General trace and log analysis patterns allow the application of uniform diagnostics and anomaly detection across diverse software environments. It includes troubleshooting, debugging, describing, and explaining problems and incidents on various operating systems and platforms. It is also helpful in recording network traces, malware, general data, narratives, and text and image analysis (space-like narratology). This course, organized as a pattern language dictionary and cross-referenced with classification, explains and teaches more than 200 traces and log analysis patterns.

A Guide to Learning Software Trace and Log Analysis Patterns

## Significant event
When looking at software traces or simply while scrolling, specific messages tend to grab our attention. We call them **significant events**. It could be a recorded exception ([exception stack trace](https://www.educative.io/courses/guide-learning-software-trace-log-analysis-patterns/exception-stack-false-positive-hidden-periodic)) or an error, [basic fact](https://www.educative.io/courses/guide-learning-software-trace-log-analysis-patterns/basic-hidden-indirect-facts-constants-vocabulary), a trace message from [vocabulary index](https://www.educative.io/courses/guide-learning-software-trace-log-analysis-patterns/basic-hidden-indirect-facts-constants-vocabulary), or just a trace statement that marks the start of some activity we want to explore in depth. Some examples may be a particular DLL attached to the process, the start of a coupled process, or a called function. The start of a trace and the end of it are trivial significant events. They are used to decide whether the trace is [circular](https://www.educative.io/courses/guide-learning-software-trace-log-analysis-patterns/calibrating-circular-combed-distribution-empty), and to determine the trace recording interval or its average [statement current](https://www.educative.io/courses/guide-learning-software-trace-log-analysis-patterns/quotient-singleton-sorted-density-current).


# Significant event
When looking at software traces or simply while scrolling, specific messages tend to grab our attention. We call them **significant events**. It could be a recorded exception ([exception stack trace](https://www.educative.io/courses/guide-learning-software-trace-log-analysis-patterns/exception-stack-false-positive-hidden-periodic)) or an error, [basic fact](https://www.educative.io/courses/guide-learning-software-trace-log-analysis-patterns/basic-hidden-indirect-facts-constants-vocabulary), a trace message from [vocabulary index](https://www.educative.io/courses/guide-learning-software-trace-log-analysis-patterns/basic-hidden-indirect-facts-constants-vocabulary), or just a trace statement that marks the start of some activity we want to explore in depth. Some examples may be a particular DLL attached to the process, the start of a coupled process, or a called function. The start of a trace and the end of it are trivial significant events. They are used to decide whether the trace is [circular](https://www.educative.io/courses/guide-learning-software-trace-log-analysis-patterns/calibrating-circular-combed-distribution-empty), and to determine the trace recording interval or its average [statement current](https://www.educative.io/courses/guide-learning-software-trace-log-analysis-patterns/quotient-singleton-sorted-density-current).


This lesson introduces the following analysis patterns: significant event, silent messages, singleton event, split message, and surveyor.

Getting Started

Activity

Block and Data

Error and Large Scale

Message 1

Message 2

Trace as a Whole

Trace Set

Vocabulary, Memory, Code and Text

Conclusion

Index

Significant, Silent, Singleton, Split, Surveyor

Significant event