A compilation error message often helps programmers debugging the source code.
somefile.cpp:24: parse error before `something'[4] This could mean that a semi-colon is missing at the end of the previous statement.
They can sometimes be worked around by making small, insignificant changes to the source code around the line indicated by the error (if such a line is indicated at all),[5][better source needed] but sometimes larger changes must be made, such as refactoring the code, to avoid certain constructs.
The additional files attached for internal compiler errors usually have special formats that they save as, such as .dump for Java.
These formats are generally more difficult to analyze than regular files, but can still have very helpful information for solving the bug causing the crash.