Patent · US Expired

Method for characterizing program execution by periodic call stack inspection

US6857120B1 · kind B1 · utility

182Cited by
7References
36Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateNov 1, 2000
Grant dateFeb 15, 2005
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 24, 2022

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F9/4484
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method for characterizing runtime behavior of a computer program executing in an execution environment comprising: generating a call stack runtime data structure for tracking methods currently active in an executing program thread, an active method on the call stack is represented by a frame; determining condition for sampling an executing program to determine current program behavior; and, upon determination of a sampling condition, the sampling including examining at least one frame in the call stack in response to evaluate context of one or more methods represented in the call stack, the at least one frame in the call stack providing context relating to an executing program's calling structure.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.