meshtastic/docs/development/firmware/stacktraces.mdx

---
id: stacktraces
title: Stacktraces
sidebar_label: Stacktraces
sidebar_position: 5
---

## Decoding Stacktraces

You may encounter a situation where your device crashes and are left with a stacktrace, below are two methods of decoding them.

### Manually

:::info
This method uses the symbols of the `firmware.elf` file generated from your latest build, you may wish to rebuild to get up-to-date symbols.
:::

1. Save the backtrace string to a text file:

   ```text title="backtrace.txt"
   Backtrace: 0x....
   ```

2. Run the exception decoder:
   ```shell
   bin/exception_decoder.py backtrace.txt
   ```

### In Real-Time

In order to decode stack traces in real time, keep the following command (replacing `DEVICE_PORT` with your device's port) running in your terminal with the target device connected:

```shell
pio device monitor --port DEVICE_PORT -f esp32_exception_decoder
```