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If i have some program which crash Mathematica every time it's run. What are the steps to make a more informative report and/or how do i go about debugging it?

EDIT:

I guess essentially my question is how even professionals such as Wolfram support will go about doing the initial diagnosis.

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    $\begingroup$ Isolate the specific code which causes the crash by running each line of code one line at a time. Then, you may want to post a question that helps you work through the specific issue. Also, if you do need to contact support, it will give them more and better information to assist you. $\endgroup$
    – Jagra
    Commented Jun 25, 2013 at 16:21
  • $\begingroup$ Is there any data dump that can be saved that can be useful for getting diagnosis? $\endgroup$
    – user13253
    Commented Jun 25, 2013 at 18:52
  • $\begingroup$ If you can pin-point where the crash occurs and the data used, then that would be helpful. The only way to do that is as Jagra said, line by line. $\endgroup$
    – rcollyer
    Commented Jun 25, 2013 at 19:51
  • $\begingroup$ Some other software will dump certain error file when abruptly crash. Is there such a thing for M? $\endgroup$
    – user13253
    Commented Jun 25, 2013 at 20:01
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    $\begingroup$ If I understand what a core file contains, then it won't tell us the initial input that generated the crash, only the state of the application at the crash. $\endgroup$
    – rcollyer
    Commented Jun 25, 2013 at 21:14

1 Answer 1

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You should send this to the support. Please include the Mathematica Version, operating system version and the sequence of commands that cause the crash.

There is no data dump you can send. The most important thing for the support is to be able to reproduce the issue. Once that is done a number of things happen: Is this a known issue? If yes, is it fixed in the development version, is there a workaround for the customer.... If the issue is unknown a bug is filed and developer is involved. The developer then needs to track the issue down. A crash typically involves running Mathmatica in a debugger to find the root of the crash. A fix needs to be made and possibly a workaround suggested. A test for the test suite needs to be generated to avoid a regression in the future. These are a few steps to illustrate what happens when a bug report has come to the support.

I'd also point out that crashes are taken particularly serious by the support as the are always an major inconvenience for anyone.

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  • $\begingroup$ Is there any data dump that i can save to help getting diagnosis? I guess essentially my question is how professionals such as Wolfram support will go about doing the initial diagnosis. $\endgroup$
    – user13253
    Commented Jun 25, 2013 at 18:53
  • $\begingroup$ I'm curious about how "... involves running Mathmatica in a debugger ..." works. Basically i want to attempt to do this. $\endgroup$
    – user13253
    Commented Jun 26, 2013 at 14:30
  • $\begingroup$ @red3y3, if you want to do that you should consider joining WRI ;-) Otherwise you can not, since you'd need the source code. $\endgroup$
    – user21
    Commented Jun 26, 2013 at 14:44

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