Need a way to periodically log the call stack/stack trace for EVERY method/procedure/function called

Question

I'm working on a very large application where periodically I'd like to log the ENTIRE call stack up until the current execution point (not on an exception). The idea here is that I want a map of the exact code path that led me to the point that I am. I have been working with madExcept, tooled around with jclDebug and while I can get some of the call stack, I can't seem to get EVERY method/procedure/function call that is made in the application to show up in the log.

I've got stack frames turned on, debug info, etc enabled on the project. I even tried turning on stack frames on individual methods that weren't getting included in the call stack to no avail.

Is what I'm trying to do even possible? I'm really trying to avoid having to add logging code all over our millions of lines of code in order to log the code path.

Answer 1

I use JCLDebug from the JCL to do just this.

The following will get the call stack for the current location and return it as a string.

function GetCurrentStack: string;
var
   stackList: TJclStackInfoList; //JclDebug.pas
   sl: TStringList;
begin
   stackList := JclCreateStackList(False, 0, Caller(0, False));
   sl := TStringList.Create;
   stackList.AddToStrings(sl, True, True, True, True);
   Result := sl.Text;
   sl.Free;
   stacklist.Free; 
end;

To make this work as expected, you must enable one of supported ways for Debug Information for JCL such as:

• Turbo Debugger Information
• JDBG Files (Generated from the MAP Files)
• JBDG Files Inserted into the EXE.

I recently switched between JDBG files inserted into the EXE to just shipping the external JDBG files as it was easier to maintain.

There are also routines that are useful for tracing such as:

function ProcByLevel(Level : Integer) : String;

This allows you to determine the current method/procedure name looking back in the call stack "N" number of levels.

Answer 2

You can use madExcept - it includes a method named GetThreadStackTrace. MadExcept is free for non-commercial use and definitely worth the price otherwise.