a complete project).

6. From the "hamburger menu" on the left, select "Close Project" and then "Exit." (Note1: If you selected an executable in Step 5, you can run an analysis if you like, but it isn't necessary to see the bug. Note2: You can also right click on the project name in the upper left and select "Delete" before exiting; the bug will still happen.)

7. Start up the VTune GUI again.

8. Select "New Project.." as before. For location type or select Path2 this time and enter x for the project name.

9. Click "Create Project." A (VERY brief!) yellow error message displays in the lower right corner:

    Failed to open the project Path2\x

If you look in Path2, there actually is a project directory and within that a rudimentary project file. But it's now impossible to do anything further with this project. You can't even enter the executable file name. Even if you exit the GUI and re-start it, "x" will be one of the Recent Projects. But if you click it, you'll get the same error.

10. There are at least two ways to get the Path2 project working:

A. Follow steps 2-6 for a project in a path which is NOT a super path of Path1, e.g.,

    C:\Users\bugs\Documents\e

Then the project in Path2 will start working.

B. (This seems to be the root of the problem.) While the GUI is not running, in the XML file,

    %APPDATA%\Intel\VTune\settings\standalone_gui\viewer.cfg

(note this is the "Roaming" branch in AppData), delete the path between the "working_directory" tags (leave the tags there). Now the project in Path2 will work.

If you watch the contents of the "working_directory" tags as you go from one project to another in the VTune GUI, the working directory is normally replaced when a new project is started--but NOT if the new project path is a super path of the previous project. It's as if VTune is checking the new working directory against the one in the viewer.cfg file using a substring match rather than equality.

[DiyaN_Intel]

Hi, 

Thank you for posting in Intel Communities.

We are investigating your issue at our end and working on this internally. We will get back to you with an update soon.

Regards, 

Diya

[DiyaN_Intel]

Hi,

Sorry for the delay in response.

We have checked with the development team and the described scenario which you mentioned is not supported in Vtune.

VTune does not support nested project.

For example - If we have created a folder named "bug" and tried to create a "test" project inside it.

(C:\Users\Downloads\bug\r000hs, C:\Users\Downloads\bug\r001hs and etc) The nested folders are ignored.

All the results on the "bug" folder (on the same layer) are related to "test" project.

We recommend to create project on one level, not nested. 

VTune supports nested folder for single result i.e  C:\Users\Downloads\bug\

• r000hs
• r001go
• test_folder
  • r000go
  • r001th

And your second issue in the attempt to create project in C:\Users\Downloads\bug1\ folder if the previous project was on C:\Users\Downloads\bug folder that was failing. It will be fixed in the upcoming releases. 

If this resolves your issue, make sure to accept this as a solution. 

This would help others with similar issue. Thank you!

Thanks and Regards, 

Diya

[Robert71]

I don't understand what you mean by nested projects since my bug report had nothing to do with that. The last part of your reply concerning ...\bug and ...\bug1 is the only thing relating to the problem I reported. If that's fixed in some upcoming release (when?) then I'll accept this as the solution.

[DiyaN_Intel]

Hi,

We have received an updated from the development team that the bug will be fixed in the upcoming releases of Vtune but we don't have any ETA on when the fix will be implemented.

Can you please confirm whether we can go forward and close this thread?

Regards, 

Diya

[Robert71]

Shouldn't the thread stay open until the fix is implemented? I'd like to know when it's supposedly fixed so I can try it out.

[DiyaN_Intel]

Hi,

Thank you for your patience. 

The issue raised by you is currently targeted to be released with 2024.0 version. 

Please download it when it gets released and let us know if this resolves your issue.

We will be closing this thread from our side as of now, if the issue still persists with new release then create a new thread for us to investigate further.

Please keep checking on the release notes for more information:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/articles/release-notes/vtune-profiler-release-notes.html

Regards,

Diya

[Robert71]

Since you closed the thread, I never got notification that there was a new release until I started wondering if there was a fix.

After some VERY brief testing, I can preliminarily confirm that version 2024.1.0 fixes the problem. I'll be doing some more testing when I have the time, but for now, it looks good.