August 2020 Summaries

Sentry's Native SDK has improved its platform compatibility through a major rewrite from C++ to C and by switching to the CMake build system, making it easier to integrate Crashpad, Breakpad, or in-process stackwalker on all major platforms. Developers can now track release health metrics such as crash-free sessions, crash-free users, version adoption, and custom product usage metrics that they define. The Native SDK supports a wide range of use cases including short command-line applications, large graphical user interfaces, long-running headless servers, and games. Sentry's insights tool, Discover, helps developers analyze data from each release to track the quality of each release across their entire user base. The company is open-source and has received external contributions from customers, with a Rust SDK that reports on sessions, users, and version adoption in the near term.

WASM (WebAssembly) is a technology that allows executing code from languages such as C, C++, Rust, and others in the browser at near-native speeds. It has gained popularity for edge computing and lightweight Docker replacements due to its fast sandboxing capabilities via the WASI standard. However, debugging with WASM poses significant challenges due to its stack-based nature, which makes it difficult to unwind the stack and access function names, line numbers, and file names in production. The lack of support for stack unwinding is a major limitation, but workarounds like creating JavaScript exception objects and using DWARF debug data can provide some insight into WASM frames. DWARF splitting, which separates debug information from the main executable, holds promise but is currently not widely supported due to issues with linking and referencing debug files. Debug IDs, proposed extensions for WASM, offer a solution to connect debug data with the correct WASM file, while source maps are inadequate for debugging WASM code. Despite these challenges, debugging remains a niche area within the WebAssembly community, but there are ongoing efforts to address these issues.

Vercel and Sentry have integrated their platforms to make it easier for JavaScript developers to track releases, identify suspect commits, and generate source maps for their applications. This integration allows developers to automatically generate releases whenever they deploy new versions of their app on Vercel, tie code commits to the release, and upload source maps. With this setup, Sentry can identify suspect commits and provide more context about errors, including the release number and commit information. The integration also surfaces issues seen in previous releases, the number of commits and files changed, and source maps for debugging purposes.

Asynchronous CSV Exports with Discover have been added to Sentry, allowing users to export all data in a single CSV file without manual scripting or limits. This feature is accessible through the app's existing export features and can be accessed via issue stream tags or discover features. When exporting data, users can click the link and wait for it to complete, receiving an email notification when ready to download. The exported data can be shared with others who have project permissions using a regular Sentry link. Asynchronous CSV Exports are currently available on the Business Plan, which offers a free trial or sales support.