Method for monitoring a cyclic user program

A method for monitoring commands and acquired data in a cyclic user program, comprising:

• executing commands of the cyclic user program on an automation device;
• providing a programming device connected to the automation device for communication;
• sending a monitoring task from the programming device to the automation device, wherein the monitoring task assigns a command numbers to each of the commands to be monitored and variables associated with each of the commands;
• storing for each monitored command:
• data associated with a variable on execution of the command being monitored,
• a corresponding command number for the command being monitored, and
• a first counter value assigning the data associated with the command being monitored directly or indirectly to a cycle of the cyclic user program, wherein the assigned data are stored by the automation device in a recording buffer;
• overwriting an old recording of the assigned data and the first counter value associated with each executed command being monitored upon a renewed execution of the executed command, said overwriting limited to only overwriting those portions of the old recording which are associated with each renewed execution of an executed command, so that all different commands executed while monitoring the cyclic user program, and stored data associated with the different commands, remain identifiable at the same time in the recording buffer, wherein different first counter values are assigned when data in the buffer corresponds to commands executed during different cycles of the user program;
• and
• outputting content of the recording buffer by the automation device on request of the programming device and displaying the data to a user.