JP2009146047A - Information processor and log monitoring program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To execute preventive handling to an error based on log information related to the error output from application software. <P>SOLUTION: An application A111 outputs log data 112 including information related to the error occurring during operation and information showing an operation procedure of a user in a process running into the error. A log monitoring application 113 detects the occurrence of the error from the output log data 112. The operation procedure of the user in the process running into the error is acquired from the log data 112. Next, the log monitoring application 113 records error prevention action for making reception of the acquired operation procedure be restricted in an INI file of the application A111. The application A111 restricts the reception of the operation procedure based on the error prevention action recorded in the INI file. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for monitoring log information output from application software running on a computer.

Conventionally, when an error occurs in application software running on a computer, log information relating to the error is output to the application software.
For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a computer system in which a log output function program outputs failure information about a failure that has occurred in application software to a log file in accordance with parameters set based on a log generation command output from application software that performs business. It is disclosed.
JP 2001-1225876 A

  A tool such as the log output function program described in Patent Document 1 basically collects log information in application software and cannot take any preventive measures against unpredictable errors. For this reason, when a user repeats the operation procedure which causes an error, an error may frequently occur. Further, when there is a defect in the application software, the user cannot fundamentally solve the defect until a solution means for the defect is obtained from the software vendor. Therefore, in the meantime, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of the same error frequently by executing an emergency response to the error caused by the malfunction (for example, temporarily restricting acceptance of user operation procedures leading to the error). It is desirable to do so.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a technique for executing preventive measures for an error based on log information regarding the error output from application software. .

  The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, which has been made to achieve the above object, includes log data output means, error detection means, operation procedure acquisition means, instruction data generation means, and operation restriction means. It has the following characteristics.

  The log data output means outputs log data including information on an error that has occurred during operation and information indicating a user operation procedure in the process leading to the error. The error detection means detects the occurrence of an error from the log data output from the log data output means. The operation procedure acquisition unit acquires a user operation procedure in the process from the log data output from the log data output unit to the error detected by the error detection unit. The instruction data generation unit generates instruction data for restricting acceptance of the operation procedure acquired by the operation procedure acquisition unit. The operation control means limits the acceptance of the operation procedure based on the instruction data generated by the instruction data generation means.

  In order to limit the acceptance of operation procedures in the process leading to an error, for example, if an error occurs when key operations are performed in a certain order, do not accept key operations in that order. (Prohibit operation) or display that an error occurs when the operation procedure is executed (operation warning).

  According to the information processing apparatus configured as described above, for example, when an error is detected from log data output from application software functioning on the information processing apparatus, the user's operation procedure in the process leading to the error is detected. Acceptance can be restricted. Thus, even when the user tries to repeat the operation procedure that caused the error in the application software, it is possible to prevent the error caused by executing the same operation procedure from occurring repeatedly. Moreover, it is possible to take preventive measures promptly against unexpected errors that have not yet been solved by software vendors, and it is preferable.

  Next, a log monitoring program according to claim 2 is a log monitoring program for monitoring log data output from application software operating on an information processing apparatus, and the information processing apparatus is detected by an error detection means. And functioning as an operation procedure acquisition unit and an instruction data generation unit. By introducing the log monitoring program configured as described above into the information processing apparatus, the same effect as the information processing apparatus according to claim 1 can be obtained.

  By the way, errors that occur during the operation of application software can vary in severity from a trivial one that does not significantly affect the operation of the application software to a fatal one that significantly affects the operation of the application software. Exists.

  Therefore, it is preferable to configure as described in claim 3. That is, the information processing apparatus is further caused to function as a severity determination unit that determines the severity of an error caused in the application software from the log data output from the application software. Then, the instruction data generation means generates instruction data by changing the degree of restriction on the acceptance of the operation procedure according to the severity of the error determined by the severity determination means.

