International Business Machines Corporation

Paul G Van Leeuwen

Christopher John Engel

John Farrugia

Jason T Albert

Brent M Wieman

An executable high-level trace file generation system  provides reduced debugging effort and time, particularly on initial startup of new or modified hardware. An executable program invokes high-level application programming interfaces (APIs), to perform various tasks. Instructions within the APIs generate a trace file documenting the invoked sequence of APIs by writing a line to a trace file that documents the API and input parameters received by the API. Upon completion of execution of the API, the return value may be documented as a comment line in the trace file. The resulting trace file is then re-executable as a script and may be edited to alter the sequence of APIs invoked and/or the arguments provided. The script interpreter may be a command line interface through which the APIs are invoked, and trace files may be similarly generated that document sequences of manually entered commands.

Executable high-level trace file generation system

An executable high-level trace file generation method provides reduced debugging effort and time, particularly on initial startup of new or modified hardware. An executable program invokes high-level application programming interfaces (APIs), to perform various tasks. Instructions within the APIs generate a trace file documenting the invoked sequence of APIs by writing a line to a trace file that documents the API and input parameters received by the API. Upon completion of execution of the API, the return value may be documented as a comment line in the trace file. The resulting trace file is then re-executable as a script and may be edited to alter the sequence of APIs invoked and/or the arguments provided. The script interpreter may be a command line interface through which the APIs are invoked, and trace files may be similarly generated that document sequences of manually entered commands.

Growing community of inventors

Rochester, MN, United States of America

Paul G Van Leeuwen