Crash Dump Analysis

DebugWare Patterns (Part 12)

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Support tools can be packaged for delivery as (not counting optional separate readme and EULA files):

- A raw collection of modules
- A single installation package
- A single archived file
- A single self-extractable component

The latter common packaging choice is a pattern itself that I call Self Extractor. Typical examples include sysinternals tools like Process Monitor. Here is a simple unorthodox UML diagram for a single platform tool combining elements from static and component diagrams to illustrate component embedding (not sharing):

SM is a supporting module, for example, a driver, to carry out some task or receive notifications.

Some tools even extract different components depending on the processor architecture, for example, x86 and x64. This is illustrated on a more elaborate UML diagram:

The typical example would be a backward compatible x86 Extractor that extracts an x64 driver (Extractee) for an x64 OS kernel that doesn’t load x86 drivers.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -