Capture file corruption?

[MollyMoon]

We are having a problem with the capture process in ProComm, and I'm wondering if anyone has heard of this before.

We use ProComm to dial and login to a remote system, then run a report, capturing the data from the report. This works well with the exception of when the file is particularly large (over a couple of hundred KB).

The problem is the capture file appears corrupted: records are mixed together, entire pages are repeated or are missing completely.

Thanks.

 

[knob]

I take it that you are using a script to control the capture file? If so, do you see the same problem if the whole process is run manually? After you notice this problem, look in Procomm's scrollback buffer and see if the problem is apparent there as well. Does your script open and close the capture file repeatedly, or just once per run?


aspect@aspectscripting.com

http://www.aspectscripting.com

 

[MollyMoon]

Hi Knob,

Yes, we are using a script (sorry, I should have mentioned that earlier). The capture file is not opened and closed repeatedly, however, the script turns capture on and off anywhere from 2 to 4 times within the script (depending on how many reports we need to run). This is because each report must be captured with a different file name.

Because this is an automated process, once the script is finished it closes ProComm, so viewing the scrollback buffer is not possible. I haven't tried to run the process manually to see if it can be reproduced but that is a good idea. The obstacle to that is in order to move through the report on this particular system you have to continually press the space bar which could get tedious when done manually (sometimes that requires more than a thousand space bars).

 

[knob]

Are all capture files during the script run showing this problem, or just certain files at certain times? One thing that may be causing a problem is that the capture on command will put what is currently on the screen at the beginning of the capture file. If you turn off a capture file and open a new capture file with the same data on the screen, it will appear in both files. To get around this problem, you can issue the clear command before opening the second capture file.

One thing you might want to try is increasing the size of the scrollback buffer (Options | Data Options | Terminal Options menu item in Procomm) by quite a bit, then save the scrollback buffer after each capture file is closed (using the sbsave command). If you detect a problem in the capture file, you can then reference the saved scrollback buffer to see where the problem may be occurring. It may also be a good idea to use the termreset command to clear out the scrollback buffer after you hsve closed the capture file and saved the scrollback buffer.


aspect@aspectscripting.com

http://www.aspectscripting.com

 

[KentIsland]

I had the same problem a while ago and someone suggested
using the "filtered or raw" options and the problem seemed
to resolve itself.

 

[MollyMoon]

Knob:

To answer your last question, "Are all capture files during the script run showing this problem, or just certain files at certain times?", this only happens when the capture files are large (as mentioned earlier).

KentIsland:

Thanks for the input. I looked into this, and we are using "Set capture recordmode RAW". You didn't specify which mode worked for you -- filtered or raw? The help files say that using recordmode RAW "writes information just as it is received from the remote system", which would indicate the problem is in the transmission.

Would anyone agree with this conclusion?

Thanks.