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external/linker/analyzer/README.md

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+Linker analyzer is a command line tool to analyze dependencies, which
+were recorded during linker processing, and led linker to mark an item
+to keep it in the resulting linked assembly.
+
+It works on an oriented graph of dependencies, which are collected and
+dumped during the linker run. The vertices of this graph are the items
+of interest like assemblies, types, methods, fields, linker steps,
+etc. The edges represent the dependencies.
+
+How to dump dependencies
+------------------------
+
+The linker analyzer needs a linker dependencies file as an input. It
+can be retrieved by enabling dependencies dumping during linking of a
+Xamarin.Android or a Xamarin.iOS project.
+
+That can be done on the command line by setting
+`LinkerDumpDependencies` property to `true` and building the
+project. (make sure the LinkAssemblies task is called, it might
+require cleaning the project sometimes) Usually it is enough to build
+the project like this:
+
+```msbuild /p:LinkerDumpDependencies=true /p:Configuration=Release YourAppProject.csproj```
+
+After a successful build, there will be a linker-dependencies.xml.gz
+file created, containing the information for the analyzer.
+
+How to use the analyzer
+-----------------------
+
+Let say you would like to know, why a type, Android.App.Activity for
+example, was marked by the linker. So run the analyzer like this:
+
+```illinkanalyzer -t Android.App.Activity linker-dependencies.xml.gz```
+
+Output:
+
+```
+Loading dependency tree from: linker-dependencies.xml.gz
+
+--- Type dependencies: 'Android.App.Activity' -----------------------
+
+--- TypeDef:Android.App.Activity dependencies -----------------------
+Dependency #1
+	TypeDef:Android.App.Activity
+	| TypeDef:XA.App.MainActivity [2 deps]
+	| Assembly:XA.App, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null [3 deps]
+	| Other:Mono.Linker.Steps.ResolveFromAssemblyStep
+```
+
+The output contains dependencies string(s), starting with the type and
+continuing with the item of interest, which depends on the type. The
+dependency could be result of multiple reasons. For example the type
+was referenced from a method, or the type was listed in the linker xml
+file to be protected.
+
+In our example there is only one dependency string called `Dependency
+#1`. It shows us that the type `Android.App.Activity` was marked
+during processing of type `XA.App.MainActivity` by the linker. In this
+case because the `MainActivity` type is based on the `Activity` type
+and thus the linker marked it and kept it in the linked assembly. We
+can also see that there are 2 dependencies for the `MainActivity`
+class. Note that in the string (above) we see only 1st dependency of
+the 2, the dependency on the assembly `XA.App`. And finally the
+assembly vertex depends on the `ResolveFromAssemblyStep` vertex. So we
+see that the assembly was processed in the `ResolveFromAssembly`
+linker step.
+
+Now we might want to see the `MainActivity` dependencies. That could
+be done by the following analyzer run:
+
+```illinkanalyzer -r TypeDef:XA.App.MainActivity linker-dependencies.xml.gz```
+
+Output:
+
+```
+Loading dependency tree from: linker-dependencies.xml.gz
+
+--- Raw dependencies: 'TypeDef:XA.App.MainActivity' -----------------
+
+--- TypeDef:XA.App.MainActivity dependencies ------------------------
+Dependency #1
+	TypeDef:XA.App.MainActivity
+	| Assembly:XA.App, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null [3 deps]
+	| Other:Mono.Linker.Steps.ResolveFromAssemblyStep
+Dependency #2
+	TypeDef:XA.App.MainActivity
+	| TypeDef:XA.App.MainActivity/<>c__DisplayClass1_0 [2 deps]
+	| TypeDef:XA.App.MainActivity [2 deps]
+	| Assembly:XA.App, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null [3 deps]
+	| Other:Mono.Linker.Steps.ResolveFromAssemblyStep
+```
+
+Known issues
+------------
+
+Sometimes the linker processing is not straight forward and the
+marking is postponed, like processing of some of the methods. They are
+queued to be processed later. In such case the dependencies are
+"interrupted" and the dependecy string for the method usually shows
+just dependency on the Mark step.
+
+Command line help
+-----------------
+```
+Usage:
+
+	illinkanalyzer [Options] <linker-dependency-file.xml.gz>
+
+Options:
+
+  -a, --alldeps              show all dependencies
+  -h, --help                 show this message and exit.
+  -r, --rawdeps=VALUE        show raw vertex dependencies. Raw vertex VALUE is
+                               in the raw format written by linker to the
+                               dependency XML file. VALUE can be regular
+                               expression
+      --roots                show root dependencies.
+      --stat                 show statistic of loaded dependencies.
+      --tree                 reduce the dependency graph to the tree.
+      --types                show all types dependencies.
+  -t, --typedeps=VALUE       show type dependencies. The VALUE can be regular
+                               expression
+  -f, --flat                 show all dependencies per vertex and their distance
+  -v, --verbose              be more verbose. Enables stat and roots options.
+```