Method and system for categorizing failures of a program module

• US 6,785,848 B1
• Filed: 05/15/2000
• Issued: 08/31/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Mensching, Rob M., Walker, Charles S., Glerum, Kirk A., Ruhlen, Matthew J., LeVine, Eric A.
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, DIEU MINH T
• Application Number:
  US09/570,664
• Time in Patent Office: 1,569 Days
• Field of Search: 714/38, 714/4, 714/57, 717/174, 717/124, 717/126, 717/127
• US Class Current: 714/38.11
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0748 in a remote unit communicating with a single-box computer node experiencing an error/fault remote testing G06F11/2294
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0775 Content or structure details of the error report, e.g. specific table structure, specific error fields

Abstract

A method for categorizing information regarding a failure in an application program module. The failure may be a crash, a set-up failure or an assert. For a crash, a name of an executable module where the crash occurred in the application program module, a version number of the executable module, a name of a module containing an instruction causing the crash, a version number of the module and an offset into the module with the crashing instruction are determined. This bucket information is then transmitted to a repository for storage in a database. The database may be examined to determine fixes for the bug that caused the crash.

Claims

1. A method for categorizing information regarding a crash in an application program module, the method comprising the steps of:

determining a name of an executable module where the crash occurred in the application program module;

determining a version number of the executable module;

determining a name of a module containing an instruction causing the crash;

determining a version number of the module;

determining an offset into the module with the crashing instruction;

placing the name of the executable module where the crash occurred in the application program module, the version number of the executable module, the name of the module containing the instruction causing the crash, the version number of the module, and the offset into the module with the crashing instruction into a bucket;

transmitting the bucket to a repository for storage;

comparing the bucket to a bucket entry in the repository to determine whether the bucket matches the bucket entry and, if so, then increasing the hit count for the bucket entry; and

if the bucket does not match the bucket entry in the repository, then adding the bucket as a new bucket entry in the repository.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of determining whether the repository requires additional data regarding the crash and, if so, then requesting and receiving additional data from the application program module.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the additional data is transmitted to the repository as a .cab file.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the additional data comprises a minidump.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the additional data further comprises secondary data comprising a plurality of registry keys, files, file versions, documents and WQL query results.

6. The method of claim 3 further comprising the step of examining the .cab file to determine a fix for a bug that caused the crash.

7. The method of claim 3 wherein the bucket entry comprises the bucket, a response entry, and a hits entry.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising the step of comparing the bucket to a PDB to determine a symbol entry and a source entry and adding the symbol entry and source entry to the bucket entry.

9. A method for categorizing information regarding a set-up failure during the set-up of an application program module, the method comprising the steps of:

determining a product code of the application program module;

determining a product version of the application program module;

determining a final set-up action that was performed during set-up before the failure;

determining an internal error number assigned to the failure;

placing the product code, product version, final set-up action and internal error number into a bucket;

transmitting the bucket to a repository for storage;

comparing the bucket to a bucket entry in the repository to determine whether the bucket matches the bucket entry and, if so, then increasing the hit count for the bucket entry; and

if the bucket does not match the bucket entry in the repository, then adding the bucket as a new bucket entry in the repository.

10. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the steps recited in claim 9.

11. The method of claim 9 further comprising the step of placing the log files for the set-up into the bucket.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising the step of placing secondary data into the bucket.