The Trace property is used to enable or disable the logging
of Windows Sockets function calls. When enabled, each function call
is logged to a file, including the function parameters, return value
and error code if applicable. This facility can be enabled and
disabled at run time, and the trace log file can be specified by
setting the TraceFile property. All function calls that are
being logged are appended to the trace file, if it exists. If no
trace file exists when tracing is enabled, the trace file is
created.
The tracing facility is available in all of the networking
controls, and is enabled or disabled for an entire process. This
means that once tracing is enabled for a given control, all of the
function calls made by the process using any of the SocketTools
controls will be logged. For example, if you have an application
using both the FTP and POP3 controls, and you set the Trace
property to True on the FTP control, function calls made by both the
FTP and POP3 controls will be logged. Additionally, enabling a trace
is cumulative, and tracing is not stopped until it is disabled for
all controls used by the process.
If tracing is not enabled, there is no negative impact on
performance or throughput. Once enabled, application performance can
degrade, especially in those situations in which multiple processes
are being traced or the trace file is fairly large. Since trace files
can grow very quickly, even with modest applications, it is
recommended that you delete the file when it is no longer needed.
Note that only those function calls made by the SocketTools
networking controls will be logged. Calls made directly to the
Windows Sockets API, or calls made by other controls, will not be
logged.