Analyzing Dumps Symbolically: CA SymDump for CICS Option › Symbolic Dump Analysis

Symbolic Dump Analysis

Problems that cause dumps are a fact in both production and test systems. CA SymDump Option lets you analyze and solve these problems online, without having to access and read traditional hexadecimal format dumps. Your source listing displays at the instruction that triggered the abend, just as if CA InterTest for CICS had stopped the program at an automatic breakpoint.

With CA SymDump Option you can do the following tasks:

• Use the powerful functions of CA InterTest for CICS to find and correct errors by:
  • Displaying program variables symbolically
  • Viewing the program listing and compiler output
  • Setting breakpoints for subsequent testing
  • Using CORE and FILE to inspect and modify main and auxiliary storage
• Take advantage of special CA SymDump Option capabilities to:
  • Pinpoint the abending instruction and its operands
  • Display the formatted trace table
  • View the source statement responsible for the abend
  • List the programs and files used by the task
  • View the contents of the PSW and registers at the abend

You can use CA SymDump Option in any region—regardless of where the abend occurred. For example, you can debug a production dump in your test region. Consequently, it is not necessary to run CA InterTest for CICS in production to take advantage of CA SymDump Option. You can even debug a dump produced in a remote data center at another site.

You can instruct CA SymDump Option to refer to the symbolics you want, if multiple symbolic versions of the program exist. This is especially helpful if there are many versions of a particular program. Even if CA InterTest for CICS does not have symbolic information for the program, CA SymDump Option still provides a formatted display of the CICS system areas, with hexadecimal and character representations of each field so you can debug with or without symbolics.