JP2001014184A - System for reporting debug information - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a debug information reporting system for individually reporting debug information of application software during execution to a plurality of users. SOLUTION: The system is provided with a debug manager DM which is previously incorporated in application software AP to manage a plurality of tasks T1 to T3 by which the debug processings of application software AP are executed by previously decided kind and with a file which respectively stores debug information at every task. The debug manager DM reads debug information from the file by a request signal for requesting minute information and debug information obtained from the users of application software AP during the execution of the program and transmits them to the users.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a debug information notifying system, and more particularly, to debug information for promptly providing debug information during debugging of application software operating on an operating system of a computer terminal to a developer thereof. Regarding the notification method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with the demand and rapid development of software running on computers, the life cycle of application software has been shortened, and increasingly complex application software has been reduced in cost and time as much as possible. In other words, that is, to complete development.

Generally, the processing required for software until the creation of application software is completed is roughly composed of the following steps.

[0004] That is, a first stage of preparing a specification of application software, a second stage of preparing an application program based on the specification, and the prepared application program satisfies the contents described in the specification. A third stage of testing whether the problem is found, and if an inconsistency is found by the test result, return to the second stage again to correct this, that is, to debug, If it is not found and it is determined that the contents of the specification are satisfied, the above series of processing, that is, application
This is the fourth stage of completing the software development.

[0005] The second stage can be repeated many times as long as the specifications are not satisfied, and after the inconvenience has been removed, the final stage can be advanced to the fourth stage. It costs considerable time and labor.

[0006] In order to reduce the time and cost required for development, it is desirable that each step of the process be performed by a person having abundant technical knowledge and experience.

In particular, the second stage is the application
This is an important step in which a so-called programmer with knowledge of the programming language required for programming software is involved.

However, the third and fourth steps for testing the operation of the application software are performed by a tester who does not understand the contents of the program itself in accordance with a predetermined work procedure prepared in advance. , And it is sufficient to make a pass / fail decision on the result.

However, as a result of executing the test for confirming the operation of the application software in the third stage, an inconvenient place where the program needs debugging, that is, a bug that causes a failure in the application is found. Even so, a system has not been established to promptly report to the debugging programmer detailed information sufficient to facilitate the analysis of the fault in the second stage. In other words, even if the result of the operation test is simply fed back to the programmer from the operation test site in the development, the debug process is not immediately started.

[0010] For this purpose, the programmer operates the program again to reproduce the reported fault, and also uses a debugger or the like as necessary to find and analyze the cause of the fault and to analyze the bug of the program. Must be found and removed, that is, debugged.

In the case of communication software, it is necessary to prepare a measuring instrument for detecting a failure and reproduce the communication failure in a simulated manner to obtain detailed information of the failure. It is often not easy to reproduce such an obstacle itself, in which case a considerable amount of time is spent.

As described above, in the conventional software development, a development environment such as a special measuring instrument and an analysis environment are sufficiently prepared, and the programmer performs runtime information analysis only in such an environment. It was possible to investigate the cause of the failure in detail. In such a development situation, development of application software is costly and time-consuming, and it is not preferable even in light of the current situation where the life cycle of software is shortened.

Further, such an operation test of the application software is executed at a plurality of locations in parallel for the purpose of shortening the development time, and the operation test results are simultaneously sent to the programmer. Feedback may be provided, but programmers may not always be able to respond simultaneously due to economic and capacity factors.

Further, in order to improve the reliability of the application software, an operation test of the application software for simulating a use site by setting various conditions as much as possible is executed. If a defect is discovered after the software has already been shipped as a product,
Communication from a plurality of distant places may cause a failure to be reported to the programmer one after another.

In such a case, the programmer cannot always cope with them all at the same time. In such a case, depending on the priority of troubleshooting, the tolerance of waiting for time, etc.,
It is necessary to deal with the level of the obstacle.

