stackTrace

A stack trace is a report that shows the active path of function calls at a specific moment in a program, typically when an error or exception occurs. It lists the sequence of procedure or method invocations that led to the current point, usually including the names of the functions, the source files, and the line numbers where each call originated. A stack trace helps developers understand how control flow arrived at an error and where to begin debugging.

Generation and formatting: In many languages the runtime or virtual machine captures a stack trace automatically when an unhandled exception is thrown. Some languages allow explicit capture of the stack trace via library calls. The trace is often presented as a human-readable text block, but may also be emitted in structured formats such as JSON or XML. The exact contents vary by language and optimization settings. In multi-threaded programs, traces may reflect only the thread that encountered the error or multiple threads.

Usage and limitations: Stack traces are a primary debugging aid, providing context about the error's origin. They can reveal the path of execution but may be incomplete if code has been optimized, inlined, or stripped of symbols. In production, stack traces may be sanitized to avoid exposing internal details. They can also be noisy in complex call stacks and may not reproduce the bug without the same environment.

Best practices: Ensure symbol information is available for meaningful traces, consider guarding sensitive data, and correlate traces with error reports using unique identifiers to aid triage.