PANIC Configuration

The level of detail in PANIC file can be customized using the panconf.xml configuration file which controls the amount of data captured on a per variable or a per user basis. By default PANIC only dumps at most X array elements and truncates strings at Y bytes in order to keep a reasonable the size for PANIC files.

When KCML starts up it attempts to locate "panconf.xml" in the kcml directory, or for the file specified by the environment variable KCML_PANIC_CONF if it is defined. If found it parses the file looking for entries for the current user which it holds as the default for the number of array elements and the length of strings to be used in the event of a PANIC. It also records the variables for which special handling is required.

Typical XML might be:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<panconf>
	<user name="rjc">
		<arrayelems>52</arrayelems>
		<stringlen>71</stringlen
	</user>
	<var name="a$()">
		<arrayelems>3</arrayelems>
		<stringlen>123</stringlen
	</var>
</panconf>

The name attribute can be a pattern. There will be a caseless match for the <var> name and a case-sensitive match for <user> name attribute value. Tags can be nested.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<panconf>
	<var name="b$()">
		<arrayelems>4</arrayelems>
		<stringlen>64</stringlen
	</var>
	<user name="fred">
		<arrayelems>52</arrayelems>
		<stringlen>71</stringlen
		<var name="b$()">
			<arrayelems>16</arrayelems>
			<stringlen>128</stringlen
		</var>
	</user>
</panconf>

Session history

The session history in the PANIC file contains edited highlights of the session. Always included are the session start and end times but other events can be recorded by specifying <history> tags in the panic configuration file. For each event type there is a count to limit the maximum number of events recorded of that type as only the most recent events are kept. The type can be an exact name from the list of possible types:

Start

End

DollarRelease

DollarEnd

Event

FormStart

FormEnd

Function

DebuggerBreakIn

ImmediateStatement

or use "*" to match several types. For example:

	<history type="form*" count="50"/>
	<history type="dollarrelease*" count="20"/>

will record at most 50 of each type of form event and also the last 20 occurrences of $RELEASE.

stringlen

Maximum length of string.

arrayelems

Maximum number of array elements.

poolhandles

Maximum number of pool handles.

user

Name a user to which the child elements apply

name	attribute	User name. Can be be a wildcard.
stringlen	element (0 or 1 times)
arrayelems	element (0 or 1 times)
poolhandles	element (0 or 1 times)
user	element (may be repeated)
var	element (may be repeated)
library	element (may be repeated)
history	element (may be repeated)
error	element (may be repeated)

var

Name a variable to control in the panic file.

name	attribute	Variable name.
stringlen	element (0 or 1 times)
arrayelems	element (0 or 1 times)

library

Name a library to control in the panic file.

name	attribute	Name of library (e.g. CRMCore or CRM*)

history

Control type and quantity of sesssion history information.

type	attribute	Type of history event
count	attribute	Count of how many events of this type to track

error

Nominate a run-time error not to force a panic file. Session will stil terminate

major	attribute	Major error number, such as I95
minor	attribute	Optional minor error number

panconf

Root node

stringlen	element (0 or 1 times)
arrayelems	element (0 or 1 times)
poolhandles	element (0 or 1 times)
user	element (may be repeated)
var	element (may be repeated)
library	element (may be repeated)
history	element (may be repeated)
error	element (may be repeated)

Compatibility

Introduced with KCML 6.90.