!wmitrace.tmffile

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The !wmitrace.tmffile extension specifies a trace message format (TMF) file. The file specified by this extension is used to format trace messages displayed or written by other WMI tracing extensions.

!wmitrace.tmffile TMFFile

Parameters

TMFFile
Specifies a trace message format file.

DLL

Wmitrace.dll

Additional Information

For a conceptual overview of event tracing, see the Microsoft Windows SDK. For information about trace message format files, see the "Trace Message Format File" topic in the Windows Driver Kit (WDK).

Remarks

Trace message format files (.tmf) are structured text files that are created during Windows software trace preprocessor (WPP) software tracing. These files contain instructions for formatting trace binary trace messages so that they can be displayed in human-readable form.

In order to display the trace message in a trace buffer (!wmitrace.logdump) or write them to a file (!wmitrace.logsave), you must first identify the TMF files for the trace messages.

You can use !wmitrace.searchpath to specify a directory in which TMF files are stored. The system then searches the directory for a TMF file that contains instructions for the messages that it is formatting. (It uses the message GUID to associate the message with the correct TMF file.)

However, you can use !wmitrace.tmffile to specify a particular TMF file. You must use !wmitrace.tmffile if the TMF file name is not a message GUID followed by the .tmf extension. Otherwise, the system will not find it.

If you do not use either !wmitrace.searchpath or !wmitrace.tmffile, the system uses the value of the TRACE_FORMAT_SEARCH_PATH environment variable. If that variable is not present, it uses the default.tmf file. If the system cannot find formatting information for a trace message, it writes a "No format information found" error message, instead of the trace message content.

Note  If your driver uses UMDF version 1.11 or later, you do not need to use !wmitrace.searchpath or !wmitrace.tmffile.

This extension is only useful during WPP software tracing, and earlier (legacy) methods of Event Tracing for Windows. Trace events that are produced by other manifested providers do not use trace message format (TMF) files, and therefore this extension cannot be used with them.