xref: /freebsd/share/man/man9/stack.9 (revision 6829dae12bb055451fa467da4589c43bd03b1e64)
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30.Dd October 6, 2017
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 void
69.Fn stack_save_td "struct stack *st" "struct thread *td"
70.Ft int
71.Fn stack_save_td_running "struct stack *st" "struct thread *td"
72.Sh DESCRIPTION
73The
74.Nm
75KPI allows querying of kernel stack trace information and the automated
76generation of kernel stack trace strings for the purposes of debugging and
77tracing.
78To use the KPI, at least one of
79.Cd "options DDB"
80and
81.Cd "options STACK"
82must be compiled into the kernel.
83.Pp
84Each stack trace is described by a
85.Vt "struct stack" .
86Before a trace may be created or otherwise manipulated, storage for the trace
87must be allocated with
88.Fn stack_create .
89The
90.Ar flags
91argument is passed to
92.Xr malloc 9 .
93Memory associated with a trace is freed by calling
94.Fn stack_destroy .
95.Pp
96A trace of the current kernel thread's call stack may be captured using
97.Fn stack_save .
98.Fn stack_save_td
99and
100.Fn stack_save_td_running
101can also be used to capture the stack of a caller-specified thread.
102Callers of these functions must own the thread lock of the specified thread.
103.Fn stack_save_td
104can capture the stack of a kernel thread that is not running or
105swapped out at the time of the call.
106.Fn stack_save_td_running
107can capture the stack of a running kernel thread.
108.Pp
109.Fn stack_print
110and
111.Fn stack_print_short
112may be used to print a stack trace using the kernel
113.Xr printf 9 ,
114and may sleep as a result of acquiring
115.Xr sx 9
116locks in the kernel linker while looking up symbol names.
117In locking-sensitive environments, the unsynchronized
118.Fn stack_print_ddb
119and
120.Fn stack_print_short_ddb
121variants may be invoked.
122This function bypasses kernel linker locking, making it usable in
123.Xr ddb 4 ,
124but not in a live system where linker data structures may change.
125.Pp
126.Fn stack_sbuf_print
127may be used to construct a human-readable string, including conversion (where
128possible) from a simple kernel instruction pointer to a named symbol and
129offset.
130The argument
131.Ar sb
132must be an initialized
133.Dv struct sbuf
134as described in
135.Xr sbuf 9 .
136This function may sleep if an auto-extending
137.Dv struct sbuf
138is used, or due to kernel linker locking.
139In locking-sensitive environments, such as
140.Xr ddb 4 ,
141the unsynchronized
142.Fn stack_sbuf_print_ddb
143variant may be invoked to avoid kernel linker locking; it should be used with
144a fixed-length sbuf.
145.Pp
146The utility functions
147.Nm stack_zero ,
148.Nm stack_copy ,
149and
150.Nm stack_put
151may be used to manipulate stack data structures directly.
152.Sh RETURN VALUES
153.Fn stack_put
154returns 0 on success.
155Otherwise the
156.Dv struct stack
157does not contain space to record additional frames, and a non-zero value is
158returned.
159.Pp
160.Fn stack_save_td_running
161returns 0 when the stack capture was successful and a non-zero error number
162otherwise.
163In particular,
164.Er EAGAIN
165is returned if the thread was running in user mode at the time that the
166capture was attempted, and
167.Er EOPNOTSUPP
168is returned if the operation is not implemented.
169.Sh SEE ALSO
170.Xr ddb 4 ,
171.Xr printf 9 ,
172.Xr sbuf 9 ,
173.Xr sx 9
174.Sh AUTHORS
175.An -nosplit
176The
177.Nm
178function suite was created by
179.An Antoine Brodin .
180.Nm
181was extended by
182.An Robert Watson
183for general-purpose use outside of
184.Xr ddb 4 .
185