Identification of uninformative function names in call-stack traces

A computer system for identifying names of uninformative functions in call-stack traces, said system comprising:

• a repository for storing call-stack traces relating to known software problems;
• and
• a computer system coupled to said repository, said computer system comprising a memory unit for storing data and instructions to be performed by a processing unit and a processing unit coupled to said memory unit, said processing unit programmed to:
• obtain, from said repository, a set of call-stack traces and information indicative of which call-stack traces in said set match a particular call-stack trace;
• for each matching call-stack trace pair, increment a false negative counter for each function name above a first matching function name in a respective call-stack trace pair;
• for each non-matching call-stack trace pair, increment a false positive counter for each function name above a first non-matching function name in a respective call-stack trace pair;
• increment a frequency counter for each function name appearing in each of said call-stack traces;
• calculate an aggregate value for each of said function names as a function of respective ones of said false positive counter, said false negative counter and said frequency counter;
• and
• identify uninformative ones of said function names based on the respective aggregate values.

A computer program product comprising a computer readable medium comprising a computer program recorded therein for identifying names of uninformative functions in call-stack traces, said computer program product comprising:

• computer program code for obtaining a set of call-stack traces and information indicative of which call-stack traces in said set match a particular call-stack trace;
• computer program code for, for each matching call-stack trace pair, incrementing a false negative counter for each function name above a first matching function name in a respective call-stack trace pair;
• computer program code for, for each non-matching call-stack trace pair, incrementing a false positive counter for each function name above a first non-matching function name in a respective call-stack trace pair;
• computer program code for incrementing a frequency counter for each function name appearing in each of said call-stack traces;
• computer program code for calculating an aggregate value for each of said function names as a function of respective ones of said false positive counter, said false negative counter and said frequency counter;
• and
• computer program code for identifying uninformative ones of said function names based on the respective aggregate values.