In the ever-changing field of software development, developing reliable apps is a constant struggle. Nevertheless, even the most carefully designed software occasionally runs into unanticipated problems that result in unexpected program crashes. This seriously jeopardizes developers’ reputations in addition to interfering with user experience. You need more than simply good fortune to handle these software crashes properly. This blog will examine the crucial skill of troubleshooting software applications that crash so you will be prepared to take on these issues head-on. The tips and tricks offered here will assist you in navigating the dangerous waters of troubleshooting applications, regardless of your level of experience as a developer.
So, join us as we journey through the essential strategies and best practices, including utilizing a mobile testing lab, to ensure your software applications remain stable and resilient in the face of unforeseen crises.
What Happens In A Software Application Crash?
When a software program crashes, it frequently ends suddenly and doesn’t require any user input or warning. Numerous things, including unhandled exceptions, memory leaks, null pointer errors, and external hardware problems like disk failures, might cause this event. Data loss or corruption may result from an application’s state and data being left in an inconsistent or partially saved state following a crash.
Usually, the user sees an error message, or the program ends abruptly. The system may occasionally provide crash reports or logs to aid developers in troubleshooting the issue. To find the source of a crash and stop it from happening again, debugging and error-handling strategies that work are essential to providing a more dependable and seamless user experience.
Common Causes of Application Crashes:
Prior to exploring debugging techniques, let us first examine some typical causes of software application crashes. Recognizing these offenders will assist you in foreseeing and resolving possible problems:
1. Memory Leaks
Application crashes are frequently caused by memory leaks, particularly in programs that control their memory allocation, such as C and C++ applications. When a program allocates memory for a resource but neglects to appropriately deallocate or release it when it is no longer needed, it can result in a memory leak. These unreleased memory blocks build up over time, eventually filling the system’s memory. A crash may occur if the system runs out of memory.
Memory leaks are especially sneaky since they frequently cause a system to operate more slowly before crashing, which makes it difficult to identify them. By employing appropriate memory management strategies and instruments, such as memory profilers, to detect and fix memory leaks, developers may effectively tackle memory leaks.
2. Null Pointer Exceptions
Null pointer exceptions arise when a program tries to access or dereference a memory region with a null (empty) value. These exceptions are frequently seen in languages like Java, C#, and C++. This can occur when an item has been deallocated but is still accessed or when a variable or object reference has not been correctly initialized. If null pointer exceptions are not handled appropriately, they may cause a crash.
Developers can use defensive programming techniques, such as verifying null values before accessing variables or objects, to reduce the likelihood of null pointer errors. Avoiding crashes caused by null pointer exceptions requires careful handling of errors and exceptions.
3. Unhandled Exceptions
Errors or unexpected events that arise during program execution but are not detected and addressed by the application’s code are known as unhandled exceptions. An unhandled exception might cause an abrupt program termination by moving up the call stack until it reaches the operating system or runtime environment. This may cause a crash without giving the user any useful feedback.
Developers may handle unhandled errors by adding thorough exception handling across their whole program. This entails keeping data integrity intact during exceptions, providing user-friendly error messages, and catching and handling exceptions properly. Diagnostic and remedial actions to respond to unhandled exceptions can be taken to prevent crashes through properly configured error reporting and logging methods.
Debugging Crashing Software Applications: Strategies To Follow
Let’s examine practical methods for troubleshooting software applications that fail while considering these possible risks.
1. Catch All Exceptions
Managing exceptions is an essential part of keeping a software program stable. Unhandled exceptions can cause program crashes and a bad user experience when they reach the operating system. To reduce this risk, developers ought to:
Enable thorough exception handling across the whole codebase. To do this, possible failure spots must be located. Try-catch blocks are then used to handle errors graciously and stop them from spreading further.
Show error messages that are easy to read to let users know what’s wrong and provide guidance on how to fix it. This gives users peace of mind that their data is secure while enhancing the user experience. Consider using journaling techniques, which store important data in temporary files. This data can be restored in the case of a crash, guaranteeing data integrity.
Get a stack dump, log it, and email it to the support or development staff. This data makes debugging easier and aids in identifying the crash’s primary cause.
