How to post a crash report?

Question

Level 7

27,382 points

How to post a crash report?

With the release of Snow Leopard there has been a spate of lengthy crash reports being posted inline, making the threads wider and difficult to read. I searched the _User Tips LIbrary_ for a tip on how to post a link to a crash report, but found nothing.

Assuming I haven't overlooked an existing tip for this, there must be several ways to do this — but I wonder about the following...

• Which document format would be best?

• Should the link open in the browser rather than triggering a download?

• One recommendation for MobileMe subscribers and another for others?

 MacBook Pro 15", Mac OS X (10.5.8), MobileMe iLife'08 iWork'08

Posted on Sep 4, 2009 10:30 AM

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Answer 1

varjak paw

Level 10

170,200 points

Sep 4, 2009 1:02 PM in response to Alancito

The only way to post a link to a crash report would be if you hosted the report on a personal web site somewhere in which case you just post a link to that page as you would any other URL. I would not suggest posting any crash report as a document to be downloaded; that's asking a bit much on trust (we have no way of knowing that what purports to be a crash report really is that and only that).

In general, it's best not to post a crash report at all unless someone asks for one. Most people gain little useful information from a crash report and including one by default just make it difficult for people to read about your problem. If someone asks you to post a crash report, then we just deal with the formatting issue.

Regards.

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Answer 2

TildeBee

Level 7

31,917 points

Sep 4, 2009 5:06 PM in response to varjak paw

Dave --
I LOVE reading crash reports.
Well, Safari ones, that is.

It used to be, several years ago, that is was very rare that crash reports
were posted. Now, it's more common. I'm not sure about other forums,
but I have to say, in Safari, the crash report can save hours and hours
of making suggestions that don't work, and the OP trying 40 different
WAG guesses.

I have noticed that over in iChat, Ralph Johns specifically asks for only
certain parts of the reports.

Several posts I've noticed recently are uploading them to hosting sites.
It's just as efficient for us, and it saves those obscenely wide post boxes here.
Alancito, you've asked a terrific question.
🙂
I

Message was edited by: ~Bee

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Answer 3

Tuttle

Level 7

29,541 points

Sep 4, 2009 6:08 PM in response to Alancito

Actually, we used to be able to post links to files on people's computers that would open on their machines when clicked. In other words, if you wanted to point out a local file for someone you were helping, you could post a link that looked something like this (this file doesn't actually exist):

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DiskManagement.framework/Versions/A/Resources/ ExampleFile.plist

written as:

<a href="file:///System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DiskManagement.framework/Version s/A/Resources/ExampleFile.plist" target=_blank>/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DiskManagement.framework/Versio ns/A/Resources/ExampleFile.plist</a>

where the link led directly to their /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DiskManagement.framework/Versions/A/Resources/ ExampleFile.plist, and the file would open on their desktop, which was useful in that you could point them to exactly the line(s) of code they needed to look at while you were working with them.

That functionality disappeared some time ago because of the potential for malfeasance, but I think it goes in the direction of what you're describing.

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Answer 4

Alancito Author

Level 7

27,382 points

Sep 5, 2009 3:48 AM in response to TildeBee

~Bee wrote:
Several posts I've noticed recently are uploading them to hosting sites.

Bee ~ If you can track them down again, pls link here to some of those posts so I can see what doc type and hosting sites they used. I'm familiar with image hosting sites, but not file hosting sites — except MobileMe and drop.io which gives you 100MB of storage free without signing up. ...Perhaps someone can write up a tip for the +User Tips LIbrary+ on how to post a searchable, non-downloaded crash report on drop.io or other host.

~Bee wrote:
I LOVE reading crash reports.

Perhaps I can learn to love them...

_Tutorial: An introduction to reading Mac OS X crash reports_

_Mac OS X Reference Library: CrashReporter_

~Bee wrote:
...40 different WAG guesses.

With my sheltered upbringing, I had to look up the meaning of WAG — apparently a less than intelligent conjecture of the caliber of a small undomesticated horse-like mammal. ...Sometimes these forums do exhibit that characteristic.

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Answer 5

TildeBee

Level 7

31,917 points

Sep 5, 2009 7:21 AM in response to Alancito

I'll keep an eye out, Alancito.

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Answer 6

Alancito Author

Level 7

27,382 points

Oct 1, 2009 4:47 AM in response to Alancito

In this Apple +Knowledge Base+ article: _Mac OS X: How to log a kernel panic_

...it says:

*Providing the information to Apple*

If you record a kernel panic, you can post this information to _Apple Discussions_. Please include detailed hardware configuration information in your post. You may do this by copying and pasting information from a System Profiler report into your post. Please also include any reproducible steps that lead to this message. Apple cannot respond to all postings.

My understanding has been that Apple will not respond to ANY kernel panic postings. If so, as +"Apple Hosts (...) help identify possible content for Apple's Knowledge Base..."+, perhaps a Host can forward this to the appropriate Apple group for correction.

Thanks,

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Answer 7

a brody

Level 10

82,965 points

Oct 2, 2009 1:46 PM in response to Alancito

Apple may not be able to respond, but engineers may decide to read Discussions from time to time without informing users. Apple does have mechanisms for software developers to report bugs, i.e. signup for an online developer account

http://developer.apple.com/

and login here:

http://bugreporter.apple.com/

Naturally you will usually be under nondisclosure if you report there.

And http://www.apple.com/feedback/

where you get no direct feedback from Apple, except rarely.

I do agree though, only post said crash reports when asked.

Many crash reports you get an opportunity to "Send to Apple" directly from your computer without going through a web browser.

If you start your own thread with a kernel panic log, expect few others to be able to respond, simply because reading through them can be laborsome.

Often logs can offer misdirection to the actual cause of the panic. I'm more of the firm belief of finding the contributing factors, and trying to isolate the most likely cause based on events that happen prior to it. After all, I wrote a kernel panic FAQ*:

http://www.macmaps.com/kernelpanic.html

- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

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Answer 8

TildeBee

Level 7

31,917 points

Oct 2, 2009 7:12 PM in response to Alancito

Alan --
My only comment is that when people post logs here on the AD forums,
other users here who have experience and working knowledge of how to
start at least basic troubleshooting, can and do help.

I don't see what the official statement saying that the Apple officials cannot respond
to every posting has to do with anything.

Posts asking for help here are never addressed by Apple officials.
It's all just us other Mac users.
And most of the time, we're pretty darn effective!

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Answer 9

Alancito Author

Level 7

27,382 points

Oct 5, 2009 5:40 AM in response to varjak paw

Dave — Thanks for your input.

Dave Sawyer wrote:
Most people gain little useful information from a crash report and including one by default just make it difficult for people to read about your problem.

Agreed. But whether the thread is difficult to read depends on how the crash report is posted — which was the point of my post.

Dave Sawyer wrote:
If someone asks you to post a crash report...

I think a potential respondent is more likely to take an interest in the problem if the crash report is already supplied via a link that doesn't make the thread difficult to read.

Dave Sawyer wrote:
...then we just deal with the formatting issue.

Rather then merely tolerating the "formatting issue" of lengthy inline crash reports, I was hoping readers or Discussions staff could come up with some practical alternatives.

The following idea of mine is practical for me, but others probably wouldn't want to bother setting up a free, web-based Posterous blog just to post their crash report. ...But once the blog is set up, a PDF of the crash report can easily be created in TextEdit and that PDF emailed as an attachment to post@yourblogname.posterous.com — which then automatically creates a blog entry consisting of a slick PDF viewer. So with a hyperlinked thumbnail, I can post future crash reports like this...

Click below for the crash report:

...Perhaps Discussions staff could recommend a way to link to crash reports — for members it makes threads faster to load & easier to read and for Apple it reduces server space & bandwidth usage.

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Answer 10

TildeBee

Level 7

31,917 points

Oct 5, 2009 6:50 PM in response to Alancito

Alan --
Here's a recent post where the OP (first post)
uploaded his crash report:

http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=10344500#10344500

I wish everyone would do it this way.
Kinda like what you're recommending.

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Answer 11

Alancito Author

Level 7

27,382 points

Oct 6, 2009 1:38 AM in response to TildeBee

~Bee: Thanks for that — I tried it out and it looked promising until the site displayed this notice:

Down for maintenance - 6th Oct 2009

Pastebin.com is getting an unprecedented amount of traffic due to a news story in which some leaked Hotmail passwords have been pasted on this site

Pastebin.com was intended as a tool to aid software developers, not for distributing this sort of material. Filters have been put in place to prevent reoccurrence, but the current traffic level is unsustainable.

Pastebin.com is just a fun side project for me, and today it's not fun. It will remain offline all day while I make some further modifications

...Since many people posting crash reports on these highly trafficked Apple forums may not be +"software developers"+, it's probably inappropriate to recommend using Pastebin's free service.

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Answer 12

TildeBee

Level 7

31,917 points

Oct 6, 2009 8:42 AM in response to Alancito

Well, there's Photobucket and yfrog.
And several others I've seen used quite a bit . . .

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Answer 13

Alancito Author

Level 7

27,382 points

Oct 6, 2009 8:52 AM in response to TildeBee

~Bee wrote:
Well, there's Photobucket and yfrog.
And several others I've seen used quite a bit . . .

~Bee: But can yfrog and photobucket host searchable text/PDF files? ...I could be wrong, but they appear to host images & videos only. (I doubt anyone would want to look at multiple screenshots of a crash report.)

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Answer 14

Oct 8, 2009 2:30 PM in response to TildeBee

Passing through.

It has taken me some while to get to grips with the iChat ones.

This link has an expanded one with Comments

They refer to Connection problems of one sort or another so what else is loaded into the RAM makes no difference to that so anything below the line "Binary Images for iChat" just take screen space.

Part of change has come about due to the fact the current Discussions Software allows much longer posts (there used to be a character limit in the previous software) so longer posts can now be made.

One should also remember that if you post to a thread all those that are Subscribed to it get a complete copy (less pics) as an email alert.
You can see from th link above that Logs can get very long for iChat.

10:30 PM Thursday; October 8, 2009

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

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Answer 15

Oct 8, 2009 2:35 PM in response to Alancito

With my sheltered upbringing, I had to look up the meaning of WAG — apparently a less than intelligent conjecture of the caliber of a small undomesticated horse-like mammal. ...Sometimes these forums do exhibit that characteristic.

Had problem myself.

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/WivesandGirlfriends

10:35 PM Thursday; October 8, 2009

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

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