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New Comment on "How to use NTrace"

FredStephens — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 20:40:32 GMT

Also when tweaking an exisiting project the TraceHelper.cs file has to have a build action of Instrument to instantiate the TraceHelper.providor object.

New Comment on "How to use NTrace"

FredStephens — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 19:04:43 GMT

Previous comment applies to Tweak An Existing Project

New Comment on "How to use NTrace"

FredStephens — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 19:01:34 GMT

To get the NTRACE tab to appear under your project properties. You need to another line after <TargetFrameworkversion> to specify that there is a new project type for NTrace and a C# project. <TargetFrameworkVersion>v4.0</TargetFrameworkVersion> <ProjectTypeGuids>{B5E33638-F656-4309-B8B1-11385E5F1346};{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}</ProjectTypeGuids>

Updated Wiki: Home

ahopper — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:33:16 GMT

Project Description
NTrace is a library that provides flexible, high-performance, and zero-config trace logging for your C# applications.
NTrace is currently 100% C#.

(Did you come here looking for Johannes Passing's dynamic function boundary tracing toolkit? If so, click here.)

What is NTrace?

NTrace is a combination of a runtime framework and a code preprocessor that provides an API for using Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) in your managed code. In practice, it's a lot like theWindows Trace Preprocessor (WPP).

Why would I want to use NTrace?

There are two high-level reasons why you'd want to use NTrace. The first is that it allows you to have trace instrumentation that can be enabled and disabled at runtime without having to modify any configuration files. The second is that the tracing capabilities provided by the ETW subsystem are very efficient and flexible. We've tried to preserve as much of the simplicity of using Trace.WriteLine while providing access to all of the features of WPP/ETW. The end result is that you have a great way to troubleshoot your code when it's out in the field.

Requirements

In order to use NTrace, your code needs to meet the following criteria:

You must be using the .NET 2.0 (or later) runtime
You must be using Visual Studio 2008 or Visual Studio 2010
Your code must be C# (VB support still eludes us due to differences in the NRefactory parsers)

Documentation

For more information (including a tutorial for how one can capture and view trace logs using NTrace/ETW) please refer to the Documentation.

NTrace is made possible through the gracious agreement of DocuSys, Inc. to allow the source for this project to be released to the public for general consumption and improvement, the efforts of Andy Hopper, a Senior Architect with Ipswitch, Inc., and the handy NRefactory library developed by the team that brought you SharpDevelop.

NTrace is released under the Eclipse Public License and is free for all use. If you would like to contribute, please contact one of the project administrators.

Updated Wiki: Documentation

ahopper — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:22:50 GMT

Welcome to the documentation for NTrace. We hope that you'll find NTrace to be an invaluable addition to your arsenal of coding tools, and this page is where we will publish information about how to use it, how it works, and tips and tricks for making your life easier.

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Introduction
How to use NTrace
Want to use ETW Tracing in Unmanaged Code? (External link)

Updated Wiki: How to script the capture of log output

ahopper — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 12:35:09 GMT

(For the purpose of this example, we'll use '9e9fa021-37a6-46e7-b42a-b035b1736ca8' for my provider ID. Your provider GUIID will be different)

Starting a trace session

To start a trace session
logman start trace "Test" -p "{9e9fa021-37a6-46e7-b42a-b035b1736ca8}" 255 7 -o test.etl -ets
<run your app>
logman stop "Test" -ets

This will result in the trace spew being written to a binary file named "test.etl." In general, this is what you'd have a customer zip up and send you; it's going to be reasonably compact, as it's just the raw data and does not contain any formatting.

Formatting the trace output

Once you generate/obtain the file from the above steps, you need to get it formatted for human consumption. To do this, we can use TraceView (as mentioned in the NTrace site) or you can use the tracefmt tool:

tracefmt test.etl -p <Path to your app's TMF files, e.g.: C:\MyProject\bin\Debug\Trace>

The tracefmt tool emits a pair of files: FmtFile.txt (human-readable format) and FmtSum.txt (a summary of the formatting pass).

