Controlling Trace Log Sessions

Once a trace log session has been created, as explained in Creating New Trace Log Sessions, TraceView can be used to control activities of that session.    All control options for a given session are available by right clicking the session’s line in the Trace Log Session List window in TraceView as shown here:

 

 

The possible options are:

Starting Trace Log Sessions

Newly created log sessions are started automatically.  But, once stopped a log session has to be explicitly started again from the the menu above.  Starting the log session both starts the providers associated with the trace log session and starts TraceView consuming events from those providers.  Only stopped trace log sessions will have Start Trace as an option.  Grouped trace log sessions all start together, and cannot be started individually while grouped.

Stoping Trace Log Sessions

Stopping a currently active trace log session causes the providers associated with the trace log session to stop generating events and it stops TraceView from attempting to consume events from those providers.  Only currently active trace log sessions will have Stop Trace as an option.  Grouped sessions all stop together and cannot be individually stopped while grouped.

Grouping Trace Log Sessions

It is possible to group multiple distinct trace log sessions together in TraceView, such that all trace log sessions have their events displayed in a single display window.  Grouping is accomplished in a similar fashion to start or stop by right clicking on the session’s line in the Trace Log Session List window and selecting the appropriate option from the pop-up menu.  Grouping of active trace log sessions is only supported on .NET and later operating systems.  Grouping of multiple existing log file sessions is supported on all platforms supporting TraceView.  ‘Group Sessions’ will only appear as a valid option if multiple trace log sessions for real-time trace providers are selected, or multiple existing log file sessions are selected, but not both.  Also, for real-time trace log sessions, the sessions must all be stopped in order for the ‘Group Sessions’ to be a valid option.  Again, ‘Group Sessions’ will not show up as a valid option for real-time trace log sessions on any platform prior to the .NET platforms.  Once grouped, all trace log session trace output will displayed to a single display window for all trace log sessions in the group.  Upon grouping, if any display windows end up having no trace log sessions associated with them, they are removed.

Ungrouping Trace Log Sessions

‘Ungroup Sessions’ is only a valid option for stopped trace log sessions.  When ungrouped, all trace log sessions are automatically restarted.  Ungrouped sessions are given a new display window for output.

Removing Trace Log Sessions

Only stopped trace log sessions can be removed.  Removal of a log session will cause the removal of the trace log session’s information from the Trace Log Session List window, and will cause the associated display window to be deleted, if the trace log session is the last associated session with that display window.

 

 

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