  According to the log monitoring program configured in this way, preventive measures can be executed in a flexible manner according to the severity of errors. For example, for a minor error with a low severity, the operation procedure can be reduced while taking preventive measures against the error by making a minor restriction such as disabling a part of the operation procedure that led to this error. Convenience can be ensured by not restricting excessively. On the other hand, for severe fatal errors, all operating procedures that led to this error are disabled, or application software startup itself is prohibited to prevent the recurrence of errors. Securing sex can be given top priority.

  Next, the log monitoring program according to claim 4 has the following characteristics. The information processing apparatus is further caused to function as a measurement unit that measures the cumulative number of times that an error has occurred in the application software. Then, the instruction data generation means, when the accumulated number of errors measured by the measuring means is greater than or equal to a predetermined value, indicates the degree of restriction on the acceptance of the operation procedure, the reference when the accumulated number is less than the predetermined value Raise than.

  By configuring in this way, if errors frequently occur even though the acceptance of the operation procedure that led to the error is restricted, the error can be increased by increasing the degree of restriction on the acceptance of the operation procedure. The ability to prevent recurrence can be improved.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[Description of Configuration of Personal Computer 1]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a personal computer 1 (hereinafter referred to as a PC 1) according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  The PC 1 corresponds to an information processing apparatus according to the present invention, and a log monitoring application for monitoring log data output from an application functioning on the PC 1 functions.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the PC 1 includes a CPU 11, a ROM 12, a RAM 13, a hard disk drive 14 (hereinafter referred to as HDD 14), an operation unit 15, a display unit 16, and a communication interface 17 (hereinafter referred to as communication I / F 17). It has.

  The CPU 11 is a device that executes control and various operations for each part of the PC 1 in accordance with programs and data stored in the ROM 12 and RAM 13. The CPU 11 is a log monitoring application, which will be described later, and an application A that is a target of log monitoring by the log monitoring application. This process is executed by the CPU 11. The ROM 12 is a storage device that retains stored contents even when the power switch of the PC 1 is turned off, and stores BIOS, read-only data that is not normally updated, and the like.

  The RAM 13 is a storage device used as a main memory or the like that is directly accessed from the CPU 11. In the RAM 13, software such as an operating system and various applications is read from the HDD 14, and results of various calculations by the CPU 11 and data read from the HDD 14 are also stored in the RAM 13. When executing processing as a log monitoring application or log monitoring target application A described later, a program (application program or log monitoring program) for causing the CPU 11 to execute each processing is read from the HDD 14 into the RAM 13. . Then, the CPU 11 executes each process according to the program stored in the RAM 13.

  The HDD 14 is an apparatus for storing the OS, various programs, and various data files. The application program and the log monitoring program are also stored in the HDD 14. The operation unit 15 is an input device for inputting various instructions from the user, and includes, for example, a keyboard and various pointing devices (for example, a mouse). The display unit 16 is an output device for presenting various types of information to the user, and is configured by a liquid crystal display, for example.

  The communication I / F 17 is a hardware interface for connecting a printer or other peripheral device to the PC 1 or connecting the PC 1 to a network. For example, a serial bus such as a USB or a network adapter is used. In the present embodiment, the printer 2 is communicably connected to the PC 1 via the communication I / F 17.

  A driver application for controlling the printer 2 connected to the PC 1 is installed in the PC 1, and the PC 1 outputs a document print job from the PC 1 using this driver application, and executes it to the printer 2. By doing so, the document can be printed.

[Description of processing executed by PC 1]
Next, an overview of a log monitoring application that functions on the PC 1 and an application A that is a target of log monitoring by the log monitoring application will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram schematically showing the correlation between the application A functioning on the PC 1, the log data output from the application A, and the log monitoring application.
An application A111 shown in FIG. 2 is an application that functions as a device driver for controlling the printer 2 from the PC 1, for example. The application A111 outputs log data that records information about events that occur during operation. Many OSs have some kind of logging tool that can be used in common among multiple applications, and the application A111 outputs log data by calling and executing this logging tool during operation. Can do. Further, the application A itself may be configured to output log data by providing a unique logging tool.

  When an error occurs during the operation of the application A111, as an error log, operation information indicating an operation procedure from the user who has generated the error, the content and severity of the error (hereinafter referred to as “error”) Log data 112 including error information indicating the error level is output.

The contents of the operation information included in the log data 112 will be described with a specific example. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram schematically showing the operation system of the application A111.
The application A111 has an operation system as shown in FIG. This operation system has a hierarchical structure of operation levels 1, 2, and 3, as shown in FIG. The operation at each operation level is input on a GUI (Graphical User Interface) displayed on the display unit 16 by the application A. That is, an operation corresponding to the icon or button can be input by operating the pointing device or the like of the operation unit 15 and clicking on various icons or buttons displayed as a GUI.

  First, when an operation belonging to operation level 1 (operation 1, operation 2, operation 3...) Is input from the user, an operation at a lower operation level 2 derived from the input operation is received. For example, when operation 1 is input at the operation level 1 stage, at operation level 2 stage, one of the operations 1-1, 1-2, etc. derived from the operation 1 is accepted. Here, when an operation belonging to operation level 2 is input from the user, an operation at a lower operation level 3 derived from the input operation is accepted. For example, when the operation 1-1 is input at the operation level 2, the operation 1-1, which is derived from the operation 1-1, the operation 1-1-2,. One of the operations is accepted.

  Here, in a series of operation systems from operation level 1 to operation level 3, it is assumed that an error has occurred in the operation of application A as a result of the user performing operations in the order of operations 1-1-2. In this case, the procedure of the operation 1-1-2 is described as the operation information of the output log data.

  Returning to the description of FIG. The log monitoring application 113 always monitors the log data 112 output from the application A 111 as a resident program. Then, when the log data 112 in which information related to an error is described is output from the application A 111, error information and operation information are acquired therefrom. Then, based on the error level of the error included in the error information and the operation procedure included in the operation information, select an operation restriction (error prevention action) to prevent the error from recurring. The application A111 is executed. The application A111 executes a process according to the error prevention action instructed from the log monitoring application 113, thereby preventing the error from recurring.

  Here, specific contents of the error prevention action will be described. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram schematically showing a specific example of the error prevention action list 114 that is a list of error prevention actions determined for each error level.

  The error prevention action list 114 corresponds to the error level defined by the error information included in the log data 112, and the error prevention that is executed by the application A111 for preventing the recurrence of the error for each error level. This is a list that defines the contents of actions, and the data is stored in the HDD 14. In this error prevention action list 114, as shown in FIG. 4, the error levels are arranged in ascending order from the largest to the smallest severity of error, and the error prevention action list corresponding to each error level is arranged. The contents are described.

  More specifically, a fairly strict error prevention action of prohibiting the activation of the application A111 is assigned to the error level 1 having the highest degree of error seriousness. Further, an error prevention action is assigned to the error levels 2 to 4 in which operations from the operation level 1 to 3 in the application A111 are prohibited step by step according to the error level. For example, when an error occurs due to the input of the operation procedure of operation 1-1-2 as described above, according to the error prevention action “prohibition of operation level 1” in error level 2, operation level 1 in this operation procedure is determined. The reception of the operation at this stage (that is, operation 1) is prohibited. Similarly, according to the error prevention action “prohibition of operation level 2” at error level 3, the acceptance of operation 1-1 is prohibited (acceptance until operation 1), and “prohibition of operation level 3” at error level 4. ”Is prohibited from accepting the operation 1-1-2 (can be accepted until the operation 1-1).

  Further, according to the error prevention action “error message display” at error level 5, a warning message relating to the prevention of the recurrence of an error and an inquiry destination to the software vendor are displayed on the display unit 16. Alternatively, when a workaround for the error is known, a message notifying the user of the method may be displayed. For error level 6, an error prevention action is not assigned (no action is taken) because the degree of seriousness is small and there is no problem.

  When the log monitoring application 113 detects the occurrence of an error from the log data 112 acquired from the application A 111, the log monitoring application 113 refers to the error prevention action list 114 and selects an error prevention action corresponding to the error level. If the selected error prevention action prohibits the acceptance of an operation at a certain operation level, the content of the operation that prohibits the application A 111 from being accepted is determined based on the operation information of the log data 112. .

[Description of processing executed by log monitoring application 113]
Next, detailed contents of processing executed by the log monitoring application 113 will be described with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a procedure of main processing executed by the log monitoring application 113. The process shown in FIG. 5 is a process that is always executed when the PC 1 is activated, and is referred to as a log monitoring process in the following description.

  When starting the log monitoring process, the log monitoring application 113 first acquires log data output during the operation of the application A111 and monitors the occurrence of an error (S100). Then, based on the acquired log data, it is determined whether or not an error has occurred in the application A111 (S110). If it is determined that no error has occurred in the application A111 (S110: NO), that is, if the acquired log data describes information related to a normal event, the log monitoring process ends.

  On the other hand, when it is determined that an error has occurred in the application A111 (S110: YES), that is, when the acquired log data describes the information related to the error, the error is determined from the operation information included in the log data. Information indicating the reached operation procedure is acquired (S120). Subsequently, information indicating the error level of the error is acquired from the error information included in the acquired log data (S130). Then, one is added to the accumulated number of times corresponding to the acquired error level (S140). The cumulative number of errors is the cumulative number of errors that have occurred in the past for each error level.

  Next, referring to the error upper limit count list 115 (FIG. 6), whether or not the cumulative count corresponding to the acquired error level exceeds the upper limit count of the error level defined in the error upper limit count list 115. Is determined (S150). The error upper limit count list 115 is a list that defines the upper limit value of the cumulative count for each error level, as shown in FIG. 6, and the data is stored in the HDD 14.

  When it is determined in S150 that the cumulative number corresponding to the acquired error level exceeds the upper limit number (S150: YES), the content of the error prevention action of the error level in the error prevention action list 114 (see FIG. 4) Is updated to a more restrictive one (S160), and then the process proceeds to S170. On the other hand, if it is determined in S150 that the cumulative number corresponding to the acquired error level does not exceed the upper limit number (S150: NO), the process proceeds to S170 as it is.

  Here, a specific example of updating the error prevention action list 114 by the process of S160 will be described with reference to FIG. Here, from the state of the error prevention action list 114 before update shown in FIG. 7A, the cumulative number of errors corresponding to the error level 6 is the upper limit value defined in the error upper limit number list 115 (error level 6: 10 times) is assumed. In this case, as shown in FIG. 7 (b), the content of the error prevention action corresponding to the error level 6 in the error prevention action list 114 is that of the restriction level one rank higher ("Do nothing" → "Warning" Message display "). In addition, as an example of updating the error prevention action, the operation level for prohibiting the acceptance of the operation is switched to a higher level (“prohibition of the operation level 3” → “prohibition of the operation level 2”) or the acceptance of the operation is prohibited. Various methods are conceivable, such as switching from an error prevention action to an error prevention action that prohibits activation of the application A111, or switching from an error prevention action that prohibits activation of the application A111 to an error prevention action that recommends deletion of the application A111 from the PC 1. It is done.

  Returning to the flowchart of FIG. In S170, an error prevention action corresponding to the error level acquired in S130 is selected from the error prevention action list 114. Then, an “error prevention action execution process” for causing the application A111 to execute an operation restriction based on the selected error prevention action is executed (S180), and the log monitoring process is terminated. The detailed contents of the “error prevention action execution process” will be described later.

  FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram schematically showing the correlation between the log monitoring application 113 and the application A111 when the above-described error prevention action execution process (S180 in FIG. 5) is executed.

  In this error prevention action execution process, the log monitoring application 113 restricts the operation restriction by the error prevention action selected in S170 of the log monitoring process (FIG. 5) to the INI file 116 in which the setting information of the application A111 is recorded. Write operation restriction information for instructing. On the other hand, the application A 111 reads the INI file 116 after activation, and executes the operation restriction specified by the operation restriction information described therein.

Next, FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a procedure of error prevention action execution processing executed by the log monitoring application 113.
As shown in FIG. 9, the log monitoring application 113 stores operation restriction information for instructing operation restriction by the error prevention action selected in S170 of the log monitoring process (FIG. 5) in the INI file 116 of the application A111. This is described (S181).

  Specifically, if the error prevention action selected in S170 in the above-described log monitoring process (see FIG. 5) prohibits the acceptance of an operation at a certain operation level, this is indicated by the operation information acquired in S120. Of the operation procedures, information indicating an operation procedure corresponding to the operation level that should be prohibited is described as operation restriction information. For example, in the operation system shown in FIG. 3, when the operation procedure that led to the error is the operation 1-1-2, when the operation of the operation level 1 is prohibited by the error prevention action, the acceptance of the operation 1 is prohibited. Is described in the INI file 116 as operation restriction information. Similarly, when the operation at the operation level 2 is prohibited, information indicating that the reception of the operation 1-1 is prohibited, and when the operation at the operation level 3 is prohibited, the reception of the operation 1-1-2 is prohibited. Information to that effect is described in the INI file 116 as operation restriction information.

  Also, if the error prevention action is to display a warning message, an operation to specify the type and content of the message to be displayed, the display timing (for example, the process in which the same operation procedure as the operation procedure leading to the error is performed), etc. Limit information is described in the INI file.

[Description of processing executed by application A111]
Next, FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a procedure of processing in which the application A 111 actually executes the operation restriction based on the operation restriction information described in the INI file 116 in the error prevention action execution process (see FIG. 9). is there. This process is executed when the application A111 is activated.

  First, the application A111 reads the INI file 116 in which the setting information of the application A111 is recorded (S210). Then, it is determined whether or not the operation restriction information recorded by the log monitoring application 113 is included in the INI file 116 (S220). Here, when it is determined that the operation restriction information is not included in the INI file 116 (S220: NO), the GUI is displayed on the display unit 16, and the acceptance of the operation from the user is started (S260).

  On the other hand, when it is determined that the operation restriction information is included in the INI file 116 (S220: YES), the operation restriction specified by the operation restriction information is executed (230). For example, if information indicating an operation procedure corresponding to an operation level whose reception should be prohibited is described as the operation restriction information, the reception of the operation procedure is invalidated. If an instruction to display a warning message is described as the operation restriction information, the warning message is displayed at a predetermined timing. If an instruction for prohibiting activation of the application A111 is described as the operation restriction information, the operation of the application A111 is terminated.

  When the operation of the application A111 is terminated due to the operation restriction in S230 (S240: YES), a predetermined termination process is executed (S250), and the operation of the application A111 is terminated.

  On the other hand, when the operation of the application A111 is not terminated (S240: NO), the GUI is displayed on the display unit 16, and the acceptance of the operation from the user is started (S260). At this time, if there is an operation procedure that is prohibited from being accepted due to operation restrictions, it is disabled or hidden by making the icons and buttons used for inputting the operation procedure unusable on this GUI. To do.

[effect]
According to the PC 1 and the log monitoring application 113 of the above embodiment, the following effects can be obtained.

  (1) When an error is detected from the log data output from the application A111 functioning on the PC 1, the error prevention action is performed on the application A111 to restrict the acceptance of the user's operation procedure in the process leading to the error. be able to. Thereby, even when the user tries to repeat the operation procedure that caused the error in the application A111, it is possible to prevent the error caused by executing the same operation procedure from occurring repeatedly. Further, it is possible to take preventive measures promptly against unexpected errors, which is preferable.

  (2) Depending on the error level indicating the severity of the error, for example, for a minor error with a low severity, a slight operation restriction is performed such as disabling a part of the operation procedure that has led to this error. Thus, while taking preventive measures against errors, convenience can be ensured by not restricting the operation procedure excessively. On the other hand, for fatal errors with high severity, it is possible to prevent the recurrence of errors by disabling all the operation procedures that have led to this error or by restricting the operation of the application A111 itself. The first priority is to secure safety.

  (3) If the cumulative number of errors exceeds the upper limit even though the operation limit is set by the error prevention action, the error prevention action is updated to the upper limit level and the operation limit is tightened. By doing so, the ability to prevent the recurrence of errors can be improved.

[Modification]
As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention was described, this invention is not limited to said embodiment at all, It is possible to implement in various aspects.

  For example, in the above embodiment, when the error accumulation count corresponding to a certain error level exceeds the upper limit value, as shown in FIG. 7, the error prevention action for the error level is updated to a higher level. ing. On the other hand, when the cumulative number of errors corresponding to a certain error level exceeds the upper limit value, the error prevention action for all error levels may be updated to the higher level all at once. By doing in this way, the prevention power with respect to the recurrence of the error of all levels can be improved.

It is a block diagram which shows schematic structure of PC1 of embodiment. It is explanatory drawing which shows typically the correlation with application A111, the log data 112, and the log monitoring application 113. FIG. It is explanatory drawing which showed typically the operation system of application A111. It is explanatory drawing which shows the specific example of the error prevention action list | wrist 114 typically. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the log monitoring process which the log monitoring application 113 performs. It is explanatory drawing which shows typically an example of the description format of the error upper limit frequency list. It is explanatory drawing which shows a mode that the content of the error prevention action list | wrist 114 is updated. It is explanatory drawing which shows typically the correlation of the log monitoring application 113 and application A111 at the time of execution of an error prevention action execution process. It is the flowchart which showed the procedure of error prevention action execution processing. It is the flowchart which showed the procedure of the process which application A111 performs.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... PC, 2 ... Printer, 11 ... CPU, 12 ... ROM, 13 ... RAM, 14 ... HDD, 15 ... Operation part, 16 ... Display part, 17 ... Communication I / F, 111 ... Application A, 112 ... Log data 113: Log monitoring application

Claims (4)

Log data output means for outputting log data including information on an error that has occurred during operation and information indicating a user operation procedure in the process leading to the error;
Error detection means for detecting the occurrence of an error from the log data output from the log data output means;
An operation procedure acquisition unit for acquiring a user operation procedure in a process leading to an error detected by the error detection unit from the log data output from the log data output unit;
Instruction data generation means for generating instruction data for restricting acceptance of the operation procedure acquired by the operation procedure acquisition means;
An information processing apparatus comprising: an operation restriction unit that restricts acceptance of the operation procedure based on the instruction data generated by the instruction data generation unit. A log monitoring program for monitoring log data output from application software running on an information processing device,
Error detection means for detecting an error in the application software from log data output from the application software;
An operation procedure acquisition means for acquiring a user operation procedure in a process leading to an error detected by the error detection means from log data output from the application software;
A log monitoring program for causing the information processing apparatus to function as instruction data generation means for generating instruction data for restricting acceptance of the operation procedure acquired by the operation procedure acquisition means to the application software. The log monitoring program according to claim 2,
The log data output from the application software includes information indicating the severity of an error that has occurred in the application software,
Further causing the information processing apparatus to function a severity determination means for determining a severity of an error caused in the application software from log data output from the application software;
The instruction data generation unit generates the instruction data by changing a degree of restriction on acceptance of the operation procedure according to the severity of the error determined by the severity determination unit. Monitoring program. In the log monitoring program according to claim 2 or claim 3,
Causing the information processing apparatus to further function a measuring means for measuring the cumulative number of times that an error has occurred in the application software;
When the accumulated number of errors measured by the measuring unit is greater than or equal to a predetermined value, the instruction data generating unit indicates a degree of restriction on acceptance of the operation procedure, and a criterion when the accumulated number is less than the predetermined value. Log monitoring program characterized by raising

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