xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/textdump.4 (revision 9a14aa017b21c292740c00ee098195cd46642730)
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28.\" $FreeBSD$
29.\"
30.Dd December 24, 2008
31.Dt TEXTDUMP 4
32.Os
33.Sh NAME
34.Nm textdump
35.Nd textdump kernel dumping facility
36.Sh SYNOPSIS
37.Cd options KDB
38.Cd options DDB
39.Sh DESCRIPTION
40The
41.Nm
42facility allows the capture of kernel debugging information to disk in a
43human-readable rather than the machine-readable form normally used with
44kernel memory dumps and minidumps.
45This representation, while less complete in that it does not capture full
46kernel state, can provide debugging information in a more compact, portable,
47and persistent form than a traditional dump.
48By combining
49.Nm
50with other
51.Xr ddb 4
52facilities, such as scripting and output capture, detailed bug information
53can be captured in a fully automated manner.
54.Sh FORMAT
55.Nm
56data is stored in a dump partition in the same style as a regular memory
57dump, and will be automatically extracted by
58.Xr savecore 8
59if present on boot.
60.Pp
61.Nm
62files are stored in the
63.Xr tar 5
64format, and consist of one or more text files, each storing a particular type
65of debugging output.
66The following parts may be present:
67.Bl -tag -width version.txt
68.It Pa ddb.txt
69Captured
70.Xr ddb 4
71output, if the capture facility has been used.
72May be disabled by clearing the
73.Dv debug.ddb.textdump.do_ddb
74sysctl.
75.It Pa config.txt
76Kernel configuration, if
77.Cd options INCLUDE_CONFIG_FILE
78has been compiled into the kernel.
79May be disabled by clearing the
80.Dv debug.ddb.textdump.do_config
81sysctl.
82.It Pa msgbuf.txt
83Kernel message buffer, including recent console output if the capture
84facility has been used.
85May be disabled by clearing the
86.Dv debug.ddb.textdump.do_msgbuf
87sysctl.
88.It Pa panic.txt
89Kernel panic string, if the kernel panicked before the dump was generated.
90May be disabled by clearing the
91.Dv debug.ddb.textdump.do_panic
92sysctl.
93.It Pa version.txt
94Kernel version string.
95My be disabled by clearing the
96.Dv debug.ddb.textdump.do_version
97sysctl.
98.El
99.Pp
100Kernel textdumps may be extracted using
101.Xr tar 1 .
102.Sh CONFIGURATION
103The
104.Nm
105facility is enabled as part of the kernel debugger using
106.Cd options KDB
107and
108.Cd options DDB .
109By default, kernel dumps generated on panic or via explicit requests for a
110dump will be regular memory dumps; however, by using the
111.Ic textdump set
112command in
113.Xr ddb 4 ,
114or by setting the
115.Dv debug.ddb.textdump.pending
116sysctl to 1 using
117.Xr sysctl 8 ,
118it is possible to request that the next dump be a textdump.
119.Pp
120If at the
121.Xr ddb 4
122command line, the commands
123.Ic textdump set ,
124.Ic textdump status ,
125and
126.Ic textdump unset
127may be used to set, query, and clear the textdump pending flag.
128.Pp
129As with regular kernel dumps, a dump partition must be automatically or
130manually configured using
131.Xr dumpon 8 .
132.Sh EXAMPLES
133In the following example, the script
134.Dv kdb.enter.panic
135will run when the kernel debugger is entered as a result of a panic, enable
136output capture, dump several useful pieces of debugging information, and then
137invoke panic in order to force a kernel dump to be written out followed by a
138reboot:
139.Bd -literal -offset indent
140script kdb.enter.panic=textdump set; capture on; show allpcpu; bt;
141  ps; alltrace; show alllocks; call doadump; reset
142.Ed
143.Pp
144In the following example, the script
145.Dv kdb.enter.witness
146will run when the kernel debugger is entered as a result of a witness
147violation, printing lock-related information for the user:
148.Bd -literal -offset indent
149script kdb.enter.witness=show locks
150.Ed
151.Pp
152These scripts may also be configured using the
153.Xr ddb 8
154utility.
155.Sh SEE ALSO
156.Xr tar 1 ,
157.Xr ddb 4 ,
158.Xr tar 5 ,
159.Xr ddb 8 ,
160.Xr dumpon 8 ,
161.Xr savecore 8 ,
162.Xr sysctl 8
163.Sh HISTORY
164The
165.Nm
166facility first appeared in
167.Fx 7.1 .
168.Sh AUTHORS
169The
170.Nm
171facility was created by
172.An Robert N. M. Watson .
173