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Choose the Dump File Type (Compact 7)

  • Article

3/12/2014

You can set the type of dump file that the device generates. By selecting the type of dump file to generate, you can help balance your need for more information with the space that is available for storing it. Larger dump files provide more information, but embedded devices often have restricted amounts of memory available.

The following table shows the types of dump files available. The default is System dump. However, if the size of the System dump file is expected to be larger than the space allocated to it, the device generates a much smaller Context dump file. For information about the format of dump files, see Error Reporting Dump Files.

Capture method Contents captured Best used for

Context dump

4 KB to 64 KB

Context record

Module and thread list

Call stack of current thread

Memory adjacent to current thread

Best for a sequential, deterministic application

  • Bugs related to simple, shallow, non-synchronization processes
  • Bugs based on the current process, current context, and local data

System dump

64 KB to several MB

All processes and threads executing at the time of capture

Call stacks and context records for all threads

2048 bytes of memory above and below instruction pointer of current thread

Global variables for current process

Best for multithreaded applications, device drivers, and kernel processes.

  • Bugs related to shallow, even, synchronization-related processes
  • Bugs that rely on data in other threads, heap, or mapped files

Complete dump

All physical memory
  • Bugs involving deep, synchronization-related processes
  • Bugs with no trace of the root cause remaining in memory

If you want the dump file to be a System dump, you don’t need to change any registry values because that is the default setting. If you want to change the dump file type to Context or Complete, the registry value that you need to change is: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ErrorReporting\DumpSettings] "DumpType".

To change the dump file type

  1. In Platform Builder, open your OS design project.

  2. In Solution Explorer, expand the OS design project node, and then expand the Parameter Files directory.

  3. Under Parameter Files, double-click OSDesign.reg.

  4. In the OSDesign.reg pane, expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, right-click System, click New, and then click Key.

  5. Type ErrorReporting, and then press Enter.

  6. Right-click ErrorReporting, click New, and then click Key.

  7. Type DumpSettings, and then press Enter.

  8. Right-click DumpSettings, click New, and then click DWORD Value.

  9. Type DumpType, and then press Enter.

  10. In the Properties pane for the DumpType registry value, set Data to 1 for Context dump or 3 for Complete dump.

  11. Save and then build the OS design project.

See Also

Concepts

Set Up Your Device for Post-Mortem Debugging