xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/netgdb.4 (revision 0fca6ea1d4eea4c934cfff25ac9ee8ad6fe95583)
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25.Dd November 10, 2022
26.Dt NETGDB 4
27.Os
28.Sh NAME
29.Nm netgdb
30.Nd protocol for debugging the kernel with GDB over the network
31.Sh SYNOPSIS
32To compile NetGDB support into the kernel, place the following lines in your
33kernel configuration file:
34.Bd -ragged -offset indent
35.Cd "options DDB"
36.Cd "options GDB"
37.Cd "options INET"
38.Cd "options DEBUGNET"
39.Cd "options NETGDB"
40.Ed
41.Sh DESCRIPTION
42.Nm
43is a UDP-based protocol for communicating with a remote GDB client via an
44intermediary proxy.
45.Pp
46A
47.Nm
48session is started by using the
49.Ic netgdb Fl s Ar server Oo Fl g Ar gateway Fl c Ar client Fl i Ar iface Oc
50command in
51.Xr ddb 4
52to connect to a proxy server.
53When the connection is made, the proxy server logs a message that a
54.Nm
55client has connected.
56It subsequently establishes a TCP listening socket and logs a message
57specifying which port it is listening on.
58Then it waits for a GDB client to connect.
59The GDB command to connect is:
60.Bd -ragged -offset indent
61.Ic target remote Aq Ar proxyip:proxyport
62.Ed
63.Pp
64At this point, the server proxies traffic back and forth between
65.Nm
66and the ordinary GDB client, speaking the ordinary GDB remote protocol.
67The
68.Nm
69session is identical to any other kernel GDB session from the perspective
70of the GDB debugger.
71.Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
72The UDP protocol is based on the same packet structure and a subset of the
73exact same message types as
74.Xr netdump 4 .
75It uses the
76.Dv HERALD ,
77.Dv DATA ( née VMCORE ) ,
78and
79.Dv FINISHED
80message types.
81Like
82.Xr netdump 4 ,
83the client's initial
84.Dv HERALD
85message is acknowledged from a random source port, and the client sends
86subsequent communication to that port.
87.Pp
88Unlike
89.Xr netdump 4 ,
90the initial
91.Dv HERALD
92port is 20025.
93Additionally,
94the proxy server sends responses to the source port of the client's initial
95.Dv HERALD ,
96rather than a separate reserved port.
97.Nm
98message and acknowledgements are bidirectional.
99The sequence number and acknowledgement protocol is otherwise identical to
100the unidirectional version used by netdump; it just runs in both directions.
101Acknowledgements are sent to and from the same addresses and ports as
102regular messages.
103.Pp
104The first version of the
105.Nm
106protocol uses the protocol number
107.Dv Sq 0x2515f095
108in the 32-bit
109.Va aux2
110parameter of the initial
111.Dv HERALD
112message.
113.Pp
114The list of supported network drivers and protocol families is identical to
115that of
116.Xr netdump 4 .
117.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
118The following variable is available via both
119.Xr sysctl 8
120and
121.Xr loader 8
122(as a tunable):
123.Bl -tag -width "indent"
124.It Va debug.gdb.netgdb.debug
125Control debug message verbosity.
126Debug messages are disabled by default.
127They may be enabled by setting the variable to a non-zero value.
128.El
129.Sh SEE ALSO
130.Xr ddb 4 ,
131.Xr gdb 4 ,
132.Xr netdump 4
133.Sh HISTORY
134.Nm
135first appeared in
136.Fx 13.0 .
137.Sh BUGS
138.Nm
139may only be used after the kernel has panicked, due to limitations in the
140treatment of locking primitives under
141.Xr ddb 4 .
142.Sh SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
143Version 1 of the
144.Nm
145protocol has no security properties whatsoever.
146All messages are sent and acknowledged in cleartext, and no message
147authentication codes are used to prevent attackers from forging messages.
148It is absolutely inappropriate for use across the public internet.
149