A crash reporter is usually a

system software System software is software designed to provide a platform for other software. An example of system software is an operating system (OS) (like macOS, Linux, Android, and Microsoft Windows). Application software is software that allows users to d ...

whose function is to identify reporting crash details and to alert when there are crashes, in production or on development / testing environments. Crash reports often include data such as stack traces, type of crash, trends and version of software. These reports help

software developers A programmer, computer programmer or coder is an author of computer source code someone with skill in computer programming. The professional titles Software development, ''software developer'' and Software engineering, ''software engineer' ...

- Web, SAAS, mobile apps and more, to diagnose and fix the underlying problem causing the crashes. Crash reports may contain sensitive information such as passwords, email addresses, and contact information, and so have become objects of interest for researchers in the field of computer security. Implementing crash reporting tools as part of the development cycle has become a standard, and crash reporting tools have become a commodity, many of them are offered for free, like

Crashlytics Crashlytics was a Boston, Massachusetts-based software company founded in May 2011 by entrepreneurs Wayne Chang and Jeff Seibert. Crashlytics helps collecting, analyzing and organizing app crash reports. Its main product is a software develo ...

. Many giant industry players, that are part of the software development eco-system have entered the game. Companies such as Twitter, Google and others are putting a lot of efforts on encouraging software developers to use their APIs, knowing this will increase their revenues down the road (through advertisements and other mechanisms). As they realize that they must offer elegant solutions for as many as possible development issues, otherwise their competitors will take actions, they keep adding advanced features. Crash reporting tools make an important development functionality that giant companies include in their portfolio of solutions. Many crash reporting tools are specialized in mobile app. Many of them are SDKs.

macOS

macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

there is a standard crash reporter in . Crash Reporter.app sends the

Unix Unix (, ; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multi-user computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...

crash logs to

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

for their

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

s to look at. The top text field of the window has the crash log, while the bottom field is for user comments. Users may also copy and paste the log in their email client to send to the application vendor for them to use. Crash Reporter.app has 3 main modes: display nothing on crash, display "Application has crashed"

dialog box In computing, a dialog box (also simply dialog) is a graphical control element in the form of a small window that communicates information to the user and prompts them for a response. Dialog boxes are classified as " modal" or "modeless", dep ...

or display Crash Report window.

Windows

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

includes a crash reporting service called

Windows Error Reporting Windows Error Reporting (WER) (codenamed Watson) is a crash reporter, crash reporting technology introduced by Microsoft with Windows XP and included in later Windows versions and Windows Mobile 5.0 and 6.0. Not to be confused with the Dr. W ...

that prompts users to send crash reports to Microsoft for online analysis. The information goes to a central database run by Microsoft. It consists of diagnostic information that helps the company or development team responsible for the crash to

debug In engineering, debugging is the process of finding the root cause, workarounds, and possible fixes for bugs. For software, debugging tactics can involve interactive debugging, control flow analysis, log file analysis, monitoring at the ap ...

and resolve the issue if they choose to do so. Crash reports for third party software are available to third party developers who have been granted access by Microsoft. The system considers all parts of the debug and release process, such that targeted bug fixes can be applied through

Windows Update Windows Update is a Microsoft service for the Windows 9x and Windows NT families of the Microsoft Windows operating system, which automates downloading and installing Microsoft Windows software updates over the Internet. The service delivers sof ...

. In other words, only people experiencing a particular type of crash can be offered the bug fix, thus limiting exposure to an issue. According to ''

Der Spiegel (, , stylized in all caps) is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of about 724,000 copies in 2022, it is one of the largest such publications in Europe. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

'', the Microsoft crash reporter has been exploited by NSA's

Tailored Access Operations The Office of Tailored Access Operations (TAO), structured as S32, is a cyber-warfare intelligence-gathering unit of the National Security Agency (NSA). It has been active since at least 1998, possibly 1997, but was not named or structured as ...

(TAO) unit to hack into the computers of Mexico's Secretariat of Public Security. According to the same source, Microsoft crash reports are automatically harvested in NSA's

XKeyscore XKeyscore (XKEYSCORE or XKS) is a secret computer system used by the United States National Security Agency (NSA) for searching and analyzing global Internet data, which it collects in real time. The NSA has shared XKeyscore with other intelligen ...

database, in order to facilitate such operations.

CrashRpt

Another error reporting library for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

is CrashRpt. CrashRpt library is a light-weight

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

error handling framework for applications created in

Microsoft Visual C++ Microsoft Visual C++ (MSVC) is a compiler for the C, C++, C++/CLI and C++/CX programming languages by Microsoft. MSVC is proprietary software; it was originally a standalone product but later became a part of Visual Studio and made available i ...

and running under

. The library is distributed under

New BSD License BSD licenses are a family of permissive free software licenses, imposing minimal restrictions on the use and distribution of covered software. This is in contrast to copyleft licenses, which have share-alike requirements. The original BSD licen ...

. CrashRpt intercepts

unhandled exception In computing and computer programming, exception handling is the process of responding to the occurrence of ''exceptions'' – anomalous or exceptional conditions requiring special processing – during the execution of a program. In general, an ...

s, creates a crash minidump file, builds a crash descriptor in

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing data. It defines a set of rules for encoding electronic document, documents in a format that is both human-readable and Machine-r ...

format, presents an interface to allow user to review the crash report, and finally it compresses and sends the crash report to the software support team. CrashRpt also provides a server-side command line tool for crash report analysis named crprober. The tool is able to read all received crash reports from a directory and generate a summary file in text format for each crash report. It also groups similar crash reports making it easier to determine the most popular problems. The crprober tool does not provide any graphical interface, so it is rather cryptic and difficult to use. There is also an

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

server software named CrashFix Server that can store, organize and analyze crash reports sent by CrashRpt library. It can group similar crash reports, has a built-in bug tracker and can generate statistical reports. CrashFix server provides a web-based user interface making it possible for several project members to collaborate (upload debugging symbols, browse crash reports and associate bugs with crash reports).

Linux

ABRT

ABRT (Automated Bug Reporting Tool) is an error reporting tool made for

Fedora A fedora () is a hat with a soft brim and indented crown.Kilgour, Ruth Edwards (1958). ''A Pageant of Hats Ancient and Modern''. R. M. McBride Company. It is typically creased lengthwise down the crown and "pinched" near the front on both sides ...

and

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is a commercial Linux distribution developed by Red Hat. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is released in server versions for x86-64, Power ISA, ARM64, and IBM Z and a desktop version for x86-64. Fedora Linux and ...

. The developers do not currently have plans for porting it to other Linux distributions. ABRT intercepts core dumps or tracebacks from applications and (after user-confirmation) sends bug reports to various bug-tracking systems, such as Fedora Bugzilla

'.

Ubuntu Error tracker

Ubuntu Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed primarily of free and open-source software. Developed by the British company Canonical (company), Canonical and a community of contributors under a Meritocracy, meritocratic gover ...

hosts a public error tracker at
errors.ubuntu.com
' which collects hundreds of thousands of error reports daily from millions of machines. If a program crashes on Ubuntu, a crash handler (such as Apport) will notify the user and offer to report the crash. If the user chooses to report the crash, the details (possibly including a core dump) will be uploaded to an Ubuntu server (''daisy.ubuntu.com'') for analysis. A core dump is automatically processed to create a stack trace and crash signature. The crash signature is used to classify subsequent crash reports caused by the same error.

GNOME

Bug Buddy is the crash reporting tool used by the

GNOME A gnome () is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and widely adopted by authors, including those of modern fantasy literature. They are typically depict ...

platform. When an application using the GNOME libraries crashes, Bug Buddy generates a stack trace using gdb and invites the user to submit the report to the GNOME

bugzilla Bugzilla is a web-based general-purpose bug tracking system and testing tool originally developed and used by the Mozilla project, and licensed under the Mozilla Public License. Released as open-source software by Netscape Communications in 19 ...

. The user can add comments and view the details of the crash report.

KDE

The crash reporting tool used by

KDE KDE is an international free software community that develops free and open-source software. As a central development hub, it provides tools and resources that enable collaborative work on its projects. Its products include the KDE Plasma gra ...

is called Dr. Konqi. When an application using the KDE libraries crashes, Dr. Konqi generates a backtrace using gdb and invites the user to submit the report to the KDE bugzilla. The user can add comments and view the details of the crash report.

Mozilla

Talkback

''Talkback'' (also known as the ''Quality Feedback Agent'') was the crash reporter used by

Mozilla Mozilla is a free software community founded in 1998 by members of Netscape. The Mozilla community uses, develops, publishes and supports Mozilla products, thereby promoting free software and open standards. The community is supported institution ...

software up to version 1.8.1 to report crashes of its products to a centralized

server Server may refer to: Computing *Server (computing), a computer program or a device that provides requested information for other programs or devices, called clients. Role * Waiting staff, those who work at a restaurant or a bar attending custome ...

for aggregation or case-by-case analysis. Talkback is

proprietary software Proprietary software is computer software, software that grants its creator, publisher, or other rightsholder or rightsholder partner a legal monopoly by modern copyright and intellectual property law to exclude the recipient from freely sharing t ...

licensed to the Mozilla Corporation by SupportSoft. If a Mozilla product (e.g.

Mozilla Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements curren ...

Mozilla Thunderbird Mozilla Thunderbird is a free and open-source email client that also functions as a personal information manager with a Digital calendar, calendar and contactbook, as well as an RSS feed reader, chat client (IRC/XMPP/Matrix (protocol), Matrix), ...

) were to crash with Talkback enabled, the Talkback agent would appear, prompting the user to provide optional information regarding the crash. Talkback does not replace the native OS crash reporter which, if enabled, will appear along with the Talkback agent. Talkback has been replaced by Breakpad in

Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements curr ...

since version 3.

Breakpad

''Breakpad'' (previously called ''Airbag'') is an open-source replacement for Talkback. Developed by

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

and Mozilla, it is used in current Mozilla products such as Firefox and Thunderbird. Its significance is being the first open source multi-platform crash reporting system. Since 2007, Breakpad is included in Firefox on Windows and Mac OS X, and Linux. Breakpad is typically paired with Socorro which receives and classifies crashes from users. Breakpad itself is only part of a crash reporting system, as it includes no reporting mechanism.

Crashpad

Crashpad is an

crash reporter used by

Chromium Chromium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in Group 6 element, group 6. It is a steely-grey, Luster (mineralogy), lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal. Chromium ...

. It was developed as a replacement for Breakpad due to an update in macOS 10.10 which removed

API An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ...

's used by Breakpad. Crashpad currently consists of a crash-reporting client and some related tools for macOS and Windows, and is considered substantially complete for those platforms. Crashpad became the crash reporter client for Chromium on macOS as of March 2015, and on Windows as of November 2015.

Mobile OSs

Android and

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

operating systems also have built in crash reporting functionality.

References

External links

How to create useful crash reports using KDE

KernelOops Linux kernel bug count site

ABRT - Automated Bug-Reporting Tool

A review of mobile crash reporting tools
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crash Reporter Operating system technology Software anomalies