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<h2>Tracing</h2>
<p>Tracing is a way to record debugging information that can be used during
software development. With tracing, you can generate detailed, low-level
information about an application's execution in the target device.</p>
<p>Examples of tracing are cases when messages are sent or received from a
component, when states change, when a certain function is entered or
exited, or anywhere else in the code where it is interesting to know if code
has been executed or not.</p>
<p>System level performance analysis and problem-solving are often based on
tracing. In your development team, a standard way to instrument traces to
your code (for example, using the same trace group for fatal error
tracing) can help in determining which level of traces should be activated.
</p>
<p><b>Note:</b> there is a distinction between <i>tracing</i> and <i>
logging</i> as general terms. Tracing is primarily for debugging and diagnostic
purposes, whereas logging writes records of program usage and is often a functional
requirement of a program.</p>
<h5>Related concepts</h5>
<ul>
<li><a href="trace_format.htm">Open System Trace (OST)</a></li>
</ul>
<h5>Related tasks</h5>
<ul>
<li><a href="../tasks/addingtraces.htm">Adding traces to the source code</a></li>
<li><a href="../tasks/addingparameters.htm">Adding parameters to existing traces</a></li>
</ul>
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