I've discovered that the IBM XMS for .NET library has an excellent tracing facility. IBM documents this at http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/dmndhelp/v6rxmx/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.websphere.xms.doc/concepts/xms_ctrouble_trace_net.html. Using the standard .NET config file, you can specify:
- which class or namespace (or everything) to trace
- what events to trace, such as function entry/exit
- where you want the trace written to
- the maximum size of a trace file
- how many historical trace files you want to keep
Once turned on, the tracing will automatically roll over trace files based on the maximum size and keep the most recent trace files based on the configuration. For me, this is exactly how tracing should work. Hats off to IBM for getting this right.