TEXTFILE Emitter Properties

Set the TEXTFILE emitter properties to control the behavior and appearance of the text trace file.

A text trace file is the default format when a trace is run.

To control the behavior and the appearance of the file, set the following TEXTFILE emitter properties in the Consolidated Tracing Facility configuration file:

Property Description Default
DELIMCHAR The character used in the output file to delimit trace data parts for a trace event. SPACE
FILE The name of the trace file to be written. You can use the following pseudo-variables for the construction of the trace file name:
$(APPNAME)
The basename of the executable invoked to start the current process. For example, if run.exeis invoked, $(APPNAME) has the value "run".
$(EMITTER)
Always "TEXTFILE" for this emitter.
$(GEN)
The generation of the file, starting from 1.
$(PID)
The operating system identifier for the current process.
$(PLATFORM)
A platform specific constant, useful when two run-time systems are in the same process, and you require separate trace files. Can be one of:
native
For all native processes
dotnet
For Microsoft .NET processes
$(RUNUNIT)
A unique number that represents the managed RunUnit ID (applies to .NET COBOL only).
$(RUNUNIT_SESSIONNAME)
The session name passed to the managed RunUnit (applies to .NET COBOL only).
$(RUNUNIT_GUID)
The globally unique identifier associated with the managed RunUnit (applies to .NET COBOL only).
$(APPNAME).$(EMITTER).$(PID).log, or $(APPNAME).$(EMITTER).$(PID).log_$(GEN) if the MAXGENERATION property has been specified. For example:
  • If the TEXTFILE emitter is being used to output trace events for run.exe executing as process-id 3456 and the MAXGENERATION property has not been specified, the trace file created will be called run.textfile.3456.log .
  • If the TEXTFILE emitter is being used to output trace events for myapp.exe executing as process-id 1975 and the MAXGENERATION property has been set to 3, the trace files created will be called myapp.textfile.1975.log_1, myapp.textfile.1975.log_2, and myapp.textfile.1975.log_3.
FLUSHEVERY The number of trace records that will be output before the file is flushed. 0 indicates that the file will never be explicitly flushed. 1
FORMAT The format to be used for each trace data record written to the file. You can use the following pseudo-variables in the format specification:
$(COMPONENT)
The name of the component outputting the trace event.
$(DATA)
The trace data specified by the component to be output for the trace event. Each trace part will be delimited by the character specified by the DELIMCHAR property.
$(DATE)
The current date, output as yyyy/mm/dd
$(EVENT)
The event identifier as specified by the component outputting the trace event.
$(LEVEL)
The tracing level:
  • 0: debug
  • 1: info
  • 2: warning
  • 3: error
  • 4: fatal
$(PID)
The current process identifier. Same as $(PROCESS).
$(PROCESS)
The current process identifier. Same as $(PID).
$(RUNUNIT)
A unique number that identifies the RunUnit that relates to the trace event.
$(THREAD)
The current operating system thread identifier.
$(TIME)
The current time, output as hh:mm:ss
$(TIME) $(COMPONENT) $(EVENT) $(LEVEL) $(DATA)
HEXBLOCKSIZE The number of hexadecimal bytes to be output in each block when outputting binary trace data. Each block of hexadecimal characters will be separated by a '-' character. For example, if HEXBLOCKSIZE is set to 4, and some binary trace data with the value 3132333435363738393A3B3C3D3E3F is specified for output, it would be formatted as follows: 
31323334-35363738-393A3B3C-3D3E3F
 8
LOCATION The folder where the trace files are to be written. On Windows platforms, the folder is specified by the MFTRACE_LOGS environment variable. If MFTRACE_LOGS is not set, the current folder is used.
Note: Both the 32- and 64-bit Visual COBOL command prompts set MFTRACE_LOGS to %ProgramData%\Micro Focus\Visual COBOL\2.x\mftrace\logs.

If the folder specified by the LOCATION property does not exist, the Consolidated Tracing Facility tries to create it. If this fails, the Consolidated Tracing Facility uses the default location (as specified by the MFTRACE_LOGS environment variable). If this fails, the current folder is used.

MAXFILESIZE The maximum amount of data (in Kb) that will be written to the trace file before the file is closed and the next trace file in the generation sequence is opened. The first trace file in a generation sequence results in the $(GEN) pseudo-variable (see the description of the FILE property, above) being set to 1, the second in the sequence results in it being set to 2, and so on until MAXGENERATION is exceeded. Once the MAXGENERATION number of files has been reached, the generation number reverts to 1 and the first trace file in the generation is overwritten. This is only used if MAXGENERATION > 1. 0x00002800, indicating a maximum file size of 10 Mb.
MAXGENERATION The maximum number of trace files that will be written to while tracing is enabled. Use this property in conjunction with the MAXFILESIZE property. 1, indicating that only a single trace file will be created.
MultiProc Controls whether trace events are written to the trace file by a single process or multiple processes. If enabled for multiple processes, the File property must also be specified without the $(PID) pseudo-variable embedded in its name.

if $(RUNUNIT), $(RUNUNIT_SESSIONNAME), or $(RUNUNIT_GUID)" is used, the file name will be unique, therfore MultiProc is not required (applies to ..NET COBOL only)

FALSE, indicating that the configured trace file includes only events from the current process
QUOTESTRING Whether or not string trace data is to be output enclosed in double-quote characters. . TRUE

Performance considerations:

When using the MultiProc property, and two or more COBOL run-time systems (native or .NET) are executing in the same process, sharing the same trace file is not a performant configuration. Using the $(PLATFORM) variable in the filename allows you to use different filenames for different run-time systems. If tracing includes the $(PID) variable, you can safely set the MultiProc property to false. For example: 

$(APPNAME). $(EMITTER).$(PID).$(PLATFORM).log

When a .NET COBOL application executes in a multi-user environment, the user of managed RunUnits should be used. The default filename for both the TEXTFILE and BINFILE emitter collects all the trace events into one or more files. However, if the configuration property #file uses $(RUNUNIT), $(RUNUNIT_SESSIONNAME) or $(RUNUNIT_GUID), separate files can be created for each RunUnit. For example:

$(APPNAME).$(PLATFORM).$(EMITTER).$(RUNUNIT_GUID).log

or

$(APPNAME).$(PLATFORM).$(EMITTER).$(RUNUNIT).log

or

$(APPNAME).$(PLATFORM).$(EMITTER).$(RUNUNIT_SESSIONNAME).log

Parent topic: Emitter List