Dynamic debugging dump for game console

• US 8,088,011 B2
• Filed: 11/08/2005
• Issued: 01/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/08/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Russell, Zachary Lewis, Timmins, Luke Wilson, Ryan, Harold Gentry, Sinclair, Stefan Christopher
• Primary Examiner(s): Bumgarner, Melba
• Assistant Examiner(s): GALKA, LAWRENCE STEFAN
• Application Number:
  US11/268,447
• Publication Number:
  US 20070105607A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,247 Days
• Field of Search: 714/15, 714/43, 714/33, 714 37- 38, 714/45, 463/43
• US Class Current: 463/43
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0778 Dumping, i.e. gathering error/state information after a fault for later diagnosis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0781 Error filtering or prioritizing based on a policy defined by the user or on a policy defined by a hardware/software module, e.g. according to a severity level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3688 for test execution, e.g. scheduling of test suites

Abstract

An error data dumping process on a game console is described, in which a request for an error data dump may be initiated using commands mapped to a handheld game controller. The request may include parameters for customizing the resulting dump, where the parameters may identify one or more physical memory address ranges to be included in the dump. Allocated virtual memory contents may also be added to the dump data structure, as can call stack data (such as thread lists and module lists) and system information. The assembled dump data can be written to a file and uploaded, via secure communication, to a network location where it may be indexed.

Claims

1. A computer program testing method, comprising:

launching a game program for testing on a game console, the game console being a dedicated computing device configured for home entertainment, wherein the game console omits a printer communication port and the game console omits an internal hardware expansion slot;

responsive to the launching, the game console creating a unique session identifier (ID) for the game program;

executing the game program on the game console, the executing game program being associated with the unique session ID;

detecting an error in the game program that is executing;

responsive to detecting the error in the game program that is executing, receiving, from a device connected to the game console, an indication to activate a debugging dump trigger command, wherein the debugging dump trigger command includes an identification of a physical game console memory address range whose data is to be included in a requested data dump and a requested dump destination;

in response to receipt of the debugging dump trigger command;

collecting data from the physical game console memory address range; and

transmitting the collected data to the requested dump destination; and

indexing the collected data at the dump destination, wherein the indexing is based at least on the unique session ID with which the collected data are associated.

2. The computer program testing method of claim 1, wherein the debugging dump trigger command results in execution of an instruction within the game program executing on the game console.

3. The computer program testing method of claim 1, wherein the game program automatically sends a minidump of information as defined by the debugging dump trigger command to a server.

4. The computer program testing method of claim 3, wherein the debugging dump trigger command is activated automatically by the game program using an exception handler.

5. The computer program testing method of claim 1, wherein said transmitted data includes:

game program build version information; and

information identifying a user using said game console.

6. The computer program testing method of claim 1, further comprising receiving an indication of data that is to be excluded from the requested dump, wherein the indication of data that is to be excluded from said requested dump includes parameters identifying files, variables and one or more addresses that are to be excluded from the requested data dump.

7. The computer program testing method of claim 1, wherein the dump destination comprises an Internet server.

8. The computer program testing method of claim 7, wherein the transmitting employs encrypted transmission, and wherein the collected data is compressed before transmission.

9. The computer program testing method of claim 1, wherein the debugging dump trigger command is received during a first game state, and the transmitting further includes transmitting game state data for at least one game state occurring prior to the first game state.

10. The computer program testing method of claim 1, wherein the transmitted data includes game console hardware identification information.

11. The computer program testing method of claim 1, wherein the requested dump destination includes at least one destination and the data dump is performed by a routine corresponding to a respective destination;

the respective destination including one of;

an on-screen destination, wherein the dump causes data to be displayed on a screen by an output controller routine;

a memory destination, wherein the dump causes data to be written to a memory as one or more files by a memory controller routine;

or

a network destination, wherein the dump causes data to be uploaded to a network destination by a network interface routine.

12. The computer program testing method of claim 11, wherein the routine is incorporated in the game console separate from the game program.

13. The computer program testing method of claim 11, wherein the routine is incorporated in the game program.

14. The computer program testing method of claim 1, the device connected to the game console including a game controller, and the debugging dump trigger command including a predetermined sequence of inputs made with the game controller.

15. One or more computer-readable storage media excluding signals per se, the computer-readable storage media storing computer-executable instructions that, upon execution cause a game console to perform a test of a game program by performing operations comprising:

launching the game program to test on the game console, the game console being a dedicated computing device configured for home entertainment, wherein the game console omits a printer communication port and the game console omits an internal hardware expansion slot;

responsive to the launching, the game console creating a unique session ID for the game program;

executing the game program on the game console, the executing game program being associated with the unique session ID;

detecting an error in the game program that is executing;

responsive to detecting the error in the game program that is executing, receiving a debugging dump trigger command, wherein the debugging dump trigger command includes an identification of a physical game console memory address range whose data is to be included in a requested data dump and a requested dump destination;

in response to receipt of the debugging dump trigger command;

collecting data from the physical address range; and

transmitting the collected data to the requested dump destination for indexing based at least on the unique session ID with which the collected data are associated.

16. The one or more computer-readable storage media excluding signals per se as recited in claim 15, wherein the authenticated dedicated computing device for home entertainment is authenticated to form games amongst multiple players or to purchase services from online services via a distributed service ticket.

17. A game testing system comprising:

a game controller; and

a game console, the game console being a dedicated computing device configured for home entertainment, wherein the game console omits a printer communication port and the game console omits an internal hardware expansion slot, the game console configured to perform game test operations comprising;

launching a test of a game program on the game console;

responsive to the launching, the game console creating a unique session ID for the test of the game program;

associating the unique session ID with the test of the game program;

executing the game program on the game console, the executing game program being associated with the unique session ID;

detecting an error in the game program that is executing;

responsive to detecting the error in the game program that is executing, receiving an indication to activate a debugging dump trigger command that includes an identification of a physical game console memory address range whose data is to be included in a requested data dump and a requested dump destination;

in response to receipt of the debugging dump trigger command;

collecting data from the physical game console memory address range; and

transmitting the collected data to the requested dump destination; and

indexing the collected data at the dump destination according to the unique session ID with which the collected data are associated.

18. The game testing system of claim 17, the game test operations further comprising:

responsive to detecting the error in the game program that is executing;

identifying an error condition in a first process of the game program that is executing on the game console;

issuing, from the first process as part of the debugging dump trigger command, a first call to a physical memory list error data dumping process, said first call including;

a first parameter identifying the physical game console memory address range,

a second parameter identifying an error data dump structure, and

a third parameter identifying a location in said error data dump structure, the location based at least on the unique session ID; and

the physical memory list error data dumping process retrieving memory contents from the physical game console memory address range, and adding the retrieved memory contents to the error data dump structure at the identified location.

19. The of gaming testing system claim 18, the game test operations further comprising at least one of:

issuing, from the first process, a second call to the physical memory list error data dumping process to add contents of a second physical game console memory address range to the error data dump structure;

or

issuing a call to a virtual memory error data dumping process, the virtual memory error data dumping process sequentially checking portions of a memory for whether the portions are allocated, and adding the allocated portions to the error data dump structure.

20. The game testing system of claim 18, wherein the third parameter identifying the location in the error data dump structure comprises passing a pointer to the location for adding the memory contents.