Command Line Execution Tracing for a Child Process

Bug Validator can be controlled from the command line prompt.

This tutorial describes in detail how to get an execution trace for a child process launched from a process.

Sometimes the process you want to collect an execution trace for is not the process you are launching, but a process launched by that process.

Related tutorials:

Execution tracing in a child process.
Execution tracing in a service.
Execution tracing in a service child process.
Execution tracing in an IIS ISAPI DLL.

Monitor the first child process

The command line is:

bugValidator.exe -program "c:\test results\testbed.exe"
                 -programToMonitorEXE "<<Any>>"
                 -programToMonitorLaunchCount 1
                 -saveSession "c:\test results\testFirstChildProcess.bvm" 
                 -hideUI

The above command line can be broken into its constituent items:

• Specify the program to run. -program “c:\test results\testbed.exe”
• Specify the program to monitor. -programToMonitorEXE “<<Any>>”
• Specify that it should be the first program launched. -programToMonitorLaunchCount 1
• The resulting session is saved in c:\test results\testFirstChildProcess.bvm. -saveSession “c:\test results\testFirstChildProcess.bvm”
• Run Bug Validator with the user interface hidden. -hideUI

This command line runs testbed.exe but monitors the first program that testbed.exe launches. When the monitored program closes, the execution traces are finalised and then saved to the session c:\test results\testFirstChildProcess.bvm. Finally, Bug Validator is closed.

Monitor a specific child process

The command line is:

bugValidator.exe -program "c:\test results\testbed.exe"
                 -programToMonitorEXE "c:\test results\testbed_helper.exe"
                 -programToMonitorLaunchCount 2
                 -saveSession "c:\test results\testbedHelper2.bvm" 
                 -hideUI

The above command line can be broken into its constituent items:

• Specify the program to run. -program “c:\test results\testbed.exe”
• Specify the program to monitor. -program “c:\test results\testbed_helper.exe”
• Specify that we are interested in the second time testbed_helper.exe is launched. -programToMonitorLaunchCount 2
• The resulting session is saved in c:\test results\testbedHelper2.bvm. -saveSession “c:\test results\testbedHelper2.bvm”
• Run Bug Validator with the user interface hidden. -hideUI

This command line runs testbed.exe but monitors the second launch of testbed_helper.exe. When the testbed_helper.exe closes, the execution traces are finalised and then saved to the session c:\test results\testbedHelper2.bvm. Finally, Bug Validator is closed.

Command Line Builder

If you find writing command lines tiresome and you’d like some help, we have created a command line builder tool to make the process of creating command lines a lot easier.