System and method for providing a watchdog timer to enable collection of crash data

• US 9,274,894 B1
• Filed: 12/09/2013
• Issued: 03/01/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: X Corp. (f/k/a Twitter, Inc.) (X Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Perry, Ryan, Seibert, Jeffrey Hall Jr., Ma, Zhen, Massicotte, Matt
• Primary Examiner(s): McCarthy, Christopher
• Application Number:
  US14/100,579
• Time in Patent Office: 813 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0706 the processing taking place on a specific hardware platform or in a specific software environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0715 in a system implementing multitasking multitasking per se G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0757 by exceeding a time limit, i.e. time-out, e.g. watchdogs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0778 Dumping, i.e. gathering error/state information after a fault for later diagnosis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0787 Storage of error reports, e.g. persistent data storage, storage using memory protection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1402 Saving, restoring, recovering or retrying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1415 at system level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1441 Resetting or repowering

Abstract

A system and method for providing a watchdog timer to enable collection of crash data is provided. Upon execution of certain operations, a source thread of an application initiates a watchdog thread that periodically sample state of data relating to the application. Should the operation not complete within a watchdog timeout period, the watchdog thread invokes a crash function to collect additional state data. At least a portion of the state data is stored for later analysis and debugging.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a computer processor;

a source thread of an application configured to initiate a predefined operation, wherein the predefined operation is associated with an operating system timeout period;

a watchdog thread associated with the application and configured to execute on the computer processor to enable the computer processor to;

periodically sample state information relating to the application;

determine, prior to completion of the predefined operation and prior to expiration of the operating system timeout period, that a predefined watchdog timeout period is expired, wherein the predefined watchdog timeout period is less than the operation system timeout period;

invoke a crash function in response to determining that the predefined watchdog timeout period is expired; and

store at least a portion of the sampled state information.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the predefined operation comprises initializing the application.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the predefined operation comprises moving the application to a background status.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the predefined operation comprises moving the application to a foreground status.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the crash function is configured to store a set of crash data including information relating to a state of the application.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the source thread is further configured to transmit a message to the watchdog thread signifying completion of the predefined operation.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the message comprises a semaphore.

8. The system of claim 6 wherein the watchdog thread determining that the predefined watchdog timeout period is expired comprises determining that a response to the message was not received from the source thread.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the watchdog thread is further configured to transmit a message to the source thread after a predetermined amount of time less than the watchdog timeout period.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the source thread is configured to, in response to receiving the message, skip one or more steps in performing the predefined operation.

11. A method comprising:

initiating a source thread and a watchdog thread associated with an application;

initiating a predefined operation of the application by the source thread, the predefined operation being associated with an operating system timeout period;

periodically sampling state information relating to the application during execution of the watchdog thread;

determining, by the watchdog thread executing on a computer processor, that a predefined watchdog timeout period is expired prior to expiration of the operating system timeout period, wherein the predefined watchdog timeout period is less than the operation system timeout period;

invoking, by the watchdog thread executing on the computer processor, a crash function in response to the predefined operation not completing within the predefined watchdog timeout period; and

storing at least a portion of the sampled state information.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the predefined operation is selected from a group consisting of initializing the application, moving the application to a background state, and moving the application to a foreground state.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the sampled state information is stored on a storage device associated with the device.

14. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer readable program code for:

initiating a source thread and a watchdog thread that are associated with an application;

initiating a predefined operation associated with the application by the source thread, the predefined operation been associated with an operating system timeout;

periodically sampling state information relating to the application during execution of the watchdog thread;

determining, by the watchdog thread executing on a computer processor, that a predefined watchdog timeout period is expired prior to expiration of the operating system timeout, wherein the predefined watchdog timeout period is less than the operation system timeout period;

invoking, by the watchdog thread executing on the computer processor, a crash function in response to the predefined operation not completing within the predefined watchdog timeout period; and

storing at least a portion of the sampled state information.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14 wherein the predefined operation comprises initializing the application.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14 wherein the predefined operation comprises moving the application to a background status.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14 wherein the predefined operation comprises moving the application to a foreground status.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14 wherein the crash function stores a set of crash data including information relating to a state of the application.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14 wherein the source thread transmits a message to the watchdog thread signifying completion of the predefined operation.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19 wherein the message comprises a semaphore.

21. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19 wherein the program code for determining that the predefined watchdog timeout period is expired further comprises program code for determining that a response to the message was not received from the source thread.

22. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19 wherein the watchdog thread transmits a message to the source thread after a predetermined amount of time less than the watchdog timeout period.

23. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 22 wherein the source thread, in response to receiving the message, skips one or more steps in performing the predefined operation.