man/man4/ddb.4

.\"
.\" Mach Operating System
.\" Copyright (c) 1991,1990 Carnegie Mellon University
.\" Copyright (c) 2007 Robert N. M. Watson
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.\" HISTORY
.\" ddb.4,v
.\" Revision 1.1  1993/07/15  18:41:02  brezak
.\" Man page for DDB
.\"
.\" Revision 2.6  92/04/08  08:52:57  rpd
.\" 	Changes from OSF.
.\" 	[92/01/17  14:19:22  jsb]
.\" 	Changes for OSF debugger modifications.
.\" 	[91/12/12            tak]
.\"
.\" Revision 2.5  91/06/25  13:50:22  rpd
.\" 	Added some watchpoint explanation.
.\" 	[91/06/25            rpd]
.\"
.\" Revision 2.4  91/06/17  15:47:31  jsb
.\" 	Added documentation for continue/c, match, search, and watchpoints.
.\" 	I've not actually explained what a watchpoint is; maybe Rich can
.\" 	do that (hint, hint).
.\" 	[91/06/17  10:58:08  jsb]
.\"
.\" Revision 2.3  91/05/14  17:04:23  mrt
.\" 	Correcting copyright
.\"
.\" Revision 2.2  91/02/14  14:10:06  mrt
.\" 	Changed to new Mach copyright
.\" 	[91/02/12  18:10:12  mrt]
.\"
.\" Revision 2.2  90/08/30  14:23:15  dbg
.\" 	Created.
.\" 	[90/08/30            dbg]
.\"
.\" $FreeBSD$
.\"
.Dd December 26, 2007
.Dt DDB 4
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm ddb
.Nd interactive kernel debugger
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Cd options KDB
.Cd options DDB
.Pp
To prevent activation of the debugger on kernel
.Xr panic 9 :
.Cd options KDB_UNATTENDED
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
kernel debugger has most of the features of the old
.Nm kdb ,
but with a more rational syntax
inspired by
.Xr gdb 1 .
If linked into the running kernel,
it can be invoked locally with the
.Ql debug
.Xr keymap 5
action.
The debugger is also invoked on kernel
.Xr panic 9
if the
.Va debug.debugger_on_panic
.Xr sysctl 8
MIB variable is set non-zero,
which is the default
unless the
.Dv KDB_UNATTENDED
option is specified.
.Pp
The current location is called
.Va dot .
The
.Va dot
is displayed with
a hexadecimal format at a prompt.
The commands
.Ic examine
and
.Ic write
update
.Va dot
to the address of the last line
examined or the last location modified, and set
.Va next
to the address of
the next location to be examined or changed.
Other commands do not change
.Va dot ,
and set
.Va next
to be the same as
.Va dot .
.Pp
The general command syntax is:
.Ar command Ns Op Li / Ns Ar modifier
.Ar address Ns Op Li , Ns Ar count
.Pp
A blank line repeats the previous command from the address
.Va next
with
count 1 and no modifiers.
Specifying
.Ar address
sets
.Va dot
to the address.
Omitting
.Ar address
uses
.Va dot .
A missing
.Ar count
is taken
to be 1 for printing commands or infinity for stack traces.
.Pp
The
.Nm
debugger has a pager feature (like the
.Xr more 1
command)
for the output.
If an output line exceeds the number set in the
.Va lines
variable, it displays
.Dq Li --More--
and waits for a response.
The valid responses for it are:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -compact -width ".Li SPC"
.It Li SPC
one more page
.It Li RET
one more line
.It Li q
abort the current command, and return to the command input mode
.El
.Pp
Finally,
.Nm
provides a small (currently 10 items) command history, and offers
simple
.Nm emacs Ns -style
command line editing capabilities.
In addition to
the
.Nm emacs
control keys, the usual
.Tn ANSI
arrow keys might be used to
browse through the history buffer, and move the cursor within the
current line.
.Sh COMMANDS
.Bl -tag -width indent -compact
.It Ic examine
.It Ic x
Display the addressed locations according to the formats in the modifier.
