Interpreting trace output

On an appserver, trace output can be directed either to a file or to an in-memory circular buffer. If trace output is directed to the in-memory circular buffer, it must be dumped to a file before it can be viewed.

On an application client or stand-alone process, trace output can be directed either to a file or to the process console window.

In all cases, trace output is generated as plain text in either basic, advanced or log analyzer format as specified by the user. The basic and advanced formats for trace output are similar to the basic and advanced formats that are available for the JVM message logs.

 

Basic and advanced format fields

Basic and Advanced Formats use many of the same fields and formatting techniques. The fields that can be used in these formats include...

TimeStamp	The timestamp is formatted using the locale of the process where it is formatted. It includes a fully qualified date (YYMMDD), 24 hour time with millisecond precision and the time zone.
ThreadId	An 8 character hexadecimal value generated from the hash code of the thread that issued the trace event.
ShortName	The abbreviated name of the logging component that issued the trace event. This is typically the class name for WAS internal components, but may be some other identifier for user applications.
LongName	The full name of the logging component that issued the trace event. This is typically the fully qualified class name for WAS internal components, but may be some other identifier for user applications.
EventType	A one character field that indicates the type of the trace event. Trace types are in lower case. Possible values include... > a trace entry of type method entry. < a trace entry of type method exit. e a trace entry of type event. d a trace entry of type debug. m a trace entry of type dump. u a trace entry of type unconditional. Z a placeholder to indicate that the trace type was not recognized.
ClassName	The class that issued the message or trace event.
MethodName	The method that issued the message or trace event.
Organization	The organization that owns the application that issued the message or trace event.
Product	WAS that issued the message or trace event.
Component	The component within the product that issued the message or trace event.

 

Basic format

Trace events displayed in basic format use the following format

<timestamp><threadId><shortName><eventType>[className][methodName]<textmessage>
               [parameter 1]
               [parameter 2]

 

Advanced formats

Trace events displayed in advanced format use the following format

<timestamp><threadId><eventType><UOW><source=longName>[className][methodName]<Organization><Product><Component>
<textMessage>[parameter 1=parameterValue][parameter 2=parameterValue]

 

Log analyzer

Specifying the log analyzer format allows you to open trace output using the Log Analyzer. This is useful if you are trying to correlate traces from two different server processes, because it allows you to use the Log Analyzer's merge capability).

 

See Also

Managing the appserver trace service

 

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