For completeness' sake, here's how you'd do it with tracelog.exe:
tracelog -start Test -guid #9e9fa021-37a6-46e7-b42a-b035b1736ca8 -flag 255 -level 7 -f test.etl
<run your app>
tracelog -stop Test
tracefmt test.etl -p <Path to your app's TMF files, e.g.: C:\MyProject\bin\Debug\Trace>

Generating traces in real-time ("live" trace output)

If you want to do real-time tracing (akin to running DbgView to see the trace spew in real-time), use the following:
logman start trace Test -p {9e9fa021-37a6-46e7-b42a-b035b1736ca8} 255 7 -rt -ets
(or tracelog -start Test -guid #9e9fa021-37a6-46e7-b42a-b035b1736ca8 -flag 255 -level 7 -rt)
tracefmt -rt Test -p <Path to your app's TMF files, e.g.: C:\MyProject\bin\Debug\Trace> -display

The tracefmt tool is delivered with the newer versions of the Windows SDK. TraceView and tracelog are available as part of the Windows Device Driver Kit.

Updated Wiki: Documentation

ahopper — Fri, 13 May 2011 12:58:11 GMT

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Introduction
How to use NTrace
Want to use ETW Tracing in Unmanaged Code? (External link)

Updated Wiki: Documentation

ahopper — Fri, 13 May 2011 12:57:48 GMT

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Updated Wiki: Documentation

ahopper — Fri, 13 May 2011 12:56:51 GMT

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Updated Wiki: Documentation

ahopper — Wed, 11 May 2011 03:30:01 GMT

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Updated Wiki: Documentation

ahopper — Wed, 11 May 2011 03:29:47 GMT

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Updated Wiki: Documentation

ahopper — Wed, 11 May 2011 03:28:06 GMT

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Updated Wiki: Documentation

ahopper — Wed, 11 May 2011 03:26:49 GMT

{video:url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0FAOL66-UI&fmt=6,type=youtube}

Updated Wiki: Documentation

ahopper — Wed, 11 May 2011 03:25:22 GMT

Updated Wiki: Documentation

ahopper — Wed, 11 May 2011 03:24:51 GMT

Updated Wiki: Documentation

ahopper — Mon, 02 May 2011 01:29:21 GMT

Updated Wiki: Home

ahopper — Mon, 02 May 2011 01:25:53 GMT

What is NTrace?

Why would I want to use NTrace?

Requirements

In order to use NTrace, your code needs to meet the following criteria:

You must be using the .NET 2.0 (or later) runtime
You must be using Visual Studio 2008 or Visual Studio 2010
Your code must be C# (VB support still eludes us due to differences in the NRefactory parsers)

Documentation

For more information (including a tutorial for how one can capture and view trace logs using NTrace/ETW) please refer to the Documentation.

NTrace is made possible through the gracious agreement of DocuSys, Inc. to allow the source for this project to be released to the public for general consumption and improvement, the efforts of Andy Hopper, a Senior Consultant with Wintellect, and the handy NRefactory library developed by the team that brought you SharpDevelop.

NTrace is released under the Eclipse Public License and is free for all use. If you would like to contribute, please contact one of the project administrators.

Updated Wiki: Documentation

ahopper — Mon, 02 May 2011 01:24:45 GMT

Updated Wiki: Home

ahopper — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 19:05:28 GMT

What is NTrace?

Why would I want to use NTrace?

Requirements

In order to use NTrace, your code needs to meet the following criteria:

You must be using the .NET 2.0 (or later) runtime
You must be using Visual Studio 2008 or Visual Studio 2010
Your code must be C# (VB support still eludes us due to differences in the NRefactory parsers)

Documentation

For more information (including a tutorial for how one can capture and view trace logs using NTrace/ETW) please read the following topics:

NTrace is made possible through the gracious agreement of DocuSys, Inc. to allow the source for this project to be released to the public for general consumption and improvement, the efforts of Andy Hopper, a Senior Consultant with Wintellect, and the handy NRefactory library developed by the team that brought you SharpDevelop.

NTrace is released under the Eclipse Public License and is free for all use. If you would like to contribute, please contact one of the project administrators.

Updated Wiki: Home

ahopper — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 19:03:11 GMT

What is NTrace?

Why would I want to use NTrace?

Requirements

In order to use NTrace, your code needs to meet the following criteria:

You must be using the .NET 2.0 (or later) runtime
You must be using Visual Studio 2008 or Visual Studio 2010
Your code must be C# (VB support still eludes us due to differences in the NRefactory parsers)

Documentation

For more information (including a tutorial for how one can capture and view trace logs using NTrace/ETW) please read the following topics: