Integrated crashlogging tool

March 18, 2009 · by helgeag

Hi everybody!

I'm Helge, and I have been working at Opera Software for over three years. In the last year I have been handling many of the incoming crash bugs from our users.
I'm happy to inform you that we are finally getting an integrated crashlogger in Opera. This has already been implemented in the latest Windows builds of Opera 10, and it will soon be available for Mac and Linux. We put a lot of effort into stability, and this is an important step in the right direction to make Opera even more stable than it is. A crash is one of the worst things you can experience while browsing, and we are working very hard to fix crashes as we know that a stable browser is vital for our users.

For the moment on Windows, all crashlogs are saved in the Temp directory. This is just a temporary solution, while we get the automatic crashlog uploading to work. Before we can release the crashlog uploader we need to make sure that our backend for handling these crashlogs is working properly, and for that we need your help to test.

If you get a crash, please upload the crashlog to our new crashlog submitter.

Please enter as much information about what you were doing at the time of the crash in the Comments field. If for example Opera crashed while loading a page write something like:

Crash URL: http://www.example.com
Comments: Opera crashed while loading the page.

Similar useful comments could be that: Opera crashed on exit, while closing a tab, while reading an e-mail etc.

If you get a crash that you can reproduce, please report the bug as a normal bug report here.

With this new automatic crashlogging tool we will hopefully get many more crashlogs than we did earlier, from all of our users, not just the users running inspectr. This requires a stable backend which can handle the load of the incoming crashlogs.

Note that if you experience freezes with Opera, please see our knowledge base article.
Do not upload freeze logs via the new crashlog submission form, but report a normal bug report here and send the freezelog to the bug's e-mail address.

Readers' comments

Comments left by My Opera members under the original post: the first 31, as archived.

eini18. March 2009, 13:01:34
Great
eisteh18. March 2009, 13:19:32
It's good to see that more and more apps include automatic crashlogging. I can just talk for myself that - even when I'm experiencing crashes - I'm too lazy to do proper bug reports.
Maybe a lot of people who are in a hurry forget about past crashes. Let's hope you guys get everything working very fast to improve Opera even more!
myfrenchopera18. March 2009, 13:23:08
Opera 9.64 has crashed several times in my Vista computer, but the C:\Temp doesn't exist. I have checked the C:\Windows\Temp folder and have found 2 .log files, which seem to be empty, according to Notepad.

So, my question is, is that implemented in Opera 10 Turbo only ?
helgeag18. March 2009, 13:29:44
myfrenchopera: The integrated crashlogger was introduced in Opera 10 build 1285.
myfrenchopera18. March 2009, 13:31:00
thank you
Kildor18. March 2009, 13:32:20
not c:\temp but %temp%, in winXP it usually is "C:\Documents and Settings\…\Local Settings\Temp\"
Ok, I`ll send you some of my crashreports :-)
skye1118. March 2009, 14:02:48
great!
hope this allows you guys to fix more bugs much faster
how about including a bug status report feature/database too?
and will this make 'Inspectr' crash logger obsolete?
AndyleeSato18. March 2009, 14:05:00
great news!

Now... conzentrate on Opera 10.0 to get it at least into beta state before Fx 3.5 is released! :-D
Tamil18. March 2009, 14:15:51
Chas418. March 2009, 14:25:16
Quantic18. March 2009, 14:25:28
I'll send some for sure
ZAHEK18. March 2009, 14:56:38
It will be usefull for improving Opera.Thanks.
Zotlan18. March 2009, 15:12:57
So, when is this going to be in the linux builds?
helgeag18. March 2009, 16:58:30
skye11: For the moment you still need inspectr if you need to make a freezelog. You also need inspectr to get memguard enhanced logs.

Zoltan: Soon
Zotlan18. March 2009, 17:01:53
Originally posted by helgeag:

Zoltan: Soon

Good! i have a crash that needs logging.
kyleabaker18. March 2009, 18:13:24
Also waiting for integration in Linux!
the_Arioch18. March 2009, 18:44:35
iixii, is it you ? :-)
fearphage18. March 2009, 20:05:55
Should we submit crashes that we've already filed bugs against or only new ones?
lamarca18. March 2009, 21:06:24
great.

we have to disable the inspector iixxii to get the integrated crashloging working, right?
fearphage18. March 2009, 21:15:09
Originally posted by lamarca:

we have to disable the inspector iixxii to get the integrated crashloging working, right?
No, they work in conjunction with each other... sort of. If you disable the external inspectr, you can't make crash dumps when opera freezes.
dAEk18. March 2009, 21:23:44
A big thumbs for this one!

I can't remember the last time I got a crash but it is nice to know that it will be easier to report them (now and in the future).
Chas418. March 2009, 21:29:46
Is there a reason that the crashlog submitter is missing the Mac OS under the Operating System?
Zotlan18. March 2009, 21:41:42
hah, found another crash.
rriiicchh18. March 2009, 22:00:28
Originally posted by Chas4:

Is there a reason that the crashlog summiter is missing the Mac OS under the Operating System?

Hah, kind of funny.

I have been submitting crash reports through Smart Crash Reports addon in OSX for quite some time now and it is pretty seemless so it is nice to see this feature coming natively.

Do you want the crashlog logs in .zip?
helgeag18. March 2009, 22:17:05
fearpage: No need to send in already reported crashes.

Chas4: Yes, currently inspectr is not available for Mac, and the backend will only handle inspectr logs. Report Mac crashes in the normal way for now.

rriiicchh: You can send in crashlog in .zip format.
Chas419. March 2009, 00:13:19
helgeag I am also sending them using Smart Crash reports Tho I can only send one about ounce every 3 or more months, I rarely have an Opera crash
Wade19. March 2009, 13:40:10
good to hear we are getting crashlogging tool in linux builds, my opera crashes about two to three times a day & freezes about 20 times (i bet 99% of my problems are related to flash)
Zotlan19. March 2009, 13:44:18
I have a question though. If i find out that doing something causes a crash every time (opening dragonfly twice on linux builds say) should i file that as a bug report with the crash log attached or should i send it through the new crashlog submission site? Will that still generate a bug number?
olli19. March 2009, 13:52:30
Zotlan: In that case file a bug report and attach log
Nonox19. March 2009, 14:01:29
With this tool and OperaWatir, you will probably improve Opera a lot.
Aux19. March 2009, 15:58:19
The only crashes of Opera I get recently are because of Flash 10 debugging plugin, which I use (: