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DDB(4) OpenBSD Programmer's Manual DDB(4) NAME ddb - kernel debugger DESCRIPTION The ddb debugger provides a means for debugging the kernel, and analysing the kernel after a system crash ("panic"), with a gdb(1)-like syntax. ddb is only available if the kernel was configured with the DDB option. ddb will be invoked upon a kernel panic when the sysctl(8) name ddb.panic is set to 1. ddb may be invoked from the console by the key sequence Ctl-Alt-Esc when the sysctl(8) name ddb.console is set to 1. ddb prompts for commands on the console with: ddb> The general syntax of a ddb command is: command [/modifiers] [address][,count] To save typing, ddb makes use of a context inferred from previous com- mands. In this context, the current location is called dot. The examine, search, and write commands update dot to be that of the last ad- dress examined or the last location modified, and have intuitive effects on next and prev. All the other commands do not change dot, and set next to be the same. (See VARIABLES.) An expression can be used in place of address (see EXPRESSIONS). Omit- ting address in a command uses the last value of dot. A missing count is taken to be 1 for printing commands or Infinity for stack traces. Enter- ing a blank line causes the last command