Method and system for categorizing failures of a program module

A method for categorizing information regarding a crash in an application program module, the method comprising the steps of:

• determining a name of an executable module where the crash occurred in the application program module;
• determining a version number of the executable module;
• determining a name of a module containing an instruction causing the crash;
• determining a version number of the module;
• determining an offset into the module with the crashing instruction;
• placing the name of the executable module where the crash occurred in the application program module, the version number of the executable module, the name of the module containing the instruction causing the crash, the version number of the module, and the offset into the module with the crashing instruction into a bucket;
• transmitting the bucket to a repository for storage;
• comparing the bucket to a bucket entry in the repository to determine whether the bucket matches the bucket entry and, if so, then increasing the hit count for the bucket entry;
• and
• if the bucket does not match the bucket entry in the repository, then adding the bucket as a new bucket entry in the repository.