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Trace and Log Analysis as a Fabrication Process

Adding and Subtracting Messages through Patterning

PDF: https://www.dumpanalysis.org/files/Trace_and_Log_Analysis_as_a_Fabricati...

We can view trace and log analysis as a fabrication process. Messages and their relationships provide the material, while analysis patterns guide what we add, remove, combine, or summarize. The resulting artifact must remain connected to its source observations and to the diagnostic question it is intended to answer.

In this paper, we develop this perspective through Software Codiagnostics, Diagnostic Operads, and Higher-Order Pattern Narratives. We consider how diagnostic operations compose into fabrication recipes and how their application and revision become material for further analysis. We distinguish recorded observations from derived messages, hypotheses, and padding, and examine the consequences of operation order and information loss.

Two worked examples illustrate retry summarization and the recovery of context hidden by component filtering. They show why a compact trace can preserve one diagnostic property while concealing another. We connect the construction of diagnostic artifacts with provenance, preservation obligations, and the diagnosis of the analysis itself.