JPH0232652A - Line trace controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To rapidly and effectively perform trace control by preparing trace indication information and trace stoppage indication information. CONSTITUTION:The designation of a line which becomes a trace target can be performed arbitrarily by rewriting the trace indication information 31 at need. Also, it is possible to select only an event requiring a trace processing and to store it in a local memory 17 by preparing event designation information 32. Also, it is possible to stop the trace of a targeted event immediately when it is generated and to extract the result of the trace processing from the local memory 17 by preparing the trace stoppage indication information 33. In such a way, the trace control can be performed rapidly and effectively.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a communication control device for data communications, particularly computer networks, etc., which accommodates a plurality of lines and sequentially scans these lines to control communication. The present invention relates to a line trace control device installed in a computer.

(Prior art) A communication control device is used in a computer network, etc.
High reliability and performance are required to control smooth intercommunication between a large number of lines and a central processing unit. Therefore, when designing a communication control device or during periodic inspections, it is necessary to diagnose its operation in detail.

Conventionally, in diagnosing this type of information processing apparatus, a method has been adopted in which the operation history is stored in a memory using a process called tracing, and for example, an operator prints it out and inspects it.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a conventional communication control device, and the conventional line trace control device will be explained using this block diagram.

This communication control device IO accommodates a plurality of lines LI to L7, and is configured to control communication between these lines and the central processing unit 20.

A main storage device 22 is connected to the central processing unit 20 via an interface bus 21 . Communication control device 10
It includes an interface section 11, a control section 12, a line scanning section 13, a local memory 14, and a switch 16.
．． and is provided.

The interface unit 11 is a circuit that controls input/output to and from the central processing unit 20 via the interface bus 21. The control unit 12 is a circuit that controls the entire operation of the communication control device IO, and (2) controls the line tracing process described above.

The line scanning unit 13 scans the n lines L1~ connected here.
This circuit operates to sequentially scan L7 and transmit connection interrupt requests for each line to the control unit 12. The local memory 14 is a memory that stores the operation program of the control unit 12 and various parameters necessary for the operation, and the trace processing result 15 is stored therein.

In this device, when tracing is started, the control unit 1
2, for example, when an interrupt is notified from any line through the line scanning unit 13, or when the central processing unit 2
When there is a processing request from 0, various operations such as transmission command, completion of transmission, completion of reception of character data, timer operation, modem signal reception, etc. are executed. The contents are stored in the local memory 14 as trace processing results 15.

FIG. 3 shows the configuration of the local memory of such a conventional device.

Only the portion of the local memory in which the trace processing result 15 is stored is shown.

First, in the figure, the trace line designation information 15a is
Information for distinguishing whether only events that occur on a specific line or all events are to be traced is stored in advance. This information is written into local memory 14 by the operator predetermining the range that requires tracing and inputting this using switch 16 shown in FIG.

Further, in the local memory shown in FIG. 3, the trace processing result storage area is T1. Two areas such as Ta are prepared. This is because, while writing to one storage area T, reading is performed from the other storage area T2, for example, the main memory 2 of the central processing unit 2o shown in FIG.
This is to enable operations such as outputting trace processing results for 2.

In FIG. 3, the pointer head Pa indicates the address in the local memory where the trace processing result is currently being written. Further, the pointer final P+ indicates the final address of the trace processing result that has already been transferred to an external memory or the like.

For example, as shown in FIG. 3, when the pointer head Pa is located in the trace processing result storage area T2, new trace processing results are written to this storage area T2. In addition, the written trace processing results in the storage area T1 have been transferred up to the last pointer P1, and when this reaches the final address part of the storage area T, a new trace processing result is transferred to the storage area Tt. Writing becomes possible.

The line trace control device as described above operates as follows.

First, in FIG. 2, when the communication control device 10 is started up, the trace line designation information indicated by the contents of the switch 16 is written into the local memory 14.

Next, when the communication control device 10 starts operating and performs various connection operations, it is determined whether the event corresponds to the operation of the line indicated in the trace line designation information 15a. If applicable, the trace processing results are stored in the trace processing result storage area T of the local memory 14.
It is stored in 1. In this storage, the pointer head P0 is referred to, and when the trace processing result is stored in the corresponding storage area, the pointer head Pa is updated.

In this way, when the trace processing continues and the storage area T1 or T2 becomes full, the control unit 12 causes an interrupt to the central processing unit 20, and the central processing unit 20 instructs the control unit 12 to transfer the trace processing result 15. issue. In response to this, the control unit 12 transfers the trace processing result from the storage area that has become full to the main storage device 22. The main storage device 22 sequentially accumulates trace processing results and outputs them to a disk device (not shown) as needed.
Alternatively, the contents can be printed out according to the operator's request. The operator shall inspect the contents in detail and
Diagnose the operation of the communication control device.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) In the case of the conventional line tracing process as described above, the line to be traced is specified by the switch 16,
It was only possible to give instructions such as specifying any line and tracing the event, or tracing the event for all lines. Further, the instructions are only read when the communication control device 10 is started up, and it is difficult to change the contents as necessary.

Furthermore, when a trace is specified for a certain line, all events that occur regarding that line are unconditionally stored in the storage area.

Therefore, there is a problem in that even information unnecessary for diagnosis may be stored, resulting in a huge amount of tracing processing results, making it impossible to perform tracing processing over a long period of time.

In addition, since the trace processing results are transferred when the storage area becomes full, the trace processing results are transferred to the central processing unit 20 until the storage area becomes full. There was a problem in that the timing of acquiring the trace processing results was delayed, making the analysis complicated. In other words, the task of searching for events corresponding to the target diagnosis from a huge amount of trace processing results is
There was a problem that it became extremely complicated.

The present invention has been made with attention to the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a line trace control device that can perform trace control more quickly and effectively.

(Means for Solving the Problems) A line tracing control device of the present invention is provided in a communication control device that accommodates a plurality of lines and performs communication control by sequentially scanning these lines, and is provided in a communication control device that controls the connection of each of the lines. a control unit that controls trace processing for diagnosing operation; a local memory that temporarily stores the results of the trace processing; and a trace that displays, for each of the lines, whether or not trace processing is necessary for diagnosing the line. Displays instruction information, event specification information that specifies an event that requires trace processing among the various events that occur during connection of the line, and that the trace processing should be stopped when a specific event occurs. trace stop instruction information is prepared, and the control unit sequentially stores the events displayed in the event designation information in the local memory when the line displaying the trace instruction information is connected; This method is characterized in that when an event indicated in the trace stop instruction information occurs, subsequent trace processing is stopped.

(Operation) The above device can specify a line to be traced at any time by rewriting the trace instruction information at any time. Furthermore, by preparing event designation information, only events that require tracing processing can be selected and stored in the local memory. Furthermore, by preparing trace stop instruction information, when a desired event occurs, the trace can be immediately stopped and the trace processing results can be retrieved from the local memory.

(Example) Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail using embodiments shown in the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a line trace control device of the present invention.

The device shown in the figure has almost the same block configuration as the communication control device 1o already explained using FIG. It is.

In the figure, a central processing unit 20, a main storage device 22, a common bus 2
As for the first class, the block configuration is exactly the same as that shown in FIG. Furthermore, the outline of the interface section 11, control section 12, line scanning section 13, and local memory 17 included in the communication control device 10 remains unchanged. Lines L1 to Ln are connected to the line scanning section 13.

By the way, in the device of the present invention, the local memory 1
7, trace instruction information 31, event designation information 32, trace stop instruction information 33, and trace processing results 34 are stored.

As described above, the local memory 17 also stores operation programs for the control unit 12, various parameters, and the like.

FIG. 4 shows a more detailed configuration of the local memory of the device of the present invention.

In the figure, the trace line table 30 is a part that stores table data including the trace instruction information 31, event specification information 32, trace stop instruction information 33, etc. shown in FIG. Pointer first P O, pointer last P1
, trace processing result storage areas T t , and T 2 are all the same as the example shown in FIG. 3 described for the conventional apparatus. That is, the trace processing results are stored in the storage area T1.
Alternatively, the data is written to either storage area T2, and reading from the other storage area is executed in parallel during the writing.

FIG. 5 shows a detailed configuration of the trace line table 30 shown in FIG. 4.

One trace line table 3o is provided for each line L+""Ln shown in FIG. That is, the table data as shown in FIG.
It is assumed that there are two.

For a particular line, the trace line table has trace instruction information 31 written at the beginning. The trace instruction information 31 is composed of, for example, 1-bit data, and when the content is "0", it means that tracing is not required, and when the content is "1", it means that tracing is necessary. That is, this trace line table 3
0 is for the line LL (Fig. 1), and if the trace instruction information 31 is "0", then the line L
1, it is determined that trace processing is not necessary.

Furthermore, the event specification information 32 includes information indicating whether or not tracing processing is required for each of all events A1 to Ak occurring in the communication control device 10.
For example, according to the example shown in FIG. 5, tracing is not required for event AI, tracing is required for event A2, and tracing is required for event A3.
It is also specified that tracing is required.

Furthermore, the trace stop instruction information 33 includes the event designation information 32
This data indicates that if a specific event occurs among the events for which tracing is specified in , the tracing process will be stopped. For example, using the example shown in FIG. 5, if event A3 occurs, the tracing process will be stopped.

Next, the specific operation of the apparatus of the present invention will be explained.

First, the operator must operate the central processing unit 2° (Fig. 1) in advance.
A trace line table is prepared for each line and stored in the main storage device 22. Communication control device 10
When , first, the trace line table and trace processing result portion of the local memory 17 are initialized.

Here, a trace processing execution command is output from the central processing unit 2o to the communication control device 10, but before that, the trace line table prepared earlier is read from the main storage device 22.
The data is transferred to the local memory 17. This transfer is
This is implemented using well-known channel input/output control schemes.

That is, the central processing unit 20 prepares a channel address word (CAW) and a channel command word (CCW) in the main memory 22, and issues a start l10 (SI○) command to the communication control unit 1o. Upon receiving the command, the communication control device 10 reads the channel address word, then the channel command word, reads the data according to the command and data address indicated therein, and stores the contents in the local memory. Write in 17. After such preparation is performed, the control unit 12 starts executing the line tracing process.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the line tracing process of the apparatus of the present invention.

This process is performed when the control unit 12 of the communication control device 1o receives an operation instruction from the central processing unit 20 via the interface unit 11, or when a reception interrupt or transmission is received from any line via the line scanning unit 13. It is initiated when an interrupt event occurs, such as a request interrupt or a modem change interrupt.

First, an interrupt line number is extracted (step St). Then, the trace line table for that line number is retrieved from the local memory 17 (step S2). Furthermore, reference is made to the trace instruction information 31 (step S
3) Based on this reference, it is determined whether the trace instruction information is "1" (step S4). If the trace instruction information is "0", the program exits because trace processing is unnecessary. On the other hand, the trace instruction information is
1", the event designation information is then referred to (step S5). Then, it is determined whether the event designation information of the currently occurring interrupt event is "1" (step S6). For example, in FIG. Regarding the events A and A4 shown in FIG. is stored (step S7).

Next, the trace stop instruction information is referred to (step S8). If this trace stop instruction information is "O", this process is exited and the process moves to the next new trace process (step S9). Further, if the trace stop instruction information of the interrupt event is "1", the trace operation is ended (step 510). Then, the trace processing result 34 stored in the local memory 17 is transferred to, for example, the main storage device 22 (step 511).

When the tracing is completed as described above, the operator analyzes the trace processing result by printing it out, etc., and uses it to diagnose the operating status of the device or to discover bugs in the program. In this case, since trace processing results are obtained only for events that require tracing processing, efficient analysis can be performed with a relatively small amount of data. Also, if a specific event that is the main purpose of analysis occurs, the trace will be stopped.
It is possible to quickly extract the most important part that requires analysis and proceed with the analysis process, making it possible to improve the efficiency of the process.

Note that after the tracing is completed (step 510) and the trace processing result is transferred (step 5ll) shown in FIG. 6, the tracing processing is suspended and a new tracing command is received from the central processing unit 2o. Trace processing will be restarted if the In addition, in that case, the central processing unit 20
It is possible to update the trace line table 30 in the local memory 17 and restart tracing processing for a completely different line or for a different event.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments.

In the above embodiment, an example was shown in which the operation program of the control unit, the trace line table, the storage area for trace processing results, etc. were integrated in the local memory, but each is controlled using a separate memory. There is no harm in doing this. Further, various information such as trace instruction information may be stored in various known formats instead of the table format. Further, the block configuration of the communication control device and the block configuration of its peripheral circuits may be changed as appropriate.

(Effects of the Invention) According to the trace control device of the present invention described above, by preparing trace instruction information and making it possible to rewrite it, the trace target can be freely changed while the communication control device is operating. can be done. Further, by using the event specification information, tracing processing can be executed only for a specific event, and unnecessary data can be eliminated. Furthermore, by preparing trace stop instruction information, it is possible to stop the trace operation at any event and to obtain the trace processing results. This makes it possible to take traces over a long period of time and facilitates their analysis.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the line tracing control device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a conventional line tracing control device, and FIG. 3 shows the configuration of the local memory of the conventional device. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the configuration of the local memory of the device of the present invention, FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing the configuration of the trace line table, and FIG. 6 is a flowchart explaining the operation of the device of the present invention. It is. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10... Communication control device, 11... Interface unit, 12... Control unit, 13... Line scanning unit, 17...
- Local memory, 31...Trace instruction information, 32...Event designation information, 33...Trace stop instruction information, 34...Trace processing result. Patent applicant: Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] Control that is provided in a communication control device that accommodates a plurality of lines and performs communication control by sequentially scanning these lines, and that controls trace processing for diagnosing the connection operation of each line. a local memory for temporarily storing the results of the trace processing; for each of the lines, trace instruction information for displaying whether or not trace processing is necessary for diagnosing the line; and various information that occurs during connection of the line. event specification information that specifies an event that requires trace processing among the events in the above, and trace stop instruction information that indicates that the trace processing should be stopped when a specific event occurs; When the line indicated by the trace instruction information is connected, the unit stores the events indicated in the event specification information in the local memory in order, and determines when the event indicated in the trace stop instruction information has occurred. A line trace control device characterized by stopping subsequent trace processing when