JPS6270944A - Collecting system for trace information - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain only the trace information needed for analysis by processing only the trace information delivered from a program from which the trace information should be collected. CONSTITUTION:When a request for collection of trace information is issued from a user program 4, a discriminating means 2 is started. The means 2 obtains the segment describer of a segment included in the program 4 that issues the request for collection of trace information from the discriminating information on the program supplied concurrently with the request for collection of the trace information. Then the obtained segment describer is compared with a segment describer stored in a memory area 3. When the coincidence is secured from said comparison, a trace information collecting means 15 is started. Thus the quantity of the trace information outputted actually is reduced, therefore only the trace information needed for analysis can be obtained.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a trace information collection method, and more particularly, to a method for collecting trace information, which includes a storage device consisting of a plurality of independently addressable segments, and identifies these segments for each segment. The present invention relates to trace information collection means in a data processing device having segment descriptors.

[Conventional technology]

When a program is executed, it is widely practiced to collect a small amount of formalized information related to the program execution, separately from the program's original output results, by a series of instructions embedded in the program in advance. . The information collected in this way is called trace information, and the embedded series of instructions is called a trace information collection request.

By collecting trace information, it is possible to obtain information about the execution of a program at a point planned in advance based on the logic of the program (for example, the values of a specific register or main storage area at that point). , it becomes an effective means for program depacking. In addition, by including the value of the system's time device as trace information, the time required from the time of a specific trace information collection request to the time of the next trace information collection request can be calculated, which can be used to analyze program processing performance, etc. can be used.

Conventionally, in this type of trace information collection method, in response to a trace information collection request, a certain amount of trace information is vanofered as it is to an area on the main storage device, and its contents are edited after being output to an external storage device. and output it.

In other trace information collection methods, an area on the main memory is used like a ring buffer to save as many pieces of previous trace information as can be stored in that area, starting with the latest trace information. , the contents are edited and output as necessary.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

In the conventional trace information collection method described above, each trace information is collected as is in response to a trace information collection request from each program. For trace information collection requests included in programs that may be executed multiple times, or trace information collection requests included in a group of system subroutines that are incorporated into many user programs and used for general purposes, Miscellaneous trace information from multiple programs running simultaneously is output as is.

For this reason, the former trace information collection method has the disadvantages of extra overhead for outputting to an external storage device, the disadvantage that the amount of trace information actually output is enormous, and the disadvantage that it is not suitable for immediate analysis. The drawback is that analysis of the trace information is complicated by the extra trace information that is required.

In addition, the latter trace information collection method has the disadvantage that a large amount of trace information that is unnecessary for the immediate analysis is stored in the ring buffer, and the amount of truly effective trace information is extremely limited. .

Furthermore, all of the conventional trace information collection methods have the disadvantage that the user cannot directly control the start and end of trace information collection.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to monitor the execution status of a program in a data processing device that has a main memory device consisting of a plurality of independently addressable segments and has a segment descriptor for each segment to identify these segments. The object of the present invention is to provide a trace information collection method that can selectively record information according to requests from a program.

Another object of the present invention is to overcome the drawbacks of having to output miscellaneous trace information from multiple programs running simultaneously onto an external storage device, resulting in additional overhead, and the amount of trace information that is actually output. An object of the present invention is to provide a trace information collection method that eliminates the drawbacks that the amount of trace information becomes enormous and that the analysis of the trace information becomes complicated due to the inclusion of extra trace information that is unnecessary for the current analysis.

Yet another object of the present invention is to avoid storing a large amount of trace information in the ring buffer that is unnecessary for the immediate analysis.
An object of the present invention is to provide a trace information collection method that eliminates the drawback that the amount of truly effective trace information is extremely limited.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a doorway information collection method that eliminates the drawback that the user cannot directly control the start and end of collecting trace information.

[Means for solving problems]

The trace information collection method of the present invention is a trace information collection method for a data processing device that includes a main storage device consisting of a plurality of independently addressable segments, and each of the segments has a segment descriptor for identifying the segment. A storage area for storing the segment descriptor, a trace information collection means for collecting trace information, and an identification of a program delivered in response to a request to start trace information collection from a requesting program. a registration means for registering the trace information collection target program by obtaining a segment descriptor of the segment including the trace information collection target program from information and storing the segment descriptor in the storage area; In response to the trace information collection request, a segment I/descriptor of the segment including the program to be collected for trace information is obtained from the program identification information handed over with this trace information collection request, and is stored in the storage area. and a determining means for activating the 1-race information collecting means when the race information collection means compares with the segment descriptor and if there is one loss.

〔Example〕

Next, the present invention will be explained in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, one embodiment of the present invention includes a registration means 1, a determination means 2, a storage area 3, a user program 4,
It consists of trace information collection means 5.

The user program 4 includes one or more trace information collection requests.

The start and end of collecting trace information is performed by inputting a request to that effect from the user program 4 to the registration means 1. That is, in the case of starting the collection of trace information, the user program 4 issues a trace information t = collection start request to the registration means 1, and also passes identification information of the program from which the trace information is to be collected to the registration means 1. . Further, in the case of finishing the collection of trace information, a trace information collection completion request is issued to the registration means 1, and at the same time, the identification information of the program previously registered as a trace information collection target program is handed over to the registration means 1.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the processing in the registration means 1. Referring to FIG. 2, the registration means 1 receives and takes requests from the user program 4 (step 11). Then, using the program's identity passed along with the request,
It is checked whether the program from which trace information is to be collected is being executed (step 12). If the request is being executed, it is further checked whether the request is a request to start collecting trace information or a request to end collecting trace information (step 13).
). If it is a request to start collecting trace information, the segment descriptor of the segment in which the program is stored is obtained from the program identification information (step 14). The technique for obtaining the segment descriptor of a segment on main memory is
This is a basic known technology in this type of data processing device. After this, the obtained segment descriptor is stored in the storage area 3.
(step 15), and the process ends. If the request in step 13 is a trace information collection end request, the segment descriptor set in the storage area 3 is cleared (step 13), and the process ends. If the program to be trace information collected is not running in step 12, an error is notified to the requesting program 4 (step 17), and the process ends.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the processing in the determining means 2. As shown in FIG. When the usage sweat program 4 issues a trace information collection request, the determining means 2 is activated. The determining means 2 obtains the segment descriptor of the segment that includes the program 4 that made the trace information collection request from the identification information of the program delivered at the same time as the trace information collection request (step 21), and stores it in the storage area 3. If they match, the trace information file collecting means 5 is activated (Step 23).
. After waiting for the completion of the operation of the trace m-report collecting means 5 (step 24), the process returns to the requesting program 4. If the segment descriptors do not match in step 22, the trace information collecting means 5 is not activated and the process returns to the requesting program 4.

In addition, in the above embodiment, a case has been described in which the user program that instructs the start and end of collecting trace information and the user program that requests trace information collection are the same, but if the user programs are different from each other, It is clear that it can be implemented in exactly the same way. It is also clear that not only user programs but also system programs stored in independent segments can be trace information collection target programs.

In addition, in the above embodiment, the case where the program instructs the start and end of collecting trace information is described, but it is also possible to create a user program that receives input from the user and instructs the start and end of collecting trace information. It is easy to create one, and it is clear that this allows the user to directly control the start and end of collecting trace information.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, only trace information output from a specific program from which trace information is collected is output without directly outputting miscellaneous trace information from multiple programs running simultaneously. Since it is processed, the overhead for outputting to an external memory tag is reduced, the amount of trace information that is actually output is reduced, and the trace information is This has the effect of making analysis easier.

Furthermore, according to the present invention, only trace information output from a specific program from which trace information is to be collected is processed, without outputting miscellaneous trace information from multiple programs running simultaneously. Therefore, it is possible to store only the truly valid trace information necessary for the current analysis in the ring buffer.

Further, according to the present invention, the user can directly control the start and end of collecting trace information.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the trace information collection method of the present invention, and FIG. 2 shows the processing in the registration means in FIG.
Figure 3 is a flowchart showing the processing in the determining means in Figure 1. In the figure, (1)...Registration means, 2...Discrimination means, 3...Storage area, 4...User program, 5...Trace information collection means. Agent: Patent Attorney Ren Uchihara /゛Haha・' Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A trace information collection method in a data processing device including a main memory device consisting of a plurality of independently addressable segments and each of the segments having a segment descriptor for identifying the segment, comprising: the segment description. A storage area for storing children, a trace information collection means for collecting trace information, and a trace information collection means for collecting trace information from the program identification information passed in response to a request to start collecting trace information from a requesting program. a registration means for registering the trace information collection target program by obtaining a segment descriptor of the segment including the information collection target program and storing the segment descriptor in the storage area; and trace information from the requesting program. In response to the collection request, obtain a segment descriptor of the segment that includes the trace information collection target program from the program identification information delivered with this trace information collection request, and compare it with the segment descriptor stored in the storage area. and a determining means for activating the trace information collecting means when the trace information collecting means match.