Prioritizing and parallelizing the capture of data for debugging computer programs

A system comprising:

• a memory having computer readable instructions;
• and
• one or more processors for executing the computer readable instructions, the computer readable instructions controlling the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
• receiving a request to obtain data to diagnose a computer error, the data located in an address space assigned to a computer program;
• estimating a size of the data;
• determining whether a threshold number of resources are available to obtain the data, the threshold number based at least in part on the estimated size of the data;
• and
• based on determining that the threshold number of resources are available to obtain the data:
• assessing a priority level of the computer program;
• determining a number of threads to assign to a workload to obtain the data from the address space, the number of threads based at least in part on the priority level of the computer program;
• assigning the determined number of threads to the workload;
• dividing the workload into a number of parallel units, the number of parallel units equal to the number of threads assigned to the workload;
• executing, by the assigned threads, the parallel units of the workload to capture the data in the address space;
• and
• storing the captured data,
• wherein at least a portion of the data is located in a second address space of the computer and the determining is further based at least in part on a percentage of the data that is located in the second address space of the computer.

A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processor to cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

• receiving a request to obtain data to diagnose a computer error, the data located in an address space assigned to a computer program;
• estimating a size of the data;
• determining whether a threshold number of resources are available to obtain the data, the threshold number based at least in part on the estimated size of the data;
• and
• based on determining that the threshold number of resources are available to obtain the data:
• assessing a priority level of the computer program;
• determining a number of threads to assign to a workload to obtain the data from the address space, the number of threads based at least in part on the priority level of the computer program;
• assigning the determined number of threads to the workload;
• dividing the workload into a number of parallel units, the number of parallel units equal to the number of threads assigned to the workload;
• executing, by the assigned threads, the parallel units of the workload to capture the data in the address space;
• and
• storing the captured data,
• wherein at least a portion of the data is located in a second address space of the computer and the determining is further based at least in part on a percentage of the data that is located in the second address space of the computer.