Developer Traces

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.

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 work directory of the SAP application server that generated the trace.

Recommendation

You can use trace logging to track down sporadic errors.

End of the recommendation.

File Names of Developer Traces

The names of the trace files are as follows:

File Names for Developer Traces

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 executed in SAP 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.
Internet Communication Framework (ICF)	dev_icf More information: Managing Error Information
Enqueue (lock)	When a classical central instance is running with enqueue work process dev_w, where w is the enqueue work process. When a standalone enqueue server is used in an ASCS instance with the message server there are several trace files that all start with dev_enq. More information: Trace Files of the Standalone Enqueue Server and Replication Server
Startup Service(sapstart)	dev_sapstart
Transport programs R3trans and tp	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 assignment can be found under Trace Components:

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 (errno) (if a system call is involved), and the name of and line in the C module that failed.

Working with Developer Traces

The following sections explain how to use developer traces.

• Activating and Deactivating Developer Traces

  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.