Full program trace onwards

EF wrote the following while trying to discover the reason why his "big" application ends with a "segmentation fault" when being run within undroidwish. He stills doesn't know, but is a useful package richer....

Source the following and call proctrace init from a point wherefrom you wish a full trace of what happens in your application. proctrace init accepts the following options:

-file: The location of a file that will contain the trace output, empty for stderr (the default).
-allowed: A list of patterns matching the names of the procedures that will be traced.
-denied: A list of patterns matching the names of the procedures that should not be traced.
-detailed: A boolean that will drive tracing: either complete command tracing or trace on procedure entry (the default).

The code below introspects your application to ensure that all procedures, even the ones that you have defined before calling proctrace init will be part of the tracing activity.

## Module Name     --  proctrace.tcl
## Original Author --  Emmanuel Frecon
## Description:
##
##      This module is meant to be a last resort debugging facility. It will
##      arrange for being able to trace execution either at the entry of
##      procedure, either of all commands within procedures. The defaults are to
##      trace all procedures, except the one from a few packages known to slow
##      execution down. See beginning of library for an explanation of the
##      options.
##

package require Tcl 8.6

namespace eval ::proctrace {
    namespace eval vars {
        # File to trace execution to (if no file is specified, tracing will
        # occur on the standard error)
        variable -file  ""
        # List of pattern to match against the name of current and future
        # procedures. Only the procedures matching the patterns in this list
        # will be considered for tracing.
        variable -allowed {*}
        # List of patterns to match against the name of procedure that should
        # not be considered for tracing. This is a subset of the ones allowed.
        variable -denied {::tcl::* ::aes::* ::logger::*}
        # A boolean, turn it on to trace the execution of each command block
        # within the procedures.
        variable -detailed off

        variable fd stderr;   # File descriptor where to trace
        variable version 0.2; # Current package version.
        variable enabled 1;   # Is tracing enabled
    }

    # Automatically export all procedures starting with lower case and
    # create an ensemble for an easier API.
    namespace export {[a-z]*}
    namespace ensemble create

}

# ::proctrace::init -- Init and start tracing 
#
#       Arrange to trace the execution of code either at the entry of procedure,
#       either of all commands within procedures. This command takes a number of
#       dash led options, these are described a the beginning of the library.
#
# Arguments:
#        args        List of dash-led options and arguments.
#
# Results:
#       None.
#
# Side Effects:
#       Will start tracing, which means a LOT of output!
proc ::proctrace::init { args } {
    # Detect all options available to the procedure, out of the variables that
    # are dash-led.
    set opts [list]
    foreach o [info vars vars::-*] {
        set i [string last "::-" $o]
        lappend opts [string trimleft [string range $o $i end] :]
    }
    
    # "parse" the options, i.e. set the values if they should exist...
    foreach {k v} $args {
        if { $k in $opts } {
            set vars::$k $v
        } else {
            return -code error "$k unknown options, should be [join $opts ,\ ]"
        }
    }
    
    # Open the file for output, if relevant.
    if { ${vars::-file} ne "" } {
        set vars::fd [open ${vars::-file} w]
    }

    # Arrange to reroute procedure declaration through our command so we can
    # automagically install execution traces.
    rename ::proc ::proctrace::RealProc
    interp alias {} ::proc {} ::proctrace::Proc
    
    # Catch up with the current set of existing procedure to make sure we can
    # also capture execution within procedure that would have been created
    # before ::proctrace::init was called.
    foreach p [AllProcs] {
        if { [Tracable $p]} {
            Follow $p 2
        }
    }
}

proc ::proctrace::terminate {} {set ::proctrace::vars::enabled 0}
proc ::proctrace::resume {} {set ::proctrace::vars::enabled 1}


# ::proctrace::AllProcs -- List all declared procedures
#
#       Returns a list of all declared procedures, in all namespaces currently
#       defined in the interpreter. The implementation recursively list all
#       procedures in all sub-namespaces.
#
# Arguments:
#        base        Namespace at which to start.
#
# Results:
#       List of all procedure in current and descendant namespaces.
#
# Side Effects:
#       None.
proc ::proctrace::AllProcs { { base "::" } } {
    # Get list of procedures in current namespace.
    set procs [info procs [string trimright ${base} :]::*]
    # Recurse in children namespaces.
    foreach ns [namespace children $base] {
        set procs [concat $procs [AllProcs $ns]]
    }
    return $procs
}


# ::proctrace::Follow -- Install traces
#
#       Install traces to be able to get notified whenever procedures are
#       entered or commands within procedures are executed.
#
# Arguments:
#        name        Name (fully-qualified) of procedure.
#        lvl        Call stack level at which to execute trace installation
#
# Results:
#       None.
#
# Side Effects:
#       Arrange for Trace procedure to be called
proc ::proctrace::Follow { name {lvl 1}} {
    if { [string is true ${vars::-detailed}] } {
        uplevel $lvl [list trace add execution $name enterstep [list ::proctrace::Trace $name]]
    } else {
        uplevel $lvl [list trace add execution $name enter [list ::proctrace::Trace $name]]
    }
    
}


# ::proctrace::Proc -- Capturing procedure
#
#       This is our re-implementation of the proc command. It calls the original
#       command and also arranges to install traces if appropriate.
#
# Arguments:
#        name        Name of procedure
#        arglist        List of arguments to procedure
#        body        Procedure body.
#
# Results:
#       None.
#
# Side Effects:
#       Creates a new procedure, possibly arrange for tracing its execution.
proc ::proctrace::Proc { name arglist body } {
    uplevel 1 [list ::proctrace::RealProc $name $arglist $body]
    if { [Tracable $name]} {
        Follow $name 2
    }
}


# ::proctrace::Trace -- Perform trace
#
#       Trace procedure/command execution.
#
# Arguments:
#        name        Name of procedure
#        command        Command being executed
#        op        Operation (should be enter or enterstep, not used)
#
# Results:
#       None.
#
# Side Effects:
#       Trace execution on globally allocated file descriptor.
proc ::proctrace::Trace { name command op } {
    if {!$::proctrace::vars::enabled} {return}
    puts $vars::fd "$name >> $command"
    flush $vars::fd
}

# ::proctrace::Tracable -- Should procedure be traced
#
#       Decide if a procedure should be traced according to the -allowed and
#       -denied options that are global to this library.
#
# Arguments:
#        name        Fully-qualified procedure name
#
# Results:
#       1 if the procedure should be traced, 0 otherwise.
#
# Side Effects:
#       None.
proc ::proctrace::Tracable { name } {
    # Traverse -allow(ance) list to allow procedure.
    set allow 0
    foreach ptn ${vars::-allowed} {
        if { [string match $ptn $name] } {
            set allow 1
            break
        }
    }

    # Possibly negate previous allowance through matching the name against the
    # patterns in the -denied list.
    foreach ptn ${vars::-denied} {
        if { [string match $ptn $name] } {
            set allow 0
            break
        }
    }

    # Return final decision.
    return $allow
}

package provide proctrace $::proctrace::vars::version

The code on this page contains a fix by [bintuch], who added a little tweak to support enabling/disabling of the tracing, in case of a big application in which you sometimes need this option but most of the time it lags the app. Tracing can be momentarily disabled or enabled using proctrace terminate and proctrace resume. This new version also implements an ensemble to ease code readability.

Category Debugging