Author Topic: What is the 'exceptions.log' file?  (Read 2923 times)

Offline Console Cowboy

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What is the 'exceptions.log' file?
« on: February 16, 2010, 10:44:34 pm »
I just stumbled over (ouch) a file named 'exceptions.log' in the AltBinz program installation directory.  It contains 4 similar messages:

12/7/2009 7:31:37 PM on calculating download speed
12/7/2009 7:31:38 PM on calculating download speed
12/7/2009 7:31:39 PM on calculating download speed
12/16/2009 9:38:39 AM on calculating download speed

For what its worth, the last message roughly matches the latest occurrence of a problem I've been having with AltBinz.  I have been unable to reproduce the problem at will, I've just had to learn to cope with it.  (If I could reproduce it I'd have reported it.)  Basically AltBinz just dies (it stops downloading, it stops opening from the systray, it stops updating the download speed thermometer, it stops using CPU cycles, BUT it's still loaded in memory).  I have to kill the AltBinz process and restart the program.  This usually means I also have to restart the download of the current Rar file part.  I have never found a message in the log files (unlike the occasional exception during decoding where a PAR segment is lost, but everything keeps running).

What can I do to track this down?

Thanks.

Offline Ascathon

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Re: What is the 'exceptions.log' file?
« Reply #1 on: February 16, 2010, 10:51:43 pm »
One of the common things...

Too long filename? (after download/decode/unrar)
Password protected unrar file in import folder?

Did you try the search? If so, tell us which of the found reasons do not cause your problem.

Operating system?

(No I am not aware of that log file)
« Last Edit: February 16, 2010, 11:00:46 pm by Ascathon »
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Offline Hecks

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Re: What is the 'exceptions.log' file?
« Reply #2 on: February 16, 2010, 11:35:37 pm »
'exceptions.log' is a new one to me, we'll need to summon the Kraken to find out whether it's a new debugging feature.  Which would  be nice!

RELEASE THE KRAKEN!
:)

Offline Ascathon

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Re: What is the 'exceptions.log' file?
« Reply #3 on: February 16, 2010, 11:47:10 pm »
*throws some bones*

Browsing on my cell so no possibility to find that log file. :)
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Offline Console Cowboy

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Re: What is the 'exceptions.log' file?
« Reply #4 on: February 17, 2010, 02:17:26 am »
Computer: Asus Terminator C3 / VIA Samuel 2 / 800 MHz / 1.96 GB RAM
OS: WinXP Pro SP2

filename length:  not the issue; the AltBinz download path is 'D:\AltBinz\dl', I don't use unrar, because I don't use the integrated PAR feature (I've found it too stupid for use on a 800 MHz machine, any applet I can't kill when it runs amuk (binds up the system) doesn't get used.  I manually use QuickPar and enable the appropriate PAR downloads.  I use the 800MHz machine as a 24/7 internet vaccum appliance, it spends all the time downloading, I use a 2.4GHz machine for real compute or data crunching chores as needed -- it helps me keep my electric bill low).  FWIW: the unrar path is 'D:\AltBinz\unrar'.  EMFWIW: the current filename is 'NiA.D1.partxx.rar'

password protection:  not the issue, again I don't use the unrar feature and FWIW these files aren't password protected.

search: what search?  search what?  I searched this forum, got zero hits for 'exceptions.log' and zero hits for 'exceptions'.  I did not try to search for 'exception'  - I figured I'd get too many bogus hits.  I found nothing of help with a Google search either.  Normally I'd try searching the application image for embedded strings but that's a little hard on packed images.  I figured I'd ask before I spent time trying to find the correct unpacker and scanning for text.

Thanks for looking into this.

Offline Ascathon

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Re: What is the 'exceptions.log' file?
« Reply #5 on: February 17, 2010, 09:13:56 am »
About the password protection, I'm not saying this is about the files you want to download with AltBinz, but I did use my Desktop folder as auto-import folder (fetch NZBs from this map). When I download a password protected rar-file from whatever which site to de Desktop, AltBinz crashes.

And you can kill the par-repair process by right clicking on the par-set.

That's all I can think of, for now.
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Offline Console Cowboy

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Re: What is the 'exceptions.log' file?
« Reply #6 on: February 17, 2010, 06:33:04 pm »
I got a copy og UPX and unpacked AltBinz 0.31.2 (the expanded executable still started up ok with the -mi flag, so it was a relatively valid unpack).  I then used an old copy of 'strings' (from MKS  4.2e), which pulls out all ASCII text 'strings' of 4 or more characters in length.  The following group of strings were found in the output:

Exception
Idle
\exceptions.log
XPAT
Alt.Binz
Paused
 - Paused
Paused - Alt.Binz
Alt.Binz
XPAT
CONN
Idle
on connectbutton
on updatetree2
on checkthrottling
on abortxp
on calculating download speed
on updatefinlist
on updatexplist
on updatelog
 already exists.
Skiping file.

This leads me to believe that AltBinz did create that file and insert the messages.  I got another AltBinz lockup today, but there were no new messages in 'exceptions.log'.  [I have renamed the old log file now, in case AltBinz won't append to an existing file (although the 4 messages indicate it will)]. About the only thing I find in common with the lockups is I am loading down the machine (Process Explorer v11.33 shows CPU usage over 75%).  It can be things like copying large files across the local network (both computers with Gigabit NICs), calculating or correcting downloads with QuickPar v0.9.1, running Xnews v5.04.25 with a large XOVER download and the attendant '(Re)Thread articles'.  I try to not do more than one of those operations at the same time since that will saturate the CPU.  There is not much I can do about the 'calculating of download speed', <grin>, except replace the slow (power miser) machine with the faster (power hungry) machine; that defeats the whole reason for using a low power 24/7 machine.

Back to the question at hand- what else can I do to track down this lockup problem?

Thanks again.

Offline Hecks

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Re: What is the 'exceptions.log' file?
« Reply #7 on: February 17, 2010, 07:42:55 pm »
Your forgot to tell us what you had for breakfast.

Offline Console Cowboy

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Re: What is the 'exceptions.log' file?
« Reply #8 on: February 18, 2010, 12:36:58 am »
Your forgot to tell us what you had for breakfast.

Well, I didn't have breakfast this morning...but if you REALLY want to know about the last breakfast I had... <grin>

Offline Hecks

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Re: What is the 'exceptions.log' file?
« Reply #9 on: February 18, 2010, 08:44:30 am »
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.