Symbolicating crash just gives me __PRETTY_FUNCTION__

Question

I have used this code as an UncaughtExceptionHandler for my app to capture some crash information and return it back to me:

NSArray *callStack = [exception callStackReturnAddresses];
    int i,len = [callStack count];
//  void **frames = new void *[len];
    void **frames = (void**)malloc(len);

    for (i = 0; i < len; ++i) {
        frames[i] = (void *)[[callStack objectAtIndex:i] unsignedIntegerValue];
    }
    char **symbols = backtrace_symbols(frames,len);

    /*
     *  Now format into a message for sending to the user
     */

    NSMutableString *buffer = [[NSMutableString alloc] initWithCapacity:4096];

    NSBundle *bundle = [NSBundle mainBundle];
    [buffer appendFormat:@"Version %@\n\n",[bundle objectForInfoDictionaryKey:@"CFBundleVersion"]];
    [buffer appendFormat:@"Device: %@. OS: %@\n", [[UIDevice currentDevice] model], [[UIDevice currentDevice] systemVersion]];
    [buffer appendString:@"Uncaught Exception\n"];
    [buffer appendFormat:@"Exception Name: %@\n",[exception name]];
    [buffer appendFormat:@"Exception Reason: %@\n",[exception reason]];
    [buffer appendString:@"Stack trace:\n\n"];
    for (i = 0; i < len; ++i) {
        [buffer appendFormat:@"%4d - %s\n",i,symbols[i]];
    }

Today I received a crash report which is quite minimal compared to the ones you get from iTunes Connect. It looks like this:

0 - 0 CoreFoundation 0x395472a3 + 162
1 - 1 libobjc.A.dylib 0x3343697f objc_exception_throw + 30
2 - 2 CoreFoundation 0x395471c5 + 0
3 - 3 Foundation 0x342ec7cb + 66
4 - 4 myapp 0x0012887d myapp + 424061
5 - 5 myapp 0x001285ed myapp + 423405
6 - 6 myapp 0x0013f1f1 myapp + 516593
7 - 7 libdispatch.dylib 0x3783a11f + 10
8 - 8 libdispatch.dylib 0x378394b7 + 22
9 - 9 libdispatch.dylib 0x3783e1bd + 224
10 - 10 CoreFoundation 0x3951af3b + 1290
11 - 11 CoreFoundation 0x3948debd CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 356
12 - 12 CoreFoundation 0x3948dd49 CFRunLoopRunInMode + 104
13 - 13 GraphicsServices 0x3785b2eb GSEventRunModal + 74
14 - 14 UIKit 0x326cd2f9 UIApplicationMain + 1120
15 - 15 myapp 0x000e72e7 myapp + 156391
16 - 16 myapp 0x000c2530 myapp + 5424 

I have used atos to symbolicate the memory addresses in the report but the 3 addresses 0x0013f1f1 0x001285ed 0x0012887d just return __PRETTY_FUNCTION__.20480 (in myapp) + 101235 __PRETTY_FUNCTION__.20480 (in myapp) + 8047 __PRETTY_FUNCTION__.20480 (in myapp) + 8703 which doesn't really help me. Is there anything else I can do to at least find the method name that caused the crash?

If not, is there anything I can add to my UncaughtExceptionHandler or do in a future release that will give me the method names? I never seem to get any iTunes Connect crash reports which is why i've taken this route.

Thanks

Answer 1

Some services/libraries to consider for getting better crash reports like you've asked are.

• Crashlytics which I highly recommend, drop dead simple setup, beautiful interface and automatic symbolication
• TestFlight I love TestFlight for beta distribution, I do not have much experience with their crash reporting tool
• QuincyKit This is nice if you want to host your own server to receive reports, if you prefer to not mess with server hosting check out HockeyApp which is the "hosted" version of HockeyKit + QuincyKit
• JIRA Mobile Connect If you use JIRA

Going with one of these lets you forget about the intricacies of unhandeled exceptions, they are the experts. Unless you're interested in becoming an expert in this field I'd really suggest going with one of them. I know this doesn't answer the first part of your question, but hopefully it provides some value if you cannot get the answer or want to invest the time in researching it.