Patent ID: 8327338

Claim:
A method for identifying an overlay of a data processing target structure in a computing environment, comprising: performing at least one of: examining a mapping macro for the target structure with a set of valid ranges, comparing the set of valid ranges with the target structure to identify a string of at least one first invalid value and a last invalid value and locate invalid regions of the target structure, and examining executable code associated with the target structure, comparing at least one unchanged module against at least one additional module exhibiting an overlay characteristic to identify the string of the at least one first invalid value and the last invalid value and locate invalid regions of the target structure; scanning through a dump to identify each instance of the string of the at least one first invalid value and the last invalid value; and subsequent to scanning through the dump, scanning a system trace, beginning at a bottom entry of the system trace as a first entry, to determine if an address of the string is contained within a block of data, wherein if the address is contained within the block of data, a program storage word (PSW) is obtained to identify an owner of the overlay.