Multiple modifier formats display multiple locations.
If no format is specified, the last format specified for this command
is used.
.Pp
The format characters are:
.Bl -tag -compact -width indent
.It Cm b
look at by bytes (8 bits)
.It Cm h
look at by half words (16 bits)
.It Cm l
look at by long words (32 bits)
.It Cm a
print the location being displayed
.It Cm A
print the location with a line number if possible
.It Cm x
display in unsigned hex
.It Cm z
display in signed hex
.It Cm o
display in unsigned octal
.It Cm d
display in signed decimal
.It Cm u
display in unsigned decimal
.It Cm r
display in current radix, signed
.It Cm c
display low 8 bits as a character.
Non-printing characters are displayed as an octal escape code (e.g.,
.Ql \e000 ) .
.It Cm s
display the null-terminated string at the location.
Non-printing characters are displayed as octal escapes.
.It Cm m
display in unsigned hex with character dump at the end of each line.
The location is also displayed in hex at the beginning of each line.
.It Cm i
display as an instruction
.It Cm I
display as an instruction with possible alternate formats depending on the
machine:
.Bl -tag -width ".Tn powerpc" -compact
.It Tn alpha
Show the registers of the instruction.
.It Tn amd64
No alternate format.
.It Tn i386
No alternate format.
.It Tn ia64
No alternate format.
.It Tn powerpc
No alternate format.
.It Tn sparc64
No alternate format.
.El
.El
.Pp
.It Ic xf
Examine forward:
execute an
.Ic examine
command with the last specified parameters to it
except that the next address displayed by it is used as the start address.
.Pp
.It Ic xb
Examine backward:
execute an
.Ic examine
command with the last specified parameters to it
except that the last start address subtracted by the size displayed by it
is used as the start address.
.Pp
.It Ic print Ns Op Li / Ns Cm acdoruxz
.It Ic p Ns Op Li / Ns Cm acdoruxz
Print
.Ar addr Ns s
according to the modifier character (as described above for
.Cm examine ) .
Valid formats are:
.Cm a , x , z , o , d , u , r ,
and
.Cm c .
If no modifier is specified, the last one specified to it is used.
The argument
.Ar addr
can be a string, in which case it is printed as it is.
For example:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
print/x "eax = " $eax "\enecx = " $ecx "\en"
.Ed
.Pp
will print like:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
eax = xxxxxx
ecx = yyyyyy
.Ed
.Pp
.It Xo
.Ic write Ns Op Li / Ns Cm bhl
.Ar addr expr1 Op Ar expr2 ...
.Xc
.It Xo
.Ic w Ns Op Li / Ns Cm bhl
.Ar addr expr1 Op Ar expr2 ...
.Xc
Write the expressions specified after
.Ar addr
on the command line at succeeding locations starting with
.Ar addr .
The write unit size can be specified in the modifier with a letter
.Cm b
(byte),
.Cm h
(half word) or
.Cm l
(long word) respectively.
If omitted,
long word is assumed.
.Pp
.Sy Warning :
since there is no delimiter between expressions, strange
things may happen.
It is best to enclose each expression in parentheses.
.Pp
.It Ic set Li $ Ns Ar variable Oo Li = Oc Ar expr
Set the named variable or register with the value of
.Ar expr .
Valid variable names are described below.
.Pp
.It Ic break Ns Op Li / Ns Cm u
.It Ic b Ns Op Li / Ns Cm u
Set a break point at
.Ar addr .
If
.Ar count
is supplied, continues
.Ar count
\- 1 times before stopping at the
break point.
If the break point is set, a break point number is
printed with
.Ql # .
This number can be used in deleting the break point
or adding conditions to it.
.Pp
If the
.Cm u
modifier is specified, this command sets a break point in user space
address.
Without the
.Cm u
option, the address is considered in the kernel
space, and wrong space address is rejected with an error message.
This modifier can be used only if it is supported by machine dependent
routines.
