On-demand stack trace?

Still using CS10 Builder. Is there a way to obtain a stack trace of the current execution without causing a trace exception? This would be incredibly useful to troubleshoot a problem we have on a production system that consists of messages coming from an unknown source. I'd like to cause the message code to log a stack trace every time it executes so that I can see where it's getting called. And I don't want to intentionally cause a trace file because it will interrupt execution. But a quick patch to enhance logging is perfectly doable.

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Kyle_Swidrovich

Hi Brett,

You have great timing.

As of Update 13 this is possible through the use of System.ThreadStackCrawl(). This will generate a stack crawl on demand and return a string, without interrupting execution. You can then do whatever you like with the string.
I believe it takes a boolean representing verbosity of the data in the string.

Kyle

Brett_Conley

Hmm. I'll see if that will fly with this customer, but they're going to be very hesitant. They have 9 OTCS systems (6 front-end, 3 admin) and have to go through a process just to apply patches. I don't suppose this feature could be added to a non-u13 system piecemeal--just one dll? That might be easier for them to swallow in the short term and help us get closer to a resolution, although I will definitely recommend a u13 upgrade.

Kyle_Swidrovich

The System built-in is intimately tied to the kernel and engine of Content Server, so it's unfortunately not a minor change that could be safely performed.

Kyle_Swidrovich

Another thing to consider is only forcing a stack crawl if perfect conditions are met.
e.g., if the message you're about to write out is exactly "abc 123", then try to assign an Assoc to a String and stack crawl.