xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/ddb.4 (revision 63518eccca27064285cf2e680510ba9a4c3e2231)
1.\"
2.\" Mach Operating System
3.\" Copyright (c) 1991,1990 Carnegie Mellon University
4.\" All Rights Reserved.
5.\"
6.\" Permission to use, copy, modify and distribute this software and its
7.\" documentation is hereby granted, provided that both the copyright
8.\" notice and this permission notice appear in all copies of the
9.\" software, derivative works or modified versions, and any portions
10.\" thereof, and that both notices appear in supporting documentation.
11.\"
12.\" CARNEGIE MELLON ALLOWS FREE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE IN ITS "AS IS"
13.\" CONDITION.  CARNEGIE MELLON DISCLAIMS ANY LIABILITY OF ANY KIND FOR
14.\" ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
15.\"
16.\" Carnegie Mellon requests users of this software to return to
17.\"
18.\"  Software Distribution Coordinator  or  Software.Distribution@CS.CMU.EDU
19.\"  School of Computer Science
20.\"  Carnegie Mellon University
21.\"  Pittsburgh PA 15213-3890
22.\"
23.\" any improvements or extensions that they make and grant Carnegie Mellon
24.\" the rights to redistribute these changes.
25.\"
26.\" changed a \# to #, since groff choked on it.
27.\"
28.\" HISTORY
29.\" ddb.4,v
30.\" Revision 1.1  1993/07/15  18:41:02  brezak
31.\" Man page for DDB
32.\"
33.\" Revision 2.6  92/04/08  08:52:57  rpd
34.\" 	Changes from OSF.
35.\" 	[92/01/17  14:19:22  jsb]
36.\" 	Changes for OSF debugger modifications.
37.\" 	[91/12/12            tak]
38.\"
39.\" Revision 2.5  91/06/25  13:50:22  rpd
40.\" 	Added some watchpoint explanation.
41.\" 	[91/06/25            rpd]
42.\"
43.\" Revision 2.4  91/06/17  15:47:31  jsb
44.\" 	Added documentation for continue/c, match, search, and watchpoints.
45.\" 	I've not actually explained what a watchpoint is; maybe Rich can
46.\" 	do that (hint, hint).
47.\" 	[91/06/17  10:58:08  jsb]
48.\"
49.\" Revision 2.3  91/05/14  17:04:23  mrt
50.\" 	Correcting copyright
51.\"
52.\" Revision 2.2  91/02/14  14:10:06  mrt
53.\" 	Changed to new Mach copyright
54.\" 	[91/02/12  18:10:12  mrt]
55.\"
56.\" Revision 2.2  90/08/30  14:23:15  dbg
57.\" 	Created.
58.\" 	[90/08/30            dbg]
59.\"
60.\" $FreeBSD$
61.\"
62.Dd October 27, 2006
63.Dt DDB 4
64.Os
65.Sh NAME
66.Nm ddb
67.Nd interactive kernel debugger
68.Sh SYNOPSIS
69.Cd options KDB
70.Cd options DDB
71.Pp
72To prevent activation of the debugger on kernel
73.Xr panic 9 :
74.Cd options KDB_UNATTENDED
75.Sh DESCRIPTION
76The
77.Nm
78kernel debugger has most of the features of the old
79.Nm kdb ,
80but with a more rational syntax
81inspired by
82.Xr gdb 1 .
83If linked into the running kernel,
84it can be invoked locally with the
85.Ql debug
86.Xr keymap 5
87action.
88The debugger is also invoked on kernel
89.Xr panic 9
90if the
91.Va debug.debugger_on_panic
92.Xr sysctl 8
93MIB variable is set non-zero,
94which is the default
95unless the
96.Dv KDB_UNATTENDED
97option is specified.
98.Pp
99The current location is called
100.Va dot .
101The
102.Va dot
103is displayed with
104a hexadecimal format at a prompt.
105The commands
106.Ic examine
107and
108.Ic write
109update
110.Va dot
111to the address of the last line
112examined or the last location modified, and set
113.Va next
114to the address of
115the next location to be examined or changed.
116Other commands do not change
117.Va dot ,
118and set
119.Va next
120to be the same as
121.Va dot .
122.Pp
123The general command syntax is:
124.Ar command Ns Op Li / Ns Ar modifier
125.Ar address Ns Op Li , Ns Ar count
126.Pp
127A blank line repeats the previous command from the address
128.Va next
129with
130count 1 and no modifiers.
131Specifying
132.Ar address
133sets
134.Va dot
135to the address.
136Omitting
137.Ar address
138uses
139.Va dot .
140A missing
141.Ar count
142is taken
143to be 1 for printing commands or infinity for stack traces.
144.Pp
145The
146.Nm
147debugger has a pager feature (like the
148.Xr more 1
149command)
150for the output.
151If an output line exceeds the number set in the
152.Va lines
153variable, it displays
154.Dq Li --More--
155and waits for a response.
156The valid responses for it are:
157.Pp
158.Bl -tag -compact -width ".Li SPC"
159.It Li SPC
160one more page
161.It Li RET
162one more line
163.It Li q
164abort the current command, and return to the command input mode
165.El
166.Pp
167Finally,
168.Nm
169provides a small (currently 10 items) command history, and offers
170simple
171.Nm emacs Ns -style
172command line editing capabilities.
173In addition to
174the
175.Nm emacs
176control keys, the usual
177.Tn ANSI
178arrow keys might be used to
179browse through the history buffer, and move the cursor within the
180current line.
181.Sh COMMANDS
182.Bl -tag -width indent -compact
183.It Ic examine
184.It Ic x
185Display the addressed locations according to the formats in the modifier.
186Multiple modifier formats display multiple locations.
187If no format is specified, the last format specified for this command
188is used.
189.Pp
190The format characters are:
191.Bl -tag -compact -width indent
192.It Cm b
193look at by bytes (8 bits)
194.It Cm h
195look at by half words (16 bits)
196.It Cm l
197look at by long words (32 bits)
198.It Cm a
199print the location being displayed
200.It Cm A
201print the location with a line number if possible
202.It Cm x
203display in unsigned hex
204.It Cm z
205display in signed hex
206.It Cm o
207display in unsigned octal
208.It Cm d
209display in signed decimal
210.It Cm u
211display in unsigned decimal
212.It Cm r
213display in current radix, signed
214.It Cm c
215display low 8 bits as a character.
216Non-printing characters are displayed as an octal escape code (e.g.,
217.Ql \e000 ) .
218.It Cm s
219display the null-terminated string at the location.
220Non-printing characters are displayed as octal escapes.
221.It Cm m
222display in unsigned hex with character dump at the end of each line.
223The location is also displayed in hex at the beginning of each line.
224.It Cm i
225display as an instruction
226.It Cm I
227display as an instruction with possible alternate formats depending on the
228machine:
229.Bl -tag -width ".Tn powerpc" -compact
230.It Tn alpha
231Show the registers of the instruction.
232.It Tn amd64
233No alternate format.
234.It Tn i386
235No alternate format.
236.It Tn ia64
237No alternate format.
238.It Tn powerpc
239No alternate format.
240.It Tn sparc64
241No alternate format.
242.El
243.El
244.Pp
245.It Ic xf
246Examine forward:
247execute an
248.Ic examine
249command with the last specified parameters to it
250except that the next address displayed by it is used as the start address.
251.Pp
252.It Ic xb
253Examine backward:
254execute an
255.Ic examine
256command with the last specified parameters to it
257except that the last start address subtracted by the size displayed by it
258is used as the start address.
259.Pp
260.It Ic print Ns Op Li / Ns Cm acdoruxz
261.It Ic p Ns Op Li / Ns Cm acdoruxz
262Print
263.Ar addr Ns s
264according to the modifier character (as described above for
265.Cm examine ) .
266Valid formats are:
267.Cm a , x , z , o , d , u , r ,
268and
269.Cm c .
270If no modifier is specified, the last one specified to it is used.
271The argument
272.Ar addr
273can be a string, in which case it is printed as it is.
274For example:
275.Bd -literal -offset indent
276print/x "eax = " $eax "\enecx = " $ecx "\en"
277.Ed
278.Pp
279will print like:
280.Bd -literal -offset indent
281eax = xxxxxx
282ecx = yyyyyy
283.Ed
284.Pp
285.It Xo
286.Ic write Ns Op Li / Ns Cm bhl
287.Ar addr expr1 Op Ar expr2 ...
288.Xc
289.It Xo
290.Ic w Ns Op Li / Ns Cm bhl
291.Ar addr expr1 Op Ar expr2 ...
292.Xc
293Write the expressions specified after
294.Ar addr
295on the command line at succeeding locations starting with
296.Ar addr .
297The write unit size can be specified in the modifier with a letter
298.Cm b
299(byte),
300.Cm h
301(half word) or
302.Cm l
303(long word) respectively.
304If omitted,
305long word is assumed.
306.Pp
307.Sy Warning :
308since there is no delimiter between expressions, strange
309things may happen.
310It is best to enclose each expression in parentheses.
311.Pp
312.It Ic set Li $ Ns Ar variable Oo Li = Oc Ar expr
313Set the named variable or register with the value of
314.Ar expr .
315Valid variable names are described below.
316.Pp
317.It Ic break Ns Op Li / Ns Cm u
318.It Ic b Ns Op Li / Ns Cm u
319Set a break point at
320.Ar addr .
321If
322.Ar count
323is supplied, continues
324.Ar count
325\- 1 times before stopping at the
326break point.
327If the break point is set, a break point number is
328printed with
329.Ql # .
330This number can be used in deleting the break point
331or adding conditions to it.
332.Pp
333If the
334.Cm u
335modifier is specified, this command sets a break point in user space
336address.
337Without the
338.Cm u
339option, the address is considered in the kernel
340space, and wrong space address is rejected with an error message.
341This modifier can be used only if it is supported by machine dependent
342routines.
343.Pp
344.Sy Warning :
345If a user text is shadowed by a normal user space debugger,
346user space break points may not work correctly.
347Setting a break
348point at the low-level code paths may also cause strange behavior.
349.Pp
350.It Ic delete Ar addr
351.It Ic d Ar addr
352.It Ic delete Li # Ns Ar number
353.It Ic d Li # Ns Ar number
354Delete the break point.
355The target break point can be specified by a
356break point number with
357.Ql # ,
358or by using the same
359.Ar addr
360specified in the original
361.Ic break
362command.
363.Pp
364.It Ic watch Ar addr Ns Li , Ns Ar size
365Set a watchpoint for a region.
366Execution stops when an attempt to modify the region occurs.
367The
368.Ar size
369argument defaults to 4.
370If you specify a wrong space address, the request is rejected
371with an error message.
372.Pp
373.Sy Warning :
374Attempts to watch wired kernel memory
375may cause unrecoverable error in some systems such as i386.
376Watchpoints on user addresses work best.
377.Pp
378.It Ic hwatch Ar addr Ns Li , Ns Ar size
379Set a hardware watchpoint for a region if supported by the
380architecture.
381Execution stops when an attempt to modify the region occurs.
382The
383.Ar size
384argument defaults to 4.
385.Pp
386.Sy Warning :
387The hardware debug facilities do not have a concept of separate
388address spaces like the watch command does.
389Use
390.Ic hwatch
391for setting watchpoints on kernel address locations only, and avoid
392its use on user mode address spaces.
393.Pp
394.It Ic dhwatch Ar addr Ns Li , Ns Ar size
395Delete specified hardware watchpoint.
396.Pp
397.It Ic step Ns Op Li / Ns Cm p
398.It Ic s Ns Op Li / Ns Cm p
399Single step
400.Ar count
401times (the comma is a mandatory part of the syntax).
402If the
403.Cm p
404modifier is specified, print each instruction at each step.
405Otherwise, only print the last instruction.
406.Pp
407.Sy Warning :
408depending on machine type, it may not be possible to
409single-step through some low-level code paths or user space code.
410On machines with software-emulated single-stepping (e.g., pmax),
411stepping through code executed by interrupt handlers will probably
412do the wrong thing.
413.Pp
414.It Ic continue Ns Op Li / Ns Cm c
415.It Ic c Ns Op Li / Ns Cm c
416Continue execution until a breakpoint or watchpoint.
417If the
418.Cm c
419modifier is specified, count instructions while executing.
420Some machines (e.g., pmax) also count loads and stores.
421.Pp
422.Sy Warning :
423when counting, the debugger is really silently single-stepping.
424This means that single-stepping on low-level code may cause strange
425behavior.
426.Pp
427.It Ic until Ns Op Li / Ns Cm p
428Stop at the next call or return instruction.
429If the
430.Cm p
431modifier is specified, print the call nesting depth and the
432cumulative instruction count at each call or return.
433Otherwise,
434only print when the matching return is hit.
435.Pp
436.It Ic next Ns Op Li / Ns Cm p
437.It Ic match Ns Op Li / Ns Cm p
438Stop at the matching return instruction.
439If the
440.Cm p
441modifier is specified, print the call nesting depth and the
442cumulative instruction count at each call or return.
443Otherwise, only print when the matching return is hit.
444.Pp
445.It Xo
446.Ic trace Ns Op Li / Ns Cm u
447.Op Ar pid | tid
448.Op Li , Ns Ar count
449.Xc
450.It Xo
451.Ic t Ns Op Li / Ns Cm u
452.Op Ar pid | tid
453.Op Li , Ns Ar count
454.Xc
455.It Xo
456.Ic where Ns Op Li / Ns Cm u
457.Op Ar pid | tid
458.Op Li , Ns Ar count
459.Xc
460.It Xo
461.Ic bt Ns Op Li / Ns Cm u
462.Op Ar pid | tid
463.Op Li , Ns Ar count
464.Xc
465Stack trace.
466The
467.Cm u
468option traces user space; if omitted,
469.Ic trace
470only traces
471kernel space.
472The optional argument
473.Ar count
474is the number of frames to be traced.
475If
476.Ar count
477is omitted, all frames are printed.
478.Pp
479.Sy Warning :
480User space stack trace is valid
481only if the machine dependent code supports it.
482.Pp
483.It Xo
484.Ic search Ns Op Li / Ns Cm bhl
485.Ar addr
486.Ar value
487.Op Ar mask
488.Op Li , Ns Ar count
489.Xc
490Search memory for
491.Ar value .
492This command might fail in interesting
493ways if it does not find the searched-for value.
494This is because
495.Nm
496does not always recover from touching bad memory.
497The optional
498.Ar count
499argument limits the search.
500.Pp
501.It Ic show Cm all procs Ns Op Li / Ns Cm m
502.It Ic ps Ns Op Li / Ns Cm m
503Display all process information.
504The process information may not be shown if it is not
505supported in the machine, or the bottom of the stack of the
506target process is not in the main memory at that time.
507The
508.Cm m
509modifier will alter the display to show VM map
510addresses for the process and not show other info.
511.Pp
512.It Ic show Cm registers Ns Op Li / Ns Cm u
513Display the register set.
514If the
515.Cm u
516modifier is specified, it displays user registers instead of
517kernel or currently saved one.
518.Pp
519.Sy Warning :
520The support of the
521.Cm u
522modifier depends on the machine.
523If not supported, incorrect information will be displayed.
524.Pp
525.It Ic show Cm geom Op Ar addr
526If the
527.Ar addr
528argument is not given, displays the entire GEOM topology.
529If the
530.Ar addr
531is given, displays details about the given GEOM object (class, geom, provider
532or consumer).
533.Pp
534.It Ic show Cm map Ns Oo Li / Ns Cm f Oc Ar addr
535Prints the VM map at
536.Ar addr .
537If the
538.Cm f
539modifier is specified the
540complete map is printed.
541.Pp
542.It Ic show Cm object Ns Oo Li / Ns Cm f Oc Ar addr
543Prints the VM object at
544.Ar addr .
545If the
546.Cm f
547option is specified the
548complete object is printed.
549.Pp
550.It Ic show Cm vnode Ar addr
551Displays details about the given vnode.
552.Pp
553.It Ic show Cm watches
554Displays all watchpoints.
555.Pp
556.It Ic gdb
557Toggles between remote GDB and DDB mode.
558In remote GDB mode, another machine is required that runs
559.Xr gdb 1
560using the remote debug feature, with a connection to the serial
561console port on the target machine.
562Currently only available on the
563i386
564architecture.
565.Pp
566.It Ic halt
567Halt the system.
568.Pp
569.It Ic kill Ar sig pid
570Send signal
571.Ar sig
572to process
573.Ar pid .
574The signal is acted on upon returning from the debugger.
575This command can be used to kill a process causing resource contention
576in the case of a hung system.
577See
578.Xr signal 3
579for a list of signals.
580Note that the arguments are reversed relative to
581.Xr kill 2 .
582.Pp
583.It Ic reboot
584.It Ic reset
585Hard reset the system.
586.Pp
587.It Ic help
588Print a short summary of the available commands and command
589abbreviations.
590.El
591.Sh VARIABLES
592The debugger accesses registers and variables as
593.Li $ Ns Ar name .
594Register names are as in the
595.Dq Ic show Cm registers
596command.
597Some variables are suffixed with numbers, and may have some modifier
598following a colon immediately after the variable name.
599For example, register variables can have a
600.Cm u
601modifier to indicate user register (e.g.,
602.Dq Li $eax:u ) .
603.Pp
604Built-in variables currently supported are:
605.Pp
606.Bl -tag -width ".Va tabstops" -compact
607.It Va radix
608Input and output radix.
609.It Va maxoff
610Addresses are printed as
611.Dq Ar symbol Ns Li + Ns Ar offset
612unless
613.Ar offset
614is greater than
615.Va maxoff .
616.It Va maxwidth
617The width of the displayed line.
618.It Va lines
619The number of lines.
620It is used by the built-in pager.
621.It Va tabstops
622Tab stop width.
623.It Va work Ns Ar xx
624Work variable;
625.Ar xx
626can take values from 0 to 31.
627.El
628.Sh EXPRESSIONS
629Most expression operators in C are supported except
630.Ql ~ ,
631.Ql ^ ,
632and unary
633.Ql & .
634Special rules in
635.Nm
636are:
637.Bl -tag -width ".No Identifiers"
638.It Identifiers
639The name of a symbol is translated to the value of the symbol, which
640is the address of the corresponding object.
641.Ql \&.
642and
643.Ql \&:
644can be used in the identifier.
645If supported by an object format dependent routine,
646.Sm off
647.Oo Ar filename : Oc Ar func : lineno ,
648.Sm on
649.Oo Ar filename : Oc Ns Ar variable ,
650and
651.Oo Ar filename : Oc Ns Ar lineno
652can be accepted as a symbol.
653.It Numbers
654Radix is determined by the first two letters:
655.Ql 0x :
656hex,
657.Ql 0o :
658octal,
659.Ql 0t :
660decimal; otherwise, follow current radix.
661.It Li \&.
662.Va dot
663.It Li +
664.Va next
665.It Li ..
666address of the start of the last line examined.
667Unlike
668.Va dot
669or
670.Va next ,
671this is only changed by
672.Ic examine
673or
674.Ic write
675command.
676.It Li '
677last address explicitly specified.
678.It Li $ Ns Ar variable
679Translated to the value of the specified variable.
680It may be followed by a
681.Ql \&:
682and modifiers as described above.
683.It Ar a Ns Li # Ns Ar b
684A binary operator which rounds up the left hand side to the next
685multiple of right hand side.
686.It Li * Ns Ar expr
687Indirection.
688It may be followed by a
689.Ql \&:
690and modifiers as described above.
691.El
692.Sh HINTS
693On machines with an ISA expansion bus, a simple NMI generation card can be
694constructed by connecting a push button between the A01 and B01 (CHCHK# and
695GND) card fingers.
696Momentarily shorting these two fingers together may cause the bridge chipset to
697generate an NMI, which causes the kernel to pass control to
698.Nm .
699Some bridge chipsets do not generate a NMI on CHCHK#, so your mileage may vary.
700The NMI allows one to break into the debugger on a wedged machine to
701diagnose problems.
702Other bus' bridge chipsets may be able to generate NMI using bus specific
703methods.
704.Sh SEE ALSO
705.Xr gdb 1
706.Sh HISTORY
707The
708.Nm
709debugger was developed for Mach, and ported to
710.Bx 386 0.1 .
711This manual page translated from
712.Xr man 7
713macros by
714.An Garrett Wollman .
715