.Pp
.Sy Warning :
If a user text is shadowed by a normal user space debugger,
user space break points may not work correctly.
Setting a break
point at the low-level code paths may also cause strange behavior.
.Pp
.It Ic delete Ar addr
.It Ic d Ar addr
.It Ic delete Li # Ns Ar number
.It Ic d Li # Ns Ar number
Delete the break point.
The target break point can be specified by a
break point number with
.Ql # ,
or by using the same
.Ar addr
specified in the original
.Ic break
command.
.Pp
.It Ic watch Ar addr Ns Li , Ns Ar size
Set a watchpoint for a region.
Execution stops when an attempt to modify the region occurs.
The
.Ar size
argument defaults to 4.
If you specify a wrong space address, the request is rejected
with an error message.
.Pp
.Sy Warning :
Attempts to watch wired kernel memory
may cause unrecoverable error in some systems such as i386.
Watchpoints on user addresses work best.
.Pp
.It Ic hwatch Ar addr Ns Li , Ns Ar size
Set a hardware watchpoint for a region if supported by the
architecture.
Execution stops when an attempt to modify the region occurs.
The
.Ar size
argument defaults to 4.
.Pp
.Sy Warning :
The hardware debug facilities do not have a concept of separate
address spaces like the watch command does.
Use
.Ic hwatch
for setting watchpoints on kernel address locations only, and avoid
its use on user mode address spaces.
.Pp
.It Ic dhwatch Ar addr Ns Li , Ns Ar size
Delete specified hardware watchpoint.
.Pp
.It Ic step Ns Op Li / Ns Cm p
.It Ic s Ns Op Li / Ns Cm p
Single step
.Ar count
times (the comma is a mandatory part of the syntax).
If the
.Cm p
modifier is specified, print each instruction at each step.
Otherwise, only print the last instruction.
.Pp
.Sy Warning :
depending on machine type, it may not be possible to
single-step through some low-level code paths or user space code.
On machines with software-emulated single-stepping (e.g., pmax),
stepping through code executed by interrupt handlers will probably
do the wrong thing.
.Pp
.It Ic continue Ns Op Li / Ns Cm c
.It Ic c Ns Op Li / Ns Cm c
Continue execution until a breakpoint or watchpoint.
If the
.Cm c
modifier is specified, count instructions while executing.
Some machines (e.g., pmax) also count loads and stores.
.Pp
.Sy Warning :
when counting, the debugger is really silently single-stepping.
This means that single-stepping on low-level code may cause strange
behavior.
.Pp
.It Ic until Ns Op Li / Ns Cm p
Stop at the next call or return instruction.
If the
.Cm p
modifier is specified, print the call nesting depth and the
cumulative instruction count at each call or return.
Otherwise,
only print when the matching return is hit.
.Pp
.It Ic next Ns Op Li / Ns Cm p
.It Ic match Ns Op Li / Ns Cm p
Stop at the matching return instruction.
If the
.Cm p
modifier is specified, print the call nesting depth and the
cumulative instruction count at each call or return.
Otherwise, only print when the matching return is hit.
.Pp
.It Xo
.Ic trace Ns Op Li / Ns Cm u
.Op Ar pid | tid
.Op Li , Ns Ar count
.Xc
.It Xo
.Ic t Ns Op Li / Ns Cm u
.Op Ar pid | tid
.Op Li , Ns Ar count
.Xc
.It Xo
.Ic where Ns Op Li / Ns Cm u
.Op Ar pid | tid
.Op Li , Ns Ar count
.Xc
.It Xo
.Ic bt Ns Op Li / Ns Cm u
.Op Ar pid | tid
.Op Li , Ns Ar count
.Xc
Stack trace.
The
.Cm u
option traces user space; if omitted,
.Ic trace
only traces
kernel space.
The optional argument
.Ar count
is the number of frames to be traced.
If
.Ar count
is omitted, all frames are printed.
.Pp
.Sy Warning :
User space stack trace is valid
only if the machine dependent code supports it.
.Pp
.It Xo
.Ic search Ns Op Li / Ns Cm bhl
.Ar addr
.Ar value
.Op Ar mask
.Op Li , Ns Ar count
.Xc
Search memory for
.Ar value .
This command might fail in interesting
ways if it does not find the searched-for value.
This is because
.Nm
does not always recover from touching bad memory.
The optional
.Ar count
argument limits the search.
.Pp
.It Ic show Cm all procs Ns Op Li / Ns Cm m
.It Ic ps Ns Op Li / Ns Cm m
Display all process information.
The process information may not be shown if it is not
supported in the machine, or the bottom of the stack of the
target process is not in the main memory at that time.
The
.Cm m
modifier will alter the display to show VM map
addresses for the process and not show other info.
.Pp
.It Ic show Cm registers Ns Op Li / Ns Cm u
Display the register set.
If the
.Cm u
modifier is specified, it displays user registers instead of
kernel or currently saved one.
.Pp
.Sy Warning :
The support of the
.Cm u
modifier depends on the machine.
If not supported, incorrect information will be displayed.
.Pp
.It Ic show Cm sysregs
Show system registers (e.g.,
.Li cr0-4
on i386.)
Not present on some platforms.
.Pp
.It Ic show Cm geom Op Ar addr
If the
.Ar addr
argument is not given, displays the entire GEOM topology.
If the
.Ar addr
is given, displays details about the given GEOM object (class, geom, provider
or consumer).
.Pp
.It Ic show Cm map Ns Oo Li / Ns Cm f Oc Ar addr
Prints the VM map at
.Ar addr .
If the
.Cm f
modifier is specified the
complete map is printed.
.Pp
.It Ic show Cm object Ns Oo Li / Ns Cm f Oc Ar addr
Prints the VM object at
.Ar addr .
If the
.Cm f
option is specified the
complete object is printed.
.Pp
.It Ic show Cm vnode Ar addr
Displays details about the given vnode.
.Pp
.It Ic show Cm watches
Displays all watchpoints.
.Pp
.It Ic gdb
Toggles between remote GDB and DDB mode.
In remote GDB mode, another machine is required that runs
.Xr gdb 1
using the remote debug feature, with a connection to the serial
console port on the target machine.
Currently only available on the
i386
architecture.
.Pp
.It Ic halt
Halt the system.
.Pp
.It Ic kill Ar sig pid
Send signal
.Ar sig
to process
.Ar pid .
The signal is acted on upon returning from the debugger.
This command can be used to kill a process causing resource contention
in the case of a hung system.
See
.Xr signal 3
for a list of signals.
Note that the arguments are reversed relative to
.Xr kill 2 .
.Pp
.It Ic reboot
.It Ic reset
Hard reset the system.
.Pp
.It Ic help
Print a short summary of the available commands and command
abbreviations.
.Pp
.It Ic capture on
.It Ic capture off
.It Ic capture reset
.It Ic capture status
.Nm
supports a basic output capture facility, which can be used to retrieve the
results of debugging commands from userpsace using
.Xr sysctl 2 .
.Ic capture on
enables output capture;
.Ic capture off
disables capture.
.Ic capture reset
will clear the capture buffer and disable capture.
.Ic capture status
will report current buffer use, buffer size, and disposition of output
capture.
.Pp
Userspace processes may inspect and manage
.Nm
capture state using
.Xr sysctl 8 :
.Pp
.Dv debug.ddb.capture.bufsize
may be used to query or set the current capture buffer size.
.Pp
.Dv debug.ddb.capture.maxbufsize
may be used to query the compile-time limit on the capture buffer size.
.Pp
.Dv debug.ddb.capture.bytes
may be used to query the number of bytes of output currently in the capture
buffer.
.Pp
.Dv debug.ddb.capture.data
returns the contents of the buffer as a string to an appropriately privileged
process.
.Pp
This facility is particularly useful in concert with the scripting and
.Xr textdump 4
facilities, allowing scripted debugging output to be captured and
committed to disk as part of a textdump for later analysis.
The contents of the capture buffer may also be inspected in a kernel core dump
using
.Xr kgdb 1 .
.Pp
.It Ic run
.It Ic script
.It Ic scripts
.It Ic unscript
Run, define, list, and delete scripts.
See the
.Sx SCRIPTING
section for more information on the scripting facility.
.Pp
.It Ic textdump set
.It Ic textdump status
.It Ic textdump unset
The
.Ic textdump set
command may be used to force the next kernel core dump to be a textdump
rather than a traditional memory dump or minidump.
.Ic textdump status
reports whether a textdump has been scheduled.
.Ic textdump unset
cancels a request to perform a textdump as the next kernel core dump.
More information may be found in
.Xr textdump 4 .
.El
.Sh VARIABLES
The debugger accesses registers and variables as
.Li $ Ns Ar name .
Register names are as in the
.Dq Ic show Cm registers
command.
Some variables are suffixed with numbers, and may have some modifier
following a colon immediately after the variable name.
For example, register variables can have a
.Cm u
modifier to indicate user register (e.g.,
.Dq Li $eax:u ) .
.Pp
Built-in variables currently supported are:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width ".Va tabstops" -compact
.It Va radix
Input and output radix.
.It Va maxoff
Addresses are printed as
.Dq Ar symbol Ns Li + Ns Ar offset
unless
.Ar offset
is greater than
.Va maxoff .
.It Va maxwidth
The width of the displayed line.
.It Va lines
The number of lines.
It is used by the built-in pager.
.It Va tabstops
Tab stop width.
.It Va work Ns Ar xx
Work variable;
.Ar xx
can take values from 0 to 31.
.El
.Sh EXPRESSIONS
Most expression operators in C are supported except
.Ql ~ ,
.Ql ^ ,
and unary
.Ql & .
Special rules in
.Nm
are:
.Bl -tag -width ".No Identifiers"
.It Identifiers
The name of a symbol is translated to the value of the symbol, which
is the address of the corresponding object.
.Ql \&.
and
.Ql \&:
can be used in the identifier.
If supported by an object format dependent routine,
.Sm off
.Oo Ar filename : Oc Ar func : lineno ,
.Sm on
.Oo Ar filename : Oc Ns Ar variable ,
and
.Oo Ar filename : Oc Ns Ar lineno
can be accepted as a symbol.
.It Numbers
Radix is determined by the first two letters:
.Ql 0x :
hex,
.Ql 0o :
octal,
.Ql 0t :
decimal; otherwise, follow current radix.
.It Li \&.
.Va dot
.It Li +
.Va next
.It Li ..
address of the start of the last line examined.
Unlike
.Va dot
or
.Va next ,
this is only changed by
.Ic examine
or
.Ic write
command.
.It Li '
last address explicitly specified.
.It Li $ Ns Ar variable
Translated to the value of the specified variable.
It may be followed by a
.Ql \&:
and modifiers as described above.
.It Ar a Ns Li # Ns Ar b
A binary operator which rounds up the left hand side to the next
multiple of right hand side.
.It Li * Ns Ar expr
Indirection.
It may be followed by a
.Ql \&:
and modifiers as described above.
.El
.Sh SCRIPTING
.Nm
supports a basic scripting facility to allow automating tasks or responses to
specific events.
Each script consists of a list of DDB commands to be executed sequentially,
and is assigned a unique name.
Certain script names have special meaning, and will be automatically run on
various
.Nm
events if scripts by those names have been defined.
.Pp
The
.Ic script
command may be used to define a script by name.
Scripts consist of a series of
.Nm
commands separated with the
.Ic ;
character.
For example:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
script kdb.enter.panic=bt; show pcpu
script lockinfo=show alllocks; show lockedvnods
.Ed
.Pp
The
.Ic scripts
command lists currently defined scripts.
.Pp
The
.Ic run
command execute a script by name.
For example:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
run lockinfo
.Ed
.Pp
The
.Ic unscript
command may be used to delete a script by name.
