US 8,429,619 B2Granted

Executable high-level trace file generation system

AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation

InventorsJason T. Albert, Christopher J. Engel, John Farrugia, Paul G. Van Leeuwen, Brent M. Wieman

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Abstract

An executable high-level trace file generation system provides reduced debugging effort and time, particularly on initial startup of new or modified hardware. An executable program invokes high-level application programming interfaces (APIs), to perform various tasks. Instructions within the APIs generate a trace file documenting the invoked sequence of APIs by writing a line to a trace file that documents the API and input parameters received by the API. Upon completion of execution of the API, the return value may be documented as a comment line in the trace file. The resulting trace file is then re-executable as a script and may be edited to alter the sequence of APIs invoked and/or the arguments provided. The script interpreter may be a command line interface through which the APIs are invoked, and trace files may be similarly generated that document sequences of manually entered commands.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A system, comprising a processor coupled to a memory for storing program instructions for execution by the processor, wherein the program instructions comprise program instructions for:

controlling execution of an instruction stream that invokes a sequence of high-level procedures automatically and without user intervention, wherein the executable instruction stream is a binary instruction stream and the invocation of the sequence of high-level procedures is a sequence of function calls performed by the executable instruction stream;
and
generating a trace file during execution of the executable instruction stream that represents invocations of the high-level procedure invocations as a human-readable script that can be executed to repeat the invocation of the sequence of high-level procedures, wherein the trace file is generated such that return parameters supplied from the high-level procedures to the executable instruction stream are documented in the trace as comments;
editing the trace file to alter a behavior specified by the trace file to alter the sequence of the high-level procedures;
and
responsive to a subsequent command, executing the trace file as a script to reproduce at least part of the behavior of the executable instruction stream as modified by the editing of the trace file.

3 more elements

A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage device storing program instructions for execution by a processor, the program instructions comprising:

program instructions for controlling execution of an executable instruction stream that invokes a sequence of high-level procedures automatically and without user intervention, wherein the executable instruction stream is a binary instruction stream and the invocation of the sequence of high-level procedures is a sequence of function calls performed by the executable instruction stream;
and
program instructions for generating a trace file during execution of the executable instruction stream that represents invocations of the high-level procedure invocations as a human-readable script that can be executed to repeat the invocation of the sequence of high-level procedures, wherein the trace file is generated such that return parameters supplied from the high-level procedures to the executable instruction stream are documented in the trace file as comments;
program instructions for editing the trace file to alter a behavior specified by the trace file to alter the sequence of high-level procedures;
and
program instructions for, responsive to a subsequent command, executing the trace file as a script to reproduce at least part of the behavior of the executable instruction stream as modified by the editing of the trace file.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.