Debugging RAVEN variations

If you have written a variation and, for some reason, it fails to do what you think it should do or, worse yet, your variation abends and exits. Let us first look at several ways to determine the status of your variation. See RAVEN General Information for information about RAVEN problem determination.

Note

The final form of a variation has a *.REX file extension and is located in a subdirectory off the execution directory (usually, \RAVEN\BIN\10AUTO\*.REX). It consists of INCLUDE.VAR, *.SUB (optional) and <variation>.VAR. When debugging your variation by line number, you will use the *.REX file rather than the *.VAR file.

If you cannot determine the cause of a problem or one of the following files is in error, see your IBM® service representative. However, do not modify these files because IBM will not be able to debug problems that may occur:
  • AUTO.REX
  • AUTOCOMM.REX
  • AUTOSTRT.REX
  • INCLUDE.VAR
  • MULT.VAR
  • TDRV.VAR
  • MTRP.VAR
  • CMDFILE.VAR

Enter the AUTO V(AR) command to determine when your variation is active. If there is an entry in the active variation table, there must be a corresponding entry in the Windows Task List display, which can be obtained by pressing the Ctrl+Shift+Esc keys. If there is no corresponding entry in the Windows Task List, view the RAVEN log by entering the AUTO EDIT LOG command. Error messages will be displayed in the debug log file if the variation ended abnormally. See RAVEN General Information for more information about the AUTO commands.

To help with your debugging, enter the AUTO DEBUG LOG command to increase the amount of logging information. Turn off logging afterwards by entering the AUTO DEBUG NOLOG command to keep the processing overhead at a minimum. You can enter the AUTO STATUS command to determine the status of logging. See RAVEN General Information for more information about the AUTO commands.

You also can turn on host output logging by entering the AUTO DEBUG HOST command and view the output created by entering the AUTO EDIT HOST command. Once again, turn off host output logging afterwards by entering the AUTO DEBUG NOHOST command to keep the processing overhead at a minimum. Enter the AUTO STATUS command to determine the status of host output logging. This file will show you the exact format of the host output messages that your variation is looking for. You might have parsed the output message incorrectly or the format of the output message in question is not what you expected. See RAVEN General Information for more information about the AUTO commands.

You can reset the host output log file by entering the AUTO RESET HOST command. See RAVEN General Information for more information about this command.

If your variation is active but is not processing correctly, test your variation by entering the AUTO TEST <variation name> command. The variation should respond in about 5 seconds (assuming minimal host output activity). If your variation does not respond, it may be looping. Try to deactivate the variation. If you cannot deactivate the variation, it might be looping. You will have to use the Windows Task List to exit the variation. Try closing it from the Task Manager. If this is not successful, switch to it by pressing the Ctrl+C keys. Enter the AUTO INACT <variation> FORCE command to clean up the active variation table. See RAVEN General Information for more information about the AUTO commands.

You can put additional debug information in your variation by using the REXX SAY instructions. You will have to view the output by entering the AUTO EDIT LOG command, but ensure that you remove the REXX SAY instruction afterward. See RAVEN General Information for more information about this command.

Use the DEBUGGER variation to determine when there is a problem in the interface between the RAVEN mainline (AUTO.REX) and the variation. See DEBUGGER <argument string> for more information about this variation.