Editing Stack trace (section)

{{Short description|Report of stack frames during program execution}}
{{Redirect|Backtrace|the 2018 film|Backtrace (film)}}

In [[computing]], a '''stack trace''' (also called '''stack backtrace'''<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual/html_node/Backtraces.html | title=libc manual: backtraces | publisher=gnu.org | accessdate=8 July 2014}}</ref> or '''stack traceback'''<ref>{{cite web | url=https://docs.python.org/3/library/traceback.html | title=traceback — Print or retrieve a stack traceback | publisher=python.org | accessdate=8 July 2014}}</ref>) is a report of the active [[stack frame]]s at a certain point in time during the execution of a [[computer program|program]]. When a program is run, memory is often dynamically allocated in two places: the [[Stack (abstract data type)#Hardware stack|stack]] and the [[Memory_management#HEAP|heap]]. Memory is continuously allocated on a stack but not on a heap. Stack also refers to a programming construct, thus to differentiate it, this stack is referred to as the program's '''[[Call stack|function call stack]]'''. Technically, once a block of memory has been allocated on the stack, it cannot be easily removed as there can be other blocks of memory that were allocated after it. Each time a function is called in a program, a block of memory called an '''activation record''' is allocated on top of the call stack. Generally, the activation record stores the function's arguments and local variables. What exactly it contains and how it's laid out is determined by the [[calling convention]].

Programmers commonly use stack tracing during interactive and post-mortem [[debugging]]. End-users may see a stack trace displayed as part of an [[error message]], which the user can then report to a programmer.

A stack trace allows tracking the sequence of [[nested function]]s called - up to the point where the stack trace is generated. In a post-mortem scenario this extends up to the function where the failure occurred (but was not necessarily caused). [[Tail call|Sibling calls]] do not appear in a stack trace.