xref: /freebsd/share/man/man9/stack.9 (revision ce6a89e27cd190313be39bb479880aeda4778436)
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30.Dd January 31, 2020
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" .
84Before a trace may be created or otherwise manipulated, storage for the trace
85must be allocated with
86.Fn stack_create .
87The
88.Ar flags
89argument is passed to
90.Xr malloc 9 .
91Memory associated with a trace is freed by calling
92.Fn stack_destroy .
93.Pp
94A trace of the current thread's kernel call stack may be captured using
95.Fn stack_save .
96.Fn stack_save_td
97can be used to capture the kernel stack of a caller-specified thread.
98Callers of these functions must own the thread lock of the specified thread,
99and the thread's stack must not be swapped out.
100.Fn stack_save_td
101can capture the kernel stack of a running thread, though note that this is
102not implemented on all platforms.
103If the thread is running, the caller must also hold the process lock for the
104target thread.
105.Pp
106.Fn stack_print
107and
108.Fn stack_print_short
109may be used to print a stack trace using the kernel
110.Xr printf 9 ,
111and may sleep as a result of acquiring
112.Xr sx 9
113locks in the kernel linker while looking up symbol names.
114In locking-sensitive environments, the unsynchronized
115.Fn stack_print_ddb
116and
117.Fn stack_print_short_ddb
118variants may be invoked.
119This function bypasses kernel linker locking, making it usable in
120.Xr ddb 4 ,
121but not in a live system where linker data structures may change.
122.Pp
123.Fn stack_sbuf_print
124may be used to construct a human-readable string, including conversion (where
125possible) from a simple kernel instruction pointer to a named symbol and
126offset.
127The argument
128.Ar sb
129must be an initialized
130.Dv struct sbuf
131as described in
132.Xr sbuf 9 .
133This function may sleep if an auto-extending
134.Dv struct sbuf
135is used, or due to kernel linker locking.
136In locking-sensitive environments, such as
137.Xr ddb 4 ,
138the unsynchronized
139.Fn stack_sbuf_print_ddb
140variant may be invoked to avoid kernel linker locking; it should be used with
141a fixed-length sbuf.
142.Pp
143The utility functions
144.Nm stack_zero ,
145.Nm stack_copy ,
146and
147.Nm stack_put
148may be used to manipulate stack data structures directly.
149.Sh RETURN VALUES
150.Fn stack_put
151returns 0 on success.
152Otherwise the
153.Dv struct stack
154does not contain space to record additional frames, and a non-zero value is
155returned.
156.Pp
157.Fn stack_save_td
158returns 0 when the stack capture was successful and a non-zero error number
159otherwise.
160In particular,
161.Er EBUSY
162is returned if the thread was running in user mode at the time that the
163capture was attempted, and
164.Er EOPNOTSUPP
165is returned if the operation is not implemented.
166.Sh SEE ALSO
167.Xr ddb 4 ,
168.Xr printf 9 ,
169.Xr sbuf 9 ,
170.Xr sx 9
171.Sh AUTHORS
172.An -nosplit
173The
174.Nm
175function suite was created by
176.An Antoine Brodin .
177.Nm
178was extended by
179.An Robert Watson
180for general-purpose use outside of
181.Xr ddb 4 .
182