Synoptic: studying logged behavior with inferred models

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Ivan Beschastnikh, Jenny Abrahamson, Yuriy Brun, Michael D. Ernst

Published: 2011, Last Modified: 15 Dec 2025SIGSOFT FSE 2011EveryoneRevisionsBibTeXCC BY-SA 4.0
Abstract: Logging is a powerful method for capturing program activity and state during an execution. However, log inspection remains a tedious activity, with developers often piecing together what went on from multiple log lines and across many files. This paper describes Synoptic, a tool that takes logs as input and outputs a finite state machine that models the process generating the logs. The paper overviews the model inference algorithms. Then, it describes the Synoptic tool, which is designed to support a rich log exploration workflow.