PDGuide - Problem Determination APIs

Problem Determination Programmer's Guide
Introduction to Collecting and Managing Problem Determination Data Guide to Instrumenting Your Code Controlling FFSTProbe Calls Viewing and Analyzing Error Log Entries Analyzing Performance and Debugging Problems Using Trace Capturing and Saving Failure-Related Information through Dumps The Desktop Management Interface Summary of Functions and Interfaces Problem Determination APIs

Reprint Courtesy of International Business Machines Corporation, © International Business Machines Corporation

These APIs are intended for programmers developing OS/2 applications. Problem Determination services provide basic support for identifying and isolating errors. They include an integrated Error Log to keep a historical record of errors detected by the operating system and, optionally, by applications. The mechanism for inserting entries into the Error Log is the FFSTProbe function. FFST (First Failure Support Technology) enables errors to be logged when first detected.

FFSTProbe also supports the collection of trace and user-specified information and the association of it with an error log entry and possibly an FFST dump. Traces are used to create a historical record of activity in the operating system and, optionally, applications. FFST dumps are produced if the user calls FFSTProbe with certain parameters filled in.

A system dump is used to create a snapshot of the entire contents of main memory at the time of a system crash. In most cases, a system dump should be taken only with the assistance of a Service Representative.

The information in the Error Log, along with any trace or dump information, can be valuable in isolating errors more quickly and with less disruption to users.

Problem Determination services provide application programming interfaces (APIs) for:

• Managing Error Log files
• Reading and formatting Error Log entries
• Registering and waiting for Error Log event notifications
• Changing Error Log event-notification filters
• Logging an error and storing associated trace and dump information in a file

The following libraries must be linked with object files that use the Problem Determination functions:

Library	Functions
ffst.lib	FFST functions
lfapi.lib	Log functions
trace.lib	TraceCreateEntry

This chapter includes the following sections:

• Problem Determination Functions
• Problem Determination Data Types

API Information

• FFST/2 API