trickle level configuration purpose

I've looked over the serviceability.config file and noticed the 'trickle' section as part of the trace section:

Code:

---

      "trace": {
                "global" : {
                        "directory": "serviceability/trace",
                        "levels": {
                    "*" : "warn"
                }
                },
                "trickle": {
                        "windowSize": 10000,
                        "levels": {
                        "*" : "debug",
                                "org.apache.commons.digester.*" : "warn"
                }
                }
    }

---

The global section seems self-explanatory -- not to mention it was already in dm Server 1.0 -- but I just can't figure out the purpose of the trickle parameters.

I've noticed trickle files are generated in the dump folder, but since this 'trickle' section is in the trace section I don't know if they are related. (Also haven't seen any 'trickle' output in the trace folder)

Would really appreciate if someone could provide any info on what the purpose of trickle section is or its difference to the global section

The trickle trace gather trace entries in an in-memory circular buffer. The size of this buffer is configured by the window size configuration setting, measured in the number of entries that the buffer can hold.

As you've seen, whenever a dump is triggered, the contents of the trickle trace buffer are included in the dump.