History of software execution and the associated messages are stored in repositories and their associated buffers. Each level of trace entry is expired at a different, tailored rate. The most detailed log, showing only the information immediately preceding the event, expires most quickly. This means that when the trace buffer is written to some storage medium at the point of failure, the trace entries are more frequent and detailed. However, as time passes, more of the details are lost. Nevertheless, the outline history of events, that would have been lost in the case of a uniform details level of tracing, is maintained. Therefore, information with at least some degree of details will be available further back in time to help the diagnosis.