Developer Traces

Definition

Developer traces contain technical information for use in the event of problems with your system. Using the entries in the developer traces requires a sophisticated knowledge of the host systems in which your SAP system is running and of the SAP system itself.

Use

The traces can be useful in diagnosing host system and SAP-internal problems that are affecting your SAP system.

Developer traces are written in files in the workdirectory of the SAP application server that generated the trace.

You can use trace logging to track down sporadic errors.

Structure

File Names of Developer Traces

The names of the trace files are as follows:

Developer Trace File Names

Component	File Name
Dispatcher	dev_disp
Work process /task handler	dev_w, whereby n is the number of the work process
Gateway	dev_rd
Message server	dev_ms
Internet Communication Manager (ICM)	dev_icm
SAP Web Dispatcher	dev_wdisp
RFC (Remote Function Call) facility	dev_rfc, dev_rfc dev_rfc traces RFC calls to external functions (written in C or Visual Basic). dev_rfc traces RFC calls that are executed in R/3 work processes. is the number of the work process in the server (as shown above). A work process uses the same log file across RFC calls.
FastRFC	dev_lcom
Enqueue (lock)	dev_eq Standalone enqueue server: dev_enqrepl, dev_enqsig, dev_enqsrv, dev_enqwork, dev_enqio_
Startup (sapstart)	dev_sapstart
R3trans and tp transport programs	dev_tp
Monitoring infrastructure (test mode only)	dev_moni In normal operation, you will not see this file. It is used only by test tools of the monitoring infrastructure. It therefore appears only if the test tools must be activated during a support session.

The information traced is determined by the trace level - this applies to all trace files (see below).

Error and System Log Entries in Trace Files

Each line in the trace files starts with the component abbreviation. This is the letter that identifies the trace component. The table below shows the component abbreviations:

Component Abbreviation in Trace File	Component (Selection using SM50 or SM04)
M	Task handler
A	ABAP processor
Y	Screen processor
X	Extended memory
E	Lock management (enqueue)
I	IPC (inter process communication)
S	Print (spool)
N	Security
T	Debug system
L	Background
B	Database
C	Database (DBSL)
P	Paging
R	Rolling
D	Diag processor

In accordance to these letters lines that contain error information begin with *** ERROR =>. Lines for which system log entries are written start with *** LOG .

An "error line" contains the name of the calling function, the operation that failed, the error number from the host system (if a system call is involved), and the name of and line in the C module that failed.

Integration

The following sections explain how to use developer traces.

Turning Developer Traces On and Off

To find out how to activate and deactivate developer traces see Activating and Deactivating Developer Traces.

Displaying Developer Traces

To find out how to display developer traces see Displaying Trace Files.

Downloading Developer Traces

To find out how you can easily and quickly downlad trace files on to your computer see Downloading Trace Files.

More Information

Further trace functions include:

Trace logging

System trace