Log Files

An important tool for diagnosing and resolving problems encountered with the Trace Analyzer is the log file. This section describes the event and error logging facilities which have been designed into the Trace Analyzer to enable the diagnosis and resolution of problems and errors when they occur.

Log files contain information about the ongoing activities of the Trace Analyzer program. They are used to record information about error events and to log status messages. While primarily useful to the developers of the Trace Analyzer and to the Golden Code Development Technical Support staff, log files can also provide useful information to the end user.

The Trace Analyzer creates three different types of log files.

An event log (analyzer.log by default)
A detailed error log (errorjta.log)
A console log (consolejta.log)

Each log file may contain information about errors, but each serves a different purpose.

The Event Log - analyzer.log

This is the primary record of events which occur during execution of the Trace Analyzer program. A wide variety of information is added to this file, including notifications of data or program errors, status messages related to user-initiated events, and debug information useful to the Trace Analyzer's development team.

The logging of this information can be selectively filtered by severity or may be eliminated altogether, using the -log command line option. The levels of event severities, in descending order are error, status, and debug. If the -log command line option is not used, the program will log only messages of error severity by default. When troubleshooting a problem or supplying a log file to Technical Support, it is recommended that the problem be recreated while running the program with the -log:3 option. This option ensures that events of all levels of severity are logged.

By default, the event log file is named analyzer.log and resides in the logs subdirectory off the Trace Analyzer installation path. Its name and location may be changed using the -logfile command line option.

Each event logged to this file is represented by a single line, which contains:

a timestamp for the event;
an identifier for the thread of execution within the program in which the event took place; and
a description of the event.

This file is overwritten each time the Trace Analyzer program is run; however, three generations of backup copies are retained. Their filename extensions are 001, 002, and 003, from newest to oldest, respectively.

Note: it is very important that the event log file which was generated when a problem was encountered be included with any problem report submitted to Technical Support.

The Detailed Error Log - errorjta.log

This log records information related to runtime errors encountered in the Trace Analyzer. The errors recorded by this file are those that have been handled. In other words, the logic of the program was designed to respond to these types of errors and in many cases to recover gracefully. If the program cannot recover from the error, information about the error event is at minimum recorded, so that this information can be sent to Technical Support for further analysis.

This log file is named errorjta.log. It resides in the same directory as the event log file which was created for the same Trace Analyzer session. This file is overwritten the every time the Trace Analyzer program is run, but only if loggable errors occur in that session.

Note: it is very important that the detailed error log file which was generated when a problem was encountered, if any, be included with any problem report submitted to Technical Support. The detailed error log timestamps should be checked to ensure they correspond with the appropriate Trace Analyzer session.

The Console Log - consolejta.log

This log provides a final level of logging for runtime errors encountered in the Trace Analyzer. It contains all output (if any) that was sent to the Java console (i.e., the command line window from which the program was launched) during the execution of the program. The information recorded in this file often represents errors that were not handled by the program. In other words, information appearing in this file likely represents an error condition that was not anticipated by the program's logic.

While the Trace Analyzer program is running, the Java console often is minimized or hidden, is obscured by other windows, or is otherwise absent. Even if the console is in view, the output sent to it in response to an error condition often is voluminous and may scroll by too quickly for the user to read. Thus, this output is redirected automatically to a file called consolejta.log, which resides in the logs subdirectory off the Trace Analyzer installation path.

Typically this information is warning or error message text that was sent to the Java console as a last ditch effort to report an error condition that was otherwise unrecoverable. In some cases, however, this text may simply represent notification of a benign occurrence. Whatever the cause, the source of this output may be

the Trace Analyzer itself;
one of the code libraries utilized by the Trace Analyzer; or
the Java Virtual Machine.

Because output to the console is redirected while the program is running, no text will appear in the console until the program is exited. However, if any output was sent to the console, the user will receive the following warning message when the program is exited.

WARNING! Possible unhandled errors were detected.
Please see console log file
<LOG_PATH>consolejta.log
for details.

where <LOG_PATH> is the location of the console log file.

Note: it is very important that the console log file which was generated when a problem was encountered, if any, be included with any problem report submitted to Technical Support.