Active execution tracing

• US 20060248514A1
• Filed: 04/28/2005
• Published: 11/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Coon, Thomas S., Messmer, William R.
• Granted Patent: US 7,934,202 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/127
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/544 Buffers; Shared memory; Pipes

Abstract

Visualization for active execution tracing pertains to one or more tools used to capture and analyze events leading to a point-of-failure during execution of a function or at least a portion of an application, program, process, or other assemblage of programmable and executable code.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

detecting a call to execute a function within an application;

writing at least one frame of a call stack for the called function into a buffer;

detecting a call to end execution of the called function;

detecting an event related to execution of the application; and

writing the buffer to a persistent storage.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one frame of the call stack includes a time of the call and at least one of a return address and a callback method.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the writing includes writing a name of a called module into the buffer.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein the buffer stores at least one frame of a call stack for functions corresponding to plural applications.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein the buffer is linked to another buffer that stores at least one frame of a call stack for a function corresponding to another application.

6. A method according to claim 1, wherein the buffer is linked to another buffer that stores information corresponding to another process.

7. A method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises overwriting the at least one frame of a call stack with at least one frame of another call stack.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein the event includes a crash of the application.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein the event includes a user command.

10. A system, comprising:

a write buffer to request a pointer to a logging buffer for a component corresponding to an application;

a logging buffer to receive at least one frame of a call stack from the component via the linked write buffer; and

a persistent storage to record the at least one frame of the call stack upon occurrence of an event corresponding to the application.

11. A system according to claim 10, wherein to request the pointer to the logging buffer includes the write buffer requesting verification from a tracing service to which the logging buffer corresponds.

12. A system according to claim 10, wherein the component corresponding to the application includes a function.

13. A system according to claim 10, wherein the component corresponding to the application includes a process, and wherein further the logging buffer is linked to another logging buffer receiving at least one frame of a call stack from another process.

14. A system according to claim 10, wherein the logging buffer is to further receive at least one frame of a call stack from another component corresponding to another application.

15. A system according to claim 10, wherein the at least one frame of the call stack includes a time of call and at least one of a return address and a callback method.

16. A system according to claim 10, wherein a space within the logging buffer is rewriteable if the at least one frame of the call stack includes a call to enter the component and a call to exit the component.

17. A system according to claim 10, wherein the persistent storage is to record the at least one frame of the call stack upon occurrence of an abnormal end to execution of the application.

18. A system according to claim 10, wherein the persistent storage is to record the at least one frame of the call stack upon a user-initiated event.

19. A tracing service, comprising:

means for receiving a verification request from an application component;

means for sending a pointer to an external write buffer;

means for buffering data received from the write buffer;

means for overwriting the buffered data if the buffered data includes a call to enter and a call to exit a function;

means for committing the buffered data to a persistent storage; and

means for transmitting the data committed to the persistent storage for analysis.

20. A tracing service according to claim 19, wherein the means for committing the buffered data to the persistent storage is implemented upon at least one of a crash during execution of the application and a user command.