An example of comm (wire) tracing.
// Summary of the message containing name-value pairs for the principal fields OUT GOING: Request Message // It is an out going request, therefore we are dealing with a client Date: 31 January 2003 16:17:34 GMT Thread Info: P=852270:O=0:CT Local Port: 4899 (0x1323) Local IP: 9.20.178.136 Remote Port: 4893 (0x131D) Remote IP: 9.20.178.136 GIOP Version: 1.2 Byte order: big endian Fragment to follow: No // This is the last fragment of the request Message size: 276 (0x114) -- Request ID: 5 // Request Ids are in ascending sequence Response Flag: WITH_TARGET // it means we are expecting a reply to this request Target Address: 0 Object Key: length = 26 (0x1A) // the object key is created by the server when exporting // the servant and retrieved in the IOR using a naming service 4C4D4249 00000010 14F94CA4 00100000 00080000 00000000 0000 Operation: message // That is the name of the method that the client invokes on the servant Service Context: length = 3 (0x3) // There are three service contexts Context ID: 1229081874 (0x49424D12) // Partner version service context. IBM only Context data: length = 8 (0x8) 00000000 14000005 Context ID: 1 (0x1) // Codeset CORBA service context Context data: length = 12 (0xC) 00000000 00010001 00010100 Context ID: 6 (0x6) // Codebase CORBA service context Context data: length = 168 (0xA8) 00000000 00000028 49444C3A 6F6D672E 6F72672F 53656E64 696E6743 6F6E7465 78742F43 6F646542 6173653A 312E3000 00000001 00000000 0000006C 00010200 0000000D 392E3230 2E313738 2E313336 00001324 0000001A 4C4D4249 00000010 15074A96 00100000 00080000 00000000 00000000 00000002 00000001 00000018 00000000 00010001 00000001 00010020 00010100 00000000 49424D0A 00000008 00000000 14000005 Data Offset: 11c // raw data that goes in the wire in numbered rows of 16 bytes and the corresponding ASCII decoding 0000: 47494F50 01020000 00000114 00000005 GIOP............ 0010: 03000000 00000000 0000001A 4C4D4249 ............LMBI 0020: 00000010 14F94CA4 00100000 00080000 ......L......... 0030: 00000000 00000000 00000008 6D657373 ............mess 0040: 61676500 00000003 49424D12 00000008 age.....IBM..... 0050: 00000000 14000005 00000001 0000000C ................ 0060: 00000000 00010001 00010100 00000006 ................ 0070: 000000A8 00000000 00000028 49444C3A ...........(IDL: 0080: 6F6D672E 6F72672F 53656E64 696E6743 omg.org/SendingC 0090: 6F6E7465 78742F43 6F646542 6173653A ontext/CodeBase: 00A0: 312E3000 00000001 00000000 0000006C 1.0............l 00B0: 00010200 0000000D 392E3230 2E313738 ........9.20.178 00C0: 2E313336 00001324 0000001A 4C4D4249 .136...$....LMBI 00D0: 00000010 15074A96 00100000 00080000 ......J......... 00E0: 00000000 00000000 00000002 00000001 ................ 00F0: 00000018 00000000 00010001 00000001 ................ 0100: 00010020 00010100 00000000 49424D0A ... ........IBM. 0110: 00000008 00000000 14000005 00000000 ................
In this example trace, you can see a summary of the principal fields that are contained in the message, followed by the message itself as it goes in the wire. In the summary are several field name-value pairs. Each number is in hexadecimal notation.
For details of the structure of a GIOP message, see the CORBA specification, chapters 13 and 15: http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?formal/99-10-07.