Branch trace is a computer program debugging tool or analysis technique.
On IBM System/360 this was implemented as part of Program-Event Recording (PER)[1] but was seldom used at the application programming level.
Program Event Recording hardware was used and due to the overhead of this tool, it was removed from customer-available MVS systems.
[4] With the availability and reference to a compiler listing of the program together with a branch trace, the full path of executed instructions can be reconstructed.
With a lot more effort, the full path can even be reconstructed with a memory dump (containing the program storage) and a branch trace.