TraceMaster CodeTrack provides two valuable services that help you improve code quality, security and performance and is an effective tool for quality control when promoting z/OS applications to a production environment.
CICS code path analysis lets developers know with certainty exactly how often each program instruction is executed, and highlights any instructions that are not being executed due to programming errors or redundant code. This approach reveals the extent of testing carried out on new or enhanced CICS applications by verifying whether all code has run successfully.
Storage violation detection tracks the execution of instructions in CICS applications. When a monitored application is about to update an area of storage, TraceMaster CodeTrack checks that the targeted memory area is actually owned by the application. If an application attempts to update storage lying outside of its ownership, the problem is detected and can be prevented. Used in development or system testing environments, TraceMaster CodeTrack is the perfect tool to ensure that none of the code going into production will cause storage violations, which are amongst the most serious of application problems.
Easy upkeep
Minimal set-up and maintenance is required, so TraceMaster CodeTrack can be readily installed on any number of CICS systems to enable blanket monitoring for errors, including those that occur rarely or under unusual circumstances.
Path analysis reporting
Every time a program instruction is executed, a cumulative count is updated; reports are produced to highlight executed and non-executed code, code hotspots and poor code structure.
Redundant code detection
Analysis reports reveal leftover fragments of unused and potentially malicious code that testers need to remove or correct to prevent security threats.
Total system coverage
TraceMaster CodeTrack's low-level interception approach allows storage violation monitoring to be applied to transactions that cannot be detected by standard CICS mechanisms.
Pre-emptive processing
Proactive prevention of storage violations is safer and more efficient than detecting a storage error after it has occurred and offers a significant advantage over standard CICS monitoring mechanisms.
Flexible storage violation error handling
Users can choose how pending storage violations should be handled, such as by creating a dump and continuing, or abending the transaction and writing a record to the TraceMaster CodeTrack log file showing which line of code caused the violation, and when.
Inclusion and exclusion lists
When a program is started in a region where TraceMaster CodeTrack is active, TraceMaster CodeTrack determines whether it should be monitored by referencing the user-maintained exclusion and inclusion lists. This gives users the ability to monitor all programs in a CICS region or to target specific program.
Auditing and quality control
Code analysis reports can be used to monitor the level of testing carried out on new or updated applications and verify compliance with testing procedures.