Methods and systems for automated tagging based on software execution traces

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016140031-A1
Application number	US-201615005777-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 25, 2016
Priority date	Oct 24, 2014
Publication date	May 19, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Systems and methods for analysis of execution patterns for applications executing on remote devices. In some implementations of the system, a knowledge base stores successful traces from a plurality of instances of an application and one or more computing processors in the system receive, via a network interface, call-stack information from an instance of the application executing on a remote device, call-stack information including periodic captures of an execution status for the instance of the application, and determine whether there is a similarity between the call-stack information received from the instance of the application and the stored plurality of successful traces. Responsive to determining a similarity, the computing processors add the remote device to a population of devices likely to execute the object and facilitate further actions specific to the device population.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A system comprising:
a knowledge base storing a collected plurality of successful traces from a plurality of instances of an application executing on a plurality of remote devices; a network interface; and a computer processor configured to:
receive, via the network interface from a first instance of the application executing on a first remote device, one or more units of call-stack information, the call-stack information including periodic captures of an execution status for the first instance of the application;
receive, from the first instance of the application, an indicator that the first instance of the application has executed an objective;
aggregate, responsive to receiving the indicator, the received units of call-stack information leading up to the executed objective as a successful trace and store the successful trace in the knowledge base;
receive, from a second instance of the application executing on a second remote device, one or more units of call-stack information, the call-stack information including periodic captures of an execution status for the second instance of the application;
determine a similarity between the call-stack information received from the second instance of the application and the plurality of successful traces; and
add, responsive to determining the similarity, the second remote device to a population of devices likely to execute the object.

2 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a filter configured to use a set of rules to exclude, from each received unit of call-stack information, information that is common to all instances of the application.

3 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the computer processor is configured to update the set of rules based on the collected plurality of successful traces.

4 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the computer processor is configured to update the set of rules based on call-stack traces where the objective has not been executed.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the call-stack information is received from a library linked to the application.

6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein a unit of call-stack information includes multiple call-stack captures batched together.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the periodicity of call-stack captures is between one per second and one per minute.

8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein determining a similarity between the call-stack information received from the second instance of the application and the plurality of successful traces comprises using a clustering algorithm to determine that the call-stack information received from the second instance of the application belongs to a cluster of successful traces.

9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the objective is a purchase event.

10 . A method comprising:
receiving, from a first instance of an application executing on a first remote device, one or more units of call-stack information, the call-stack information including periodic captures of an execution status for the first instance of the application; receiving, from the first instance of the application, an indicator that the first instance of the application has executed an objective; aggregating the received units of call-stack information leading up to the executed objective as a successful trace; collecting a plurality of successful traces from a plurality of instances of the application executing on a plurality of remote devices; receiving, from a second instance of the application executing on a second remote device, one or more units of call-stack information, the call-stack information including periodic captures of an execution status for the second instance of the application; determining a similarity between the call-stack information received from the second instance of the application and the plurality of successful traces; adding the second remote device to a population of devices likely to execute the object.

11 . The method of claim 1 , comprising filtering the call-stack information using a set of rules to exclude call-stack information common to all instances of the application.

12 . The method of claim 11 , comprising updating the set of rules based on the collected plurality of successful traces.

13 . The method of claim 11 , comprising updating the set of rules based call-stack traces where the objective has not been executed.

14 . The method of claim 10 , comprising receiving the call-stack information from a library linked to the application.

15 . The method of claim 10 , wherein a unit of call-stack information includes multiple call-stack captures batched together.

16 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the periodicity of call-stack captures is between one per second and one per minute.

17 . The method of claim 10 , wherein determining a similarity between the call-stack information received from the second instance of the application and the plurality of successful traces comprises using a clustering algorithm to determine that the call-stack information received from the second instance of the application belongs to a cluster of successful traces.

18 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the objective is a purchase event.

19 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more computing processors, cause the one or more computing processors to:
receive, from a first instance of an application executing on a first remote device, one or more units of call-stack information, the call-stack information including periodic captures of an execution status for the first instance of the application; receive, from the first instance of the application, an indicator that the first instance of the application has executed an objective; aggregate, responsive to receiving the indicator, the received units of call-stack information leading up to the executed objective as a successful trace and store the successful trace in a knowledge base storing a collected plurality of successful traces from a plurality of instances of an application executing on a plurality of remote devices; receive, from a second instance of the application executing on a second remote device, one or more units of call-stack information, the call-stack information including periodic captures of an execution status for the second instance of the application; determine a similarity between the call-stack information received from the second instance of the application and the plurality of successful traces; and add, responsive to determining the similarity, the second remote device to a population of devices likely to execute the object.

20 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19 , storing instructions that, when executed by one or more computing processors, cause the one or more computing processors to filter the call-stack information using a set of rules to exclude call-stack information common to all instances of the application.

Assignees

• Google Inc

Inventors

• Sun Xinruo
• Jin Tianpeng

Classifications

• G06F8/70

  Software maintenance or management · CPC title

• G06N5/02 Primary

  Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation · CPC title

• G06F11/3688 Primary

  for test execution, e.g. scheduling of test suites · CPC title

• G06F8/75

  Structural analysis for program understanding · CPC title

• G06F11/3409

  for performance assessment · CPC title