By adhering to these best practices, you may shield your customers from data loss and irritation by preventing application crashes, improving user experience, and recovering from unforeseen errors—much like how Microsoft Office is adept at data recovery.
2. Build In Secret Debug Tools
Accessing hidden debug tools can be a huge help when trying to debug anything effectively. These tools provide a secure way to find and fix problems with your software programs when they are hidden from inexperienced users. To accomplish this, multiple tactics are employed:
- Covert Activation Mechanism: Use a covert activation mechanism, like a hidden mouse/key-click combination or a specific named file inside the application’s directory. These safeguards ensure that only authorized users can access advanced debugging tools by acting as a gateway.
- User Access Control: You should never provide people administrator-level access. This could result in unexpected consequences, security flaws, or improper usage of debugging tools. The integrity of the application depends on keeping control over these tools.
- Extensive Debugging Features: Give users access to strong tools such as internal data structure access, SQL console run commands, and logging level adjustments. These features make it possible to perform sophisticated debugging and problem-solving, which improves your capacity to identify and resolve problems quickly.
- Fallback Debugging: If live debugging is not feasible, add logging statements to each line of the affected code. This approach may lead to additional code and processing overhead, but it may be a last-ditch attempt to find issues and ensure the program’s stability over time.
Using these covert debugging tools allows you to balance security and facilitates efficient problem-solving. These tools enable developers to precisely identify and address issues while safeguarding the application’s integrity and sensitive data. You can also use testing tools such as Appium, Robot or Espresso for debugging.
3. Data Spew Debugging
A powerful method for debugging software programs that crash is data spew debugging, which involves continuously transmitting data in real-time to a debug channel. This method provides a proactive way to monitor an application’s activity and identify problems as soon as they appear. To do data spew debugging, developers use Win32 routines like OutputDebugString(), which sends strings to an associated debugger quickly and with little burden on system resources. Additionally, the output produced by OutputDebugString() is captured and shown using programs like DebugView, a SysInternals collection component.
The real-time data spew enables developers to find exceptions, find mistakes, and get instant insights into the program’s behavior. Developers can quickly identify crash reasons and implement workarounds by analyzing the debug output. Data spew debugging is a useful tool that developers may add to their toolkits to maintain application stability and improve user experience by quickly resolving issues.
4. Logging
Any sophisticated software application must include logging, which is a historical log of the program’s actions. It is essential for identifying and fixing crashes and other problems. Take into account these crucial procedures to perform efficient logging:
- Rolling Logs: Rolling logs help prevent the build-up of disproportionately big log files, which can take up disk space and become cumbersome. Rolling logs are archiving or deleting older log files and periodically creating new ones. This guarantees that the application’s activity is recorded in a manageable and current way.
- Gather Useful Information: Timestamps, error messages, and user actions are just a few examples of the important data that should be recorded in log files. Error messages explain what went wrong, while timestamps aid in chronological analysis. Reproducing particular crash scenarios can be made easier with user action logs.
- Frequent Review: Log files must be reviewed regularly to spot patterns and reoccurring problems that could cause crashes. Developers can identify the core causes of issues and put corrective measures in place by examining the logs.
An efficient and well-organized logging system is essential to track the events that led to a crash. Additionally, it saves the time and effort required to remove log files to free up disk space or fix elusive issues.
In addition, testing also plays a crucial role in identifying, isolating, and debugging crashing software applications. Debugging is the process of finding and fixing software defects or errors; when applications crash, testing becomes an essential tool for understanding and resolving these issues. There are several ways to test crashing software applications. However, the best way to do it is over cloud platforms like LambdaTest.
LambdaTest is an AI-powered test orchestration and execution platform to run manual and automated tests at scale. The platform allows you to perform real-time and automation testing across 3000+ environments and real mobile devices.
Conclusion
One difficult but crucial part of software development is troubleshooting software that crashes. Crash situations can be easily handled if you catch exceptions, include hidden debugging tools, use data spew debugging, and have efficient logging. It will improve user experience and spare you from tense exchanges with irate clients if you know the common reasons for application problems and take proactive measures to address them. These techniques will assist you in maintaining a strong and resilient software application, guaranteeing its dependability even in the face of unforeseen difficulties. Debugging is a continuous activity. Therefore, even while you can’t always avoid crashes, you can at least be ready to deal with them when they happen.