Meister Insight

Take a Look Inside Your Binaries

Gathering and reporting on the creation of binaries is the job of Meister Insight. Meister Insight is available as an option to OpenMake Meister.  It supports a variety of languages including Java, C, C++, C#, Microsoft .NET (6.0, 2003-2010), Microsoft Visual Basic, IBM-RSA, Eclipse, C-UNIX, COBOL, PL1 and others.

Meister Insight provides Build Auditing, which is the process of monitoring the build at the compiler level and reporting on each component used by the compiler during a build. This level of reporting goes beyond just reporting on the files managed inside your version control repository. It instead list any object used in the compile even when the object is not stored in a version control tool.

And if the object is found inside a version control tool, Meister Insight records the version control item history information. The results of the Build Audit can also be footprinted into the binary object for a bomb proof method of matching your binaries to your source code. Meister Insight also provides full impact analysis showing how objects in the build are inter-dependent. Impact analysis reporting can be used to determine how a change in source code will impact the overall application as well as predict production compatibility.

Meister Insight Build Auditing and Footprinting

Meister Build Audit Reports expose all artifacts that were used to create the binaries.  Even when the artifact is not stored in the version control repository, Meister Insight collects the information during the actual compile or link step. This real time information exposes not only what is stored in your version control system, but also what is not stored in your version control system.  In the example below, notice that rt.jar was not found in ClearCase.  Knowing all components that were used to create an executable object is critical when you are determining the production readiness of a release.

This information can also be stored inside the binary object as a "footprint."  The "footprint" can be viewed providing you a permanent link between source and binary objects.

Impact Analysis with Dependency Discovery

Impact Analysis reports provides you with insight as to how source code and libraries impact one another. This type of information can be used as input to Configuration Management Databases (CMDBs) and can be used to predict the success or failure of any particular release.  Impact Analysis reports are displayed in two formats:  Implosion and Explosion.  An Implosion report looks at the high level source or libraries and shows what binaries they impact.  Explosion reports take a binary and show what source code and libraries were used to create the binary.

Impact Analysis reports are used to determine if a small source code or library change will have a big impact on your production environment.  Sometimes the smallest of changes can have the biggest impact on the overall application and production environment.  Impact Analysis provides you this critical information by simply viewing a report.