Controlling collection of debugging data

• US 7,559,055 B2
• Filed: 06/15/2005
• Issued: 07/07/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Yang, Lianghua, Phipps, Darcy
• Primary Examiner(s): Bullock, Jr.; Lewis A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wang; Jue S
• Application Number:
  US11/152,165
• Publication Number:
  US 20070006154A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,483 Days
• Field of Search: 717/124, 717/126, 717/127, 709/201, 709/208, 709/217, 709/224, 709/231, 709/232
• US Class Current: 717/127
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3636 by tracing the execution of the program

Abstract

By altering existing code to wrap debugging items with runtime conditional statements, the debugging items may remain in commercial builds of code. Execution of a given conditional statement, wrapping a particular debugging item, may require a read of a particular location in an expandable and organized table such that execution of the particular debugging item is dependent on the value stored in the particular location in the table. By storing appropriate values in the table, a very focused debugging operation may be carried out. When implemented on a mobile communication device, such a focused debugging operation may be considered to conserve limited memory resources and reduce radio costs when compared to an unfocused debugging operation, which can create a large log file that is difficult to store and expensive to transmit.

Claims

1. A mobile communication device, comprising:

a computer readable medium storing a client database comprising a client public debug sub-table and a client private debug sub-table, said public debug sub-table comprising debugging items and control status indicator pairs and said private debug sub-table comprising private debugging items and control status indicator pairs; and

a processor operable to;

activate a given private debugging item on receipt of a first command, said first command including an identifier of said given private debugging item and a control command to enable execution of said given private debugging item, said given private debugging item activatable only where said first command is generated by an application executing on said mobile communication device or is received from a computing device locally connected to said mobile communication device, at least absent a command from an end-user of said mobile communications device through a user interface; and

activate a given public debugging item on receipt of a second command, said second command including an identifier of said given public debugging item and a control command to enable execution of said given public debugging item, said given public debugging item activatable where said second command is generated by an application executing on said mobile communication device, is received from a computing device locally connected to said mobile communication device, or is received from a remote debug server.

2. The mobile communication device of claim 1 wherein said processor of said mobile communications device is further operable to:

on receipt of a third command to activate a particular private debugging item from said remote debug server, present to an end-user through said user interface an indication to accept said third command to enable execution of said particular private debugging item.

3. The mobile communication device of claim 1 wherein said processor of said mobile communications device is further operable to:

on receipt of said first command, parse said first command for said identifier, and modifying a client database control status indicator for a debugging item in accordance with said identifier and said control command; and

while executing software code containing public and private debugging items, execute a given public or private debugging item only if said control status indicator in said client database for said given debugging item is enabled.

4. The mobile communication device of claim 1 wherein said processor of said mobile communications device is further operable to:

on receipt of said second command, parse said second command for said identifier, and modifying a client database control status indicator for a debugging item in accordance with said identifier and said control command; and

while executing software code containing public and private debugging items, execute a given public or private debugging item only if said control status indicator in said client database for said given debugging item is enabled.

5. A method of controlling conditional execution of debugging items wrapped in software code executing at a mobile communication device, said method comprising:

at said mobile communication device,

storing a client database comprising a client public debug sub-table and a client private debug sub-table, said public debug sub-table comprising public debugging items and control status indicator pairs and said private debug sub-table comprising private debugging items and control status indicator pairs;

activating a given private debugging item on receipt of a first command, said first command including an identifier of said given private debugging item and a control command to enable execution of said given private debugging item, said given private debugging item activatable only where said first command is generated by an application executing on said mobile communication device or is received from a computing device locally connected to said mobile communication device, at least absent a command from an end-user of said mobile communications device through a user interface; and

activating a given public debugging item on receipt of a second command, said second command including an identifier of said given public debugging item and a control command to enable execution of said given public debugging item, said given public debugging item activatable where said second command is generated by an application executing on said mobile communication device, is received from a computing device locally connected to said mobile communication device, or is received from a remote debug server.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising capturing data generated during execution of said given private debugging item and said given public debugging item in a buffer at said mobile communication device and transmitting the contents of said buffer to said debug server.

7. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

at said mobile communication device;

on receipt of said first command, parsing said first command for said identifier, and modifying a client database control status indicator for a debugging item in accordance with said identifier and said control command; and

while executing said software code, executing a given public or private debugging item only if said control status indicator in said client database for said given debugging item is enabled.

8. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

at said mobile communication device;

on receipt of said second command, parsing said second command for said identifier, and modifying a client database control status indicator for a debugging item in accordance with said identifier and said control command; and

while executing said software code, executing a given public or private debugging item only if said control status indicator in said client database for said given debugging item is enabled.

9. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

on receipt of a third command to activate a particular private debugging item from said remote debug server, presenting to an end-user through said user interface an indication to accept said third command to enable execution of said particular private debugging item.

10. The method of claim 5 wherein said storing a client public debug sub-table comprising public debugging items further comprises storing debugging items related to at least one of power consumption data, deadlock, and LCD reset.

11. The method of claim 5 wherein said storing a client private debug sub-table comprising private debugging items further comprises storing debugging items related to at least one of location information, caller phone number, and called phone number.