What to look for in an analysis report
There are three main sections contained within an analysis report. Each of which is detailed
below.
Observations
This section contains major findings from the analyzer module that indicate potential problems
detected in the dump, for example 'deadlock detected', 'the authentication cache is overflowing'
It is hard to reliably and automatically detect problems while avoiding false alarms with
the result that this section is often empty. Hopefully it will in time become dominant!
Analysis Results
This section shows all the information produced by the analyzer for examination by an expert.
The contents will depend on each analyzer and may be very short or very detailed.
Most analyzers subdivide their output between a Summary section and a Details section.
Errors
This section lists any errors that prevented the analyzer from doing a perfect job
for example, partial corruptions or in-flight inconsistencies in the dump, mismatches
between the dump version and the analyzer or bugs in the analyzer.
Every analysis typically has a few errors which need evaluating to assess if the analysis results
are reliable.