Chapter 1. stacktrack 0.1

StackTrack is a system for monitoring C++ applications at runtime, designed for continuous operation in production environments. When things break down, StackTrack provides a way to look into the past, seeking to answer that all-important question: Why?

"I rember that I am here not because of the path that lies before me, but because of the path that lies behind me"

-- Morpheus, Matrix Reloaded

Like a flight recorder on an airplane, Stacktrack stores details about an application as it travels through time. While in motion it can be ignored, unobtrusively gathering data on the processing flow. Ideally there will be no need for the data one the journey completes, but in the real world things happen along the way which occasionally make such information quite useful. Within the data are patterns of system behaviour, and understanding them enables proactive improvement of performance and reliability. The data can prove vital in determining the cause for - and preventing the recurrence of - major system failures.

"When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up rembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long-since-cancelled woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanished sight. "

-- really, unless English is your second language, if you have to ask you might be spending too much time alone with computers ...

WARNING : PRE-RELEASE VERSION, NOT OFFICIAL BOOST LIBRARY!!!!
StackTrack is not an official Boost library. It has not been submitted for review as a potential Boost library, although the current intention is to seek review after a stable release with significant positive experience in the Boost community.