Crash reporter

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A crash reporter is an application whose function is to report crash data to a third party, usually to the party responsible for the crashed program. Crash reports often include data such as stack traces, type of crash, and version of software. This information helps software developers to diagnose and fix the underlying problem causing the crash.

Contents 1 Mac OS X 2 Windows XP 3 GNOME 4 KDE 5 Mozilla 6 Ubuntu 7 World of Warcraft 8 Third Party Crash Reporters 9 In Development 9.1 Breakpad 10 References

[edit] Mac OS X

Main article: Crash Reporter

In Mac OS X there is a standard crash reporter in /System/Library/CoreServices/Crash Reporter.app. Crash Reporter.app sends the Unix crash logs to Apple Computer for their engineers to look at. The top text field of the window has the crash log, while the bottom field is for user comments. Users may also copy and paste the log in their email client to send to the application vendor for them to use. Crash Reporter.app has 3 main modes: display nothing on crash, display "Application has crashed" dialog box or display Crash Report window.

[edit] Windows XP

Microsoft Windows XP includes a crash reporting service called Windows Error Reporting (formerly Online Crash Analysis) that prompts users to send crash reports to Microsoft for online analysis.^[1] The information goes to a central database run by Microsoft. It consists of diagnostic information that helps the company or development team responsible for the crash to debug and resolve the issue if they choose to do so.

Windows probably contains the most sophisticated form of OCA to date where the central database can be setup to gather additional information from users that are experiencing a particular type of crash (through user approval). The system considers all parts of the debug and release process, such that targeted bug fixes can be applied through Windows Update. In other words, only people experiencing a particular type of crash can be offered the bug fix, thus limiting exposure to an issue.

[edit] GNOME

Bug Buddy is the crash reporting tool used by the GNOME platform. When an application using the GNOME libraries crashes, Bug Buddy generates a stack trace using gdb and invites the user to submit the report to the GNOME bugzilla. The user can add comments and view the details of the crash report.

[edit] KDE

The crash reporting tool used by KDE is called Dr. Konqi.

[edit] Mozilla

Talkback (also known as the Quality Feedback Agent) is the crash reporter used by the Mozilla Corporation to report crashes of its products to a centralized server for aggregation or case-by-case analysis.^[2] Talkback is proprietary software licensed to the Mozilla Corporation by SupportSoft. If a Mozilla product (e.g. Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird) were to crash with Talkback enabled, the Talkback agent would appear, prompting the user to provide optional information regarding the crash. Talkback does not replace the native OS crash reporter which, if enabled, will appear along with the Talkback agent.

[edit] Ubuntu

With the release of Ubuntu 6.10, Ubuntu includes Apport^[3]. It is not currently enabled for GNOME desktop applications; they continue to use Bug Buddy.

Apport works by installing a userspace helper which intercepts user processes when they would usually dump core, and writes crash reports to a staging location. A user daemon then invites the user to submit new crash reports to Ubuntu for analysis.^[4]

[edit] World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft is another program to use its own crash reporter, "Error Reporter". Its effectiveness at catching crashes isn't always 100%; sometimes the OS crash reporter is invoked instead. Error Reporter has even been known to crash while reporting errors.

[edit] Third Party Crash Reporters

BugSplat Software provide crash reporting for Windows applications (Visual C++ or .Net) and Java applications. A Mac OS/X framework is under development.

[edit] In Development

[edit] Breakpad

Breakpad (previously called Airbag) is an open-source replacement for Talkback for Firefox and Thunderbird. It is being developed by Google and Mozilla.^[5][6] Although not finished, this product is significant because it is the first open source multi-platform crash reporting system.

[edit] References

1. ^ http://microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/expert/northrup_03october06.mspx
2. ^ Mozilla Talkback server. Retrieved on September 21, 2006.
3. ^ EdgyReleaseNotes. Retrieved on February 14, 2007.
4. ^ Apport. Ubuntu Wiki. Retrieved on February 14, 2007.
5. ^ Deploying the Airbag. BSBlog (Mozilla developer Benjamin Smedberg's weblog).
6. ^ Using Breakpad with Gran Paradiso (1.9a3). BSBlog (Mozilla developer Benjamin Smedberg's weblog).