As a first example of the prior art proposed to solve the above-mentioned problem, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho 60-26323 is disclosed.
The “software development device” disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 4 has a plurality of software development tools for performing necessary processing based on input data and outputting the results, and includes various software development tools. An error analyzer for analyzing and totalizing generated error information and a device for recording the result of the analysis and totalization are added.

However, there is no disclosure of a technique for quickly analyzing the analysis and aggregation results from a device that records the analysis and aggregation results to a programmer using communication.

As a second example of the prior art for solving the above-mentioned problem, an "operating system embedded debug support system" disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-241886 provides various functions for a program execution environment. In a debugging support system that uses a kernel function that provides interrupt management of the operating system and a task management function, the collected data is analyzed by each data analysis means, and the results are sent to the debugger naturally. A technique is disclosed that includes a plurality of notification means for notifying a communication host workstation in a language.

However, this debug support system does not disclose any technique for causing a distant operator to perform processing in accordance with the level in consideration of possible conflict between the plurality of notification means.

As a third example of the prior art which solves the above-mentioned problem, a "fault monitoring system" disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 6-242991 accepts a fault report generated in a group of computing systems, and determines the fault. It is provided with a means for analyzing and analyzing the analysis result to a customer of the computer system in which a failure has occurred by e-mail or directly by facsimile.

In general, various priorities are set for processing of a computer system including a fault, and when a plurality of faults occur simultaneously, it is necessary to process according to the level. However, the arrangement is not adapted to handle such levels.

As a fourth example of the prior art which solves the above-mentioned problem, a debugging system is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 10-333935.

This technique relates to a debugging method for software driven by an event-driven system. By transmitting a debugging message to a debugging processing procedure previously incorporated in the target software, the debugging processing procedure is performed. And a debugging step in which the debugging procedure performs a debugging operation to find a fault in the target software.

In this case, if the debug manager is remotely operated via the communication interface, debugging of the component to be debugged can be performed from a remote place, and so-called remote maintenance can be easily performed. And

However, in order to remotely control the debug manager via a communication interface,
A separate transmission process is required to transmit at least the debug manager stored in the file. At this time, if a plurality of components to be debugged are transmitted in a concentrated manner, there is no disclosure as to how to deal with them.

[0026]

As described above, when prompt debug processing is requested in the development of application software, etc., the application is transmitted to the debug processing side using communication as necessary.・
It is necessary to provide detailed debug information of the software in a timely manner and to add some level information indicating the priority of the processing in order to appropriately cope with a plurality of debug processings occurring simultaneously.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional circumstances, and accordingly, an object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks inherent in the conventional technology and to satisfy the above-mentioned conventional needs. It is another object of the present invention to provide a new debug information notification method for application software programs.

[0028]

In order to achieve the above object, a debug information notification method according to the present invention provides a debug information notification method which individually notifies debug information of a running application software to a plurality of users. In the method, a debug manager previously incorporated in the application software so as to manage a plurality of tasks for performing a debug process of the application software according to a predetermined level, and debug information for each task by the management of the debug manager The debug manager receives detailed information obtained during execution of the program from a user of the application software, and a request signal for requesting the debug information, and according to the request signal, Details It reads the debugging information corresponding to the information from the file, leaving those that have been characterized by being adapted to deliver to the user.

Further, in the debug information notifying method according to the present invention, the detailed information and the request signal are transmitted when the debug information
Transmitted and received through communication means provided between the manager and the user, the debug manager reads out the debug information corresponding to the user from the file, and outputs the user information through the communication means. May be provided.

Further, in the debug information notifying method according to the present invention, the level is set in accordance with the priority of the request signal in order to cope with the request signal from a plurality of users occurring simultaneously. Transmitted to the debug manager according to the level information added to the request signal, and the debug manager selectively reads detailed information from the file according to the level information and sends the detailed information to the user. Is also good.

Further, in the debug information notifying method according to the present invention, the user sends a level change request signal requesting the level change to the debug manager, and the debug manager sends the level change request signal to the debug manager. The level for determining the priority for sending the debug information of the designated task in response to the reception of the signal may be changed.

[0032]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing the application software according to the present invention running on a normal operating system.

[Structure of Embodiment] Referring to FIG.
An application software AP according to the present invention operating on a normal operating system OS, and incorporated in the application software AP;
A debug manager DM having a number of tasks (for the sake of simplicity, this embodiment is described for T1, T2 and T3).

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG.
The name of the process is name / PID, and tasks T1 to T3 are alarm monitor task (Alm / n), control task (Cnt / m), and log task (L
og / p).

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram showing a common interface in the task Tn (n = 1 to 3).

Referring to FIG. 3, the debug manager DM communicates with the application software AP via the common interface CIF exemplified by task T1.
Is connected to all tasks T1 to T3 so as to be communicable, and a debug information DB is provided by a user (not shown).
Responds to a transmission request of INF1 to DBINF3 with a predetermined debug level, and transfers debug information from the debug manager DM to an e-mail address as communication means registered in advance for the tasks T1 to T3. As a result, the debug information is provided to the user of the application software AP.

The common interface CIF has, as arguments, the process IDs 1 to 3 of the tasks T1 to T3 acquired earlier and the debug level requested by the user.

Here, the debug levels LVa, LVc
And LVl (each one of levels 1 to 3 is taken, and the processing priority is level 1> level 2
> Level 3) is registered.

Level 1 is basic information indicating the current state of the task, level 2 is command level information that does not include 1 indicating the content of a command transmitted to the monitored transmission device, and level 3 is detailed information. Given to.

The detailed information includes as detailed information as possible, such as a variable value in the task, the name of the method being processed, and exception sending information. The detailed information is used, for example, to find unauthorized access.

Debug level L of each task T1 to T3
The levels of Va, LVc and LVl can be changed when a debug level change request is sent from the user and the debug manager DM receives it. The debug manager DM also accepts a debug level change request for a debug level of another task.

[Operation of Embodiment] Next, the operation of the embodiment according to the present invention will be described.

When the monitoring software is started, first,
A script file is prepared so as to activate the debug manager DM. After that, the remaining tasks are activated in order.

As shown in FIG. 2, here, the debug manager DM acts as a name server, the name (name / PID) is registered in the task database, and the tasks T1 to T3 are also registered. be registered. The task names in this embodiment are, as described above, the alarm monitor task (Alm / n) and the control task (Cn
t / m) and the log task (Log / p).
Process IDs 1 to 3 and debug /
Levels LVa, LVc and LVl are also registered.

Thus, the subsequent debug manager DM can communicate with all the tasks T1 to T3, and thus can know which of the tasks T1 to T3 is currently operating. It is preferable that the task name be such that the user can easily distinguish any of the tasks T1 to T3 as debug information when the user later requests debug information.

The debug manager DM, when receiving a request for debug information from the user using the common interface CIF, immediately sends the process information together with the process IDs 1-3.
Set debug levels LVa, LVc and LVl to provide debug information to other tasks.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the transfer of information between the debug manager DM and each of the tasks T1, T2 and T3.

Referring to FIG. 3, for each task T1, T2, and T3, the depack manager DM provides process identification information PID1 to PID3 and debug levels LVa, LVc, and L as debug information requests.
Send Vl.

On the other hand, each task T1, T2 and T3
Transfers the debug information DBINF1 to DBINF3 to the debug manager DM according to the level 1, 2 or 3 of each debug information request.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a filter function used when sending debug information DBINF1 to DBINF3 of the task Tn (n = 1 to 3) to the debug manager DM.

Referring to FIG. 5, since various tasks and debug information for each routine are prepared for each of the tasks T1 to T3, the filter function is provided by the debug manager D.
Debug information DBINF only for level requested by M
1. Filter processing is performed so that DBINF2 or DBINF3 transfers to the debug manager DM.

On the other hand, an interface, for example, a graphical user interface, turns on by selecting specific debug information from a so-called menu displayed on the screen. The menu that follows prompts the user to set the debug level. In response to this, when the user selects the level, a window W1 dedicated to debugging is activated as shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 shows a debug program for displaying debug information.
It is a display figure of window W1.

In FIG. 6, debug information DBINFn (n = 1 to 3) is displayed on the debug window W1.
The message includes an indication of the line from which the program of each task is transmitted (Send CMD), an indication of the execution time (Cnt), etc., and a display of a print for executing printout as a radio button. (P
print), a display for saving a file (Save to File), and the like. Radio button RBT indicates the level of debug information DBINFn L
It is indicated by level1, Level2 and Level3.

FIG. 7 is a display diagram of a window W2 showing an e-mail pull-down menu, in which setting items to be set by the user when executing the e-mail are enlarged.

Referring to FIG. 6, setting items (Mail
Display of the user's e-mail address MA to be set by the user as “Registration” (Mai)
lAddress), display of capture time CT for setting the length of time (seconds) for capturing debug information (Capture)
Time), and a display (Send Mail Yes ■ No □) for selecting whether or not to permit transmission of an e-mail SM. The capture time is a time for transmitting the debug information after holding it for the time set here.

[Other Embodiments] Next, other embodiments of the present invention will be described.

Although the present invention has been described above by providing an electronic mail transmission engine in the debug manager DM, an electronic mail application may be externally provided as another embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a display diagram of a window W3 showing a pull-down menu for explaining another embodiment of the present invention.

In another embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 8, the debug manager DM saves the captured run time debug information as a file after a specified time has elapsed. Thereafter, the debug manager DM starts the designated external e-mail application EMAP. The user can use the launched external e-mail application EMAP to attach the saved run-time debug information file to the e-mail as an attached file, and optionally write a comment to this file. .

[0062]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the developer of the application software and the tester who performs the test can send and receive debug information via e-mail, it is possible to respond sufficiently even if the developer is away from the test site.

Further, according to the present invention, debug information can be directly, promptly and accurately provided to an application software developer via electronic mail. And special analyzers are not required, which is also advantageous in reducing the analysis time for analyzing disadvantages, the cost of application software development, and the time to market. It is.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing application software according to the present invention running on a normal operating system.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram showing tasks registered in a debug manager.

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram showing a common interface in a task.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing exchange of information between a debug manager and each task.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a filter function used when sending debug information of a task to a debug manager.

FIG. 6 is a display diagram of a debug window for displaying debug information.

FIG. 7 is a display diagram of a debug window for displaying debug information.

FIG. 8 is a display diagram of a debug window for displaying debug information.

[Explanation of symbols]

 AP: Application software DM: Debug manager T1 to T3, Tn: Task W1, W2, W3: Window

Claims (4)

[Claims] In a debug information notification method for individually notifying a plurality of users of debug information of a running application software, a plurality of tasks for performing a debug process of the application software according to a predetermined level are managed. A debug manager pre-installed in the application software, and a file storing debug information for each of the tasks under the management of the debug manager. The debug manager comprises:
Receiving detailed information obtained during execution of the program from a user of the software, and a request signal for requesting the debug information; reading debug information corresponding to the detailed information from the file according to the request signal; A debug information notification method characterized in that the information is transmitted to a user. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the detailed information and the request signal are transmitted and received via communication means provided between the debug manager and the user. 2. The debug information notification method according to claim 1, further comprising reading debug information from the file and providing the debug information to the user via the communication unit. 3. The level is set to the request signal in accordance with its priority and added to the request signal in order to cope with the request signals from a plurality of users occurring simultaneously. The information is transmitted to the debug manager according to level information, and the debug manager selectively reads detailed information from the file according to the level information and sends the detailed information to the user. Or the debug information notification method according to any one of 2. 4. The user sends a level change request signal requesting the level change to the debug manager, and the debug manager is designated in response to receiving the level change request signal. 4. The debug information notification method according to claim 1, further comprising changing a level for determining a priority of sending task debug information.