For example:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
unscript kdb.enter.panic
.Ed
.Pp
These functions may also be performed from userspace using the
.Xr ddb 8
command.
.Pp
Certain scripts are run automatically, if defined, for specific
.Nm
events.
The follow scripts are run when various events occur:
.Bl -tag -width kdb.enter.powerfail
.It Dv kdb.enter.acpi
The kernel debugger was entered as a result of an
.Xr acpi 4
event.
.It Dv kdb.enter.bootflags
The kernel debugger was entered at boot as a result of the debugger boot
flag being set.
.It Dv kdb.enter.break
The kernel debugger was entered as a result of a serial or console break.
.It Dv kdb.enter.cam
The kernel debugger was entered as a result of a
.Xr CAM 4
event.
.It Dv kdb.enter.mac
The kernel debugger was entered as a result of an assertion failure in the
.Xr mac_test 4
module of the
TrustedBSD MAC Framework.
.It Dv kdb.enter.ndis
The kernel debugger was entered as a result of an
.Xr ndis 4
breakpoint event.
.It Dv kdb.enter.netgraph
The kernel debugger was entered as a result of a
.Xr netgraph 4
event.
.It Dv kdb.enter.panic
.Xr panic 9
was called.
.It Dv kdb.enter.powerfail
The kernel debugger was entered as a result of a powerfail NMI on the sparc64
platform.
.It Dv kdb.enter.powerpc
The kernel debugger was entered as a result of an unimplemented interrupt
type on the powerpc platform.
.It Dv kdb.enter.sysctl
The kernel debugger was entered as a result of the
.Dv debug.kdb.enter
sysctl being set.
.It Dv kdb.enter.trapsig
The kernel debugger was entered as a result of a trapsig event on the sparc64
or sun4v platform.
.It Dv kdb.enter.unionfs
The kernel debugger was entered as a result of an assertion failure in the
union file system.
.It Dv kdb.enter.unknown
The kernel debugger was entered, but no reason has been set.
.It Dv kdb.enter.vfslock
The kernel debugger was entered as a result of a VFS lock violation.
.It Dv kdb.enter.watchdog
The kernel debugger was entered as a result of a watchdog firing.
.It Dv kdb.enter.witness
The kernel debugger was entered as a result of a
.Xr witness 4
violation.
.El
.Pp
In the event that none of these scripts is found,
.Nm
will attempt to execute a default script:
.Bl -tag -width kdb.enter.powerfail
.It Dv kdb.enter.default
The kernel debugger was entered, but a script exactly matching the reason for
entering was not defined.
This can be used as a catch-all to handle cases not specifically of interest;
for example,
.Dv kdb.enter.witness
might be defined to have special handling, and
.Dv kdb.enter.default
might be defined to simply panic and reboot.
.El
.Sh HINTS
On machines with an ISA expansion bus, a simple NMI generation card can be
constructed by connecting a push button between the A01 and B01 (CHCHK# and
GND) card fingers.
Momentarily shorting these two fingers together may cause the bridge chipset to
generate an NMI, which causes the kernel to pass control to
.Nm .
Some bridge chipsets do not generate a NMI on CHCHK#, so your mileage may vary.
The NMI allows one to break into the debugger on a wedged machine to
diagnose problems.
Other bus' bridge chipsets may be able to generate NMI using bus specific
methods.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr gdb 1 ,
.Xr kgdb 1 ,
.Xr acpi 4 ,
.Xr CAM 4 ,
.Xr mac_text 4 ,
.Xr ndis 4 ,
.Xr netgraph 4 ,
.Xr textdump 4 ,
.Xr witness 4 ,
.Xr ddb 8 ,
.Xr sysctl 8 ,
.Xr panic 9
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
debugger was developed for Mach, and ported to
.Bx 386 0.1 .
This manual page translated from
.Xr man 7
macros by
.An Garrett Wollman .
.Pp
.An Robert N. M. Watson
added support for
.Nm
output capture,
.Xr textdump 4
and scripting in
.Fx 8.0 .