Software Diagnostics Library

The number of monthly site visits reached 15,000 (Google analytics reports more than 16,000). The upward trend continues since 10,000 Visit Mark at the end of January, 2008. I’m planning to add more attractive features to the portal during this summer. Stay tuned and participate more actively in SEO resonance (75% of all traffic comes from search engines)

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

Although the first bug (the real one) was found in Mark II (see Software bug) the first general-purpose electronic computer was ENIAC and surely it had defects like overflow. In 80s there was an electronic music group called Software. I have a few CDs and listen to them sometimes. One album is called Software-Visions and it has these tracks (one of them is called Xenix - Microsoft UNIX-based OS):

1. Software Visions
2. Secrets
3. Stranger
4. Realtime
5. Mainframe
6. Snobol
7. Xenix
8. Syntax
9. Overflow
10. Interface
11. Eniac

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

Nested exception analysis is much simpler in managed code than in unmanaged. Exception object references the inner exception if any and so on:

Exception.InnerException

WinDbg does a good job traversing all nested exceptions when executing !analyze -v command. In the following example of a Windows forms application crash ObjectDisposedException (shown in red) was re-thrown as Exception object with “Critical error” message (shown in magenta) which was re-thrown several times as Exception object with “Critical program error” message (shown in blue) that finally resulted in the process termination request in the top level exception handler:

MANAGED_STACK:
(TransitionMU)
001374B0 0B313757 System!System.Diagnostics.Process.Kill()+0x37
001374E4 0B3129C7 Component!Foo.HandleUnhandledException(System.Exception)+0x137
001374F4 07C0A7D3 Component!Foo+FooBarProcessMenuCommand(System.String)+0x33
(TransitionUM)
(TransitionMU)
[...]

EXCEPTION_OBJECT: !pe 3398614
Exception object: 03398614
Exception type: System.Exception
Message: Critical program error
InnerException: System.Exception, use !PrintException 03398560 to see more StackTrace (generated):
    SP       IP       Function
    001371A8 07C0CDD8 Foo.BarUserInteraction.Process(System.String)
    00137258 07C0CCA6 Foo.BarUserInteraction.ProcessUserInteraction(Sub, BarStepType)
    00137268 07C0A9BA Foo.BarMenu.Process(CMD)
    00137544 07C0A8D8 Foo.BarMenu.ProcessCMD(CMD)
    0013756C 07C0A7BE Foo+FooBar.ProcessBarMenuCommand(System.String)

StackTraceString: <none>
HResult: 80131500

EXCEPTION_OBJECT: !pe 3398560
Exception object: 03398560
Exception type: System.Exception
Message: Critical program error
InnerException: System.Exception, use !PrintException 033984ac to see more StackTrace (generated):
    SP       IP       Function
    00137154 07C0D4CA Foo.BarThreads+ProcessOpenQuery.Execute()
    00137218 07C0D3B3 Foo.BarMenu.ProcessQuery()
    00137220 07C0CCF3 Foo.BarUserInteraction.Process(System.String)

StackTraceString: <none>
HResult: 80131500

EXCEPTION_OBJECT: !pe 33984ac
Exception object: 033984ac
Exception type: System.Exception
Message: Critical program error
InnerException: System.Exception, use !PrintException 033983ec to see more StackTrace (generated):
    SP       IP       Function
    0013704C 0A6149DD Foo.Bar.OpenQueryThreaded(Foo.BarParameter)
    00137154 0A6140D0 Foo.BarThreads+ProcessParameter.Execute()
[…]

StackTraceString: <none>
HResult: 80131500

EXCEPTION_OBJECT: !pe 33983ec
Exception object: 033983ec
Exception type: System.Exception
Message: Critical program error
InnerException: System.Exception, use !PrintException 033982fc to see more StackTrace (generated):
    SP       IP       Function
    00137008 0ACA59F1 Foo.BarApplication.Refresh(Boolean, Boolean)
    001370C4 0A6144E0 Foo.Bar.OpenQueryThreaded(Foo.BarParameter)

StackTraceString: <none>
HResult: 80131500

EXCEPTION_OBJECT: !pe 33982fc
Exception object: 033982fc
Exception type: System.Exception
Message: Critical program error
InnerException: System.Exception, use !PrintException 03398260 to see more StackTrace (generated):
    SP       IP       Function
    00136F3C 0AE24983 Foo.BarDisplay.ShowVariableScreen(Foo.variables.BarVariables)
    00136FDC 0AE204F6 Foo.variables.BarVariables.ShowVariableScreen()
    00137070 0ACAFE1D Foo.BarApplication.ShowVariableScreen(Boolean)
    00137080 0ACA5977 Foo.BarApplication.Refresh(Boolean, Boolean)

StackTraceString: <none>
HResult: 80131500

EXCEPTION_OBJECT: !pe 3398260
Exception object: 03398260
Exception type: System.Exception
Message: Critical error
InnerException: System.ObjectDisposedException, use !PrintException 03397db8 to see more StackTrace (generated):
    SP       IP       Function
    00136FB4 0AE24905 Foo.BarDisplay.ShowVariableScreen(Foo.variables.BarVariables)

StackTraceString: <none>
HResult: 80131500

EXCEPTION_OBJECT: !pe 3397db8
Exception object: 03397db8
Exception type: System.ObjectDisposedException
Message: Cannot access a disposed object.
InnerException: <none>
StackTrace (generated):
    SP       IP       Function
    00136258 06D36158 System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateHandle()
    001362B8 06D38F96 System.Windows.Forms.Control.get_Handle()
    001362C4 0B0C8C68 System.Windows.Forms.Control.PointToScreen(System.Drawing.Point)
    001362F0 0B0CECB4 System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnMouseUp(System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs)
    00136314 0B0C8BB7 System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(System.Windows.Forms.Message ByRef, System.Windows.Forms.MouseButtons, Int32)
    00136384 06D385A0 System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(System.Windows.Forms.Message ByRef)
    001363E8 0A69C73E System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(System.Windows.Forms.Message ByRef)
    00136424 0A69C54D System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(System.Windows.Forms.Message ByRef)
    0013642C 06D37FAD System.Windows.Forms.Control+ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(System.Windows.Forms.Message ByRef)
    00136430 06D37F87 System.Windows.Forms.Control+ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(System.Windows.Forms.Message ByRef)
    00136440 06D37D9F System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr, Int32, IntPtr, IntPtr)

StackTraceString: <none>
HResult: 80131622

[…]

EXCEPTION_MESSAGE:  Cannot access a disposed object.

STACK_TEXT: 
00137448 7c827c1b ntdll!KiFastSystemCallRet
0013744c 77e4201b ntdll!NtTerminateProcess+0xc
0013745c 05d78202 kernel32!TerminateProcess+0x20
[...]

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

I’m thinking big for a full-color book to celebrate the forthcoming anniversary of Memory Dump Analysis Anthology. Preliminary details:

• Title: Encyclopedia of Crash Dump Analysis Patterns
• Author: Dmitry Vostokov
• Publisher: Opentask (15 April 2009)
• Language: English
• Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14.0
• ISBN-13: 978-1-906717-21-6
• Paperback: 400 pages

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

There are currently 86 patterns in 67 groups and more are coming. I’m working the first two weeks in July to classify them. The classification scheme(s) should appear around 15th of July.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -