xref: /freebsd/share/man/man9/stack.9 (revision 1dfcff294e44d4b45813288ef4095c36abb22f0e)
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30.Dd March 6, 2022
31.Dt STACK 9
32.Os
33.Sh NAME
34.Nm stack
35.Nd kernel thread stack tracing routines
36.Sh SYNOPSIS
37.In sys/param.h
38.In sys/stack.h
39.Pp
40In the kernel configuration file:
41.Cd "options DDB"
42.Cd "options STACK"
43.Pp
44.Ft struct stack *
45.Fn stack_create "int flags"
46.Ft void
47.Fn stack_destroy "struct stack *st"
48.Ft int
49.Fn stack_put "struct stack *st" "vm_offset_t pc"
50.Ft void
51.Fn stack_copy "const struct stack *src" "struct stack *dst"
52.Ft void
53.Fn stack_zero "struct stack *st"
54.Ft void
55.Fn stack_print "const struct stack *st"
56.Ft void
57.Fn stack_print_ddb "const struct stack *st"
58.Ft void
59.Fn stack_print_short "const struct stack *st"
60.Ft void
61.Fn stack_print_short_ddb "const struct stack *st"
62.Ft void
63.Fn stack_sbuf_print "struct sbuf *sb" "const struct stack *st"
64.Ft void
65.Fn stack_sbuf_print_ddb "struct sbuf *sb" "const struct stack *st"
66.Ft void
67.Fn stack_save "struct stack *st"
68.Ft int
69.Fn stack_save_td "struct stack *st" "struct thread *td"
70.Sh DESCRIPTION
71The
72.Nm
73KPI allows querying of kernel stack trace information and the automated
74generation of kernel stack trace strings for the purposes of debugging and
75tracing.
76To use the KPI, at least one of
77.Cd "options DDB"
78and
79.Cd "options STACK"
80must be compiled into the kernel.
81.Pp
82Each stack trace is described by a
83.Vt "struct stack" .
84It can be declared in the usual ways, including on the stack, and optionally
85initialized with
86.Fn stack_zero ,
87though this is not necessary before saving a trace.
88It can also be dynamically allocated with
89.Fn stack_create .
90The
91.Ar flags
92argument is passed to
93.Xr malloc 9 .
94This dynamic allocation must be freed with
95.Fn stack_destroy .
96.Pp
97A trace of the current thread's kernel call stack may be captured using
98.Fn stack_save .
99.Fn stack_save_td
100can be used to capture the kernel stack of a caller-specified thread.
101Callers of
102.Fn stack_save_td
103must own the thread lock of the specified thread,
104and the thread's stack must not be swapped out.
105.Fn stack_save_td
106can capture the kernel stack of a running thread, though note that this is
107not implemented on all platforms.
108If the thread is running, the caller must also hold the process lock for the
109target thread.
110.Pp
111.Fn stack_print
112and
113.Fn stack_print_short
114may be used to print a stack trace using the kernel
115.Xr printf 9 ,
116and may sleep as a result of acquiring
117.Xr sx 9
118locks in the kernel linker while looking up symbol names.
119In locking-sensitive environments, the unsynchronized
120.Fn stack_print_ddb
121and
122.Fn stack_print_short_ddb
123variants may be invoked.
124This function bypasses kernel linker locking, making it usable in
125.Xr ddb 4 ,
126but not in a live system where linker data structures may change.
127.Pp
128.Fn stack_sbuf_print
129may be used to construct a human-readable string, including conversion (where
130possible) from a simple kernel instruction pointer to a named symbol and
131offset.
132The argument
133.Ar sb
134must be an initialized
135.Dv struct sbuf
136as described in
137.Xr sbuf 9 .
138This function may sleep if an auto-extending
139.Dv struct sbuf
140is used, or due to kernel linker locking.
141In locking-sensitive environments, such as
142.Xr ddb 4 ,
143the unsynchronized
144.Fn stack_sbuf_print_ddb
145variant may be invoked to avoid kernel linker locking; it should be used with
146a fixed-length sbuf.
147.Pp
148The utility functions
149.Nm stack_zero ,
150.Nm stack_copy ,
151and
152.Nm stack_put
153may be used to manipulate stack data structures directly.
154.Sh RETURN VALUES
155.Fn stack_put
156returns 0 on success.
157Otherwise the
158.Dv struct stack
159does not contain space to record additional frames, and a non-zero value is
160returned.
161.Pp
162.Fn stack_save_td
163returns 0 when the stack capture was successful and a non-zero error number
164otherwise.
165In particular,
166.Er EBUSY
167is returned if the thread was running in user mode at the time that the
168capture was attempted, and
169.Er EOPNOTSUPP
170is returned if the operation is not implemented.
171.Sh SEE ALSO
172.Xr ddb 4 ,
173.Xr printf 9 ,
174.Xr sbuf 9 ,
175.Xr sx 9
176.Sh AUTHORS
177.An -nosplit
178The
179.Nm
180function suite was created by
181.An Antoine Brodin .
182.Nm
183was extended by
184.An Robert Watson
185for general-purpose use outside of
186.Xr ddb 4 .
187