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Summary Message File

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A summary message file is a text file that contains the information about a software trace. Tracefmt creates a summary message (.sum) file after processing the messages in a trace log or tracing session.

The summary message file includes the following data in a statistical summary:

  • The number of buffers processed

  • The number of messages processed and lost

  • The elapsed time, in microseconds, of the tracing session

Following the statistical summary is a table that is composed of one row for each trace message that is represented in the trace. Each column of the table provides the following information about the trace message:

EventCount
The number of instances of the trace message in the trace.

EventName
The friendly name of the message GUID of the trace messages. By default, the friendly name of a message GUID is the name of the directory in which the trace provider was built, but you can specify an alternate friendly name by using the -p parameter to RUN_WPP or Tracewpp.exe. For information, see Run_WPP Options. (EventName has the same value as the %1 variable in the trace message prefix.)

EventType
The friendly name of the trace message. By default, the friendly name of a trace message is the name of the source file and the line number of the code that generated the trace message. (EventType has the same value as the %2 variable in the trace message prefix.)

GUID
The message GUID of the trace messages.

The following example shows a summary message file for the testtrace.etl trace log that is generated by Tracedrv, a sample driver instrumented for tracing. TraceDrv, a sample driver that was designed for software tracing, is available from the Windows driver samples repository on GitHub.

Files Processed:
d:\DDK Tools\tracetools\testtrace.etl
Total Buffers Processed 4
Total Events  Processed 1718
Total Events  Lost      4
Elapsed Time            122 sec
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|EventCount    EventName    EventType         Guid                                |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|         1    Header       Header            68fdd900-4a3e-11d1-84f4-0000f80464e3|
|      1700    tracedrv     tracedrv_c264     37753236-c81f-505e-d40a-128d3bb2b5ff|
|        17    tracedrv     tracedrv_c258     37753236-c81f-505e-d40a-128d3bb2b5ff|
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

The preceding summary shows that Tracedrv generates a header message and two trace messages. One trace message is generated by a DoTraceMessage statement on line 264 and the other is generated by a DoTraceMessage statement on line 258. In this trace log, there are 1700 instances of the first trace message and 17 instances of the second trace message.

The summary message file is used primarily to debug software tracing, and its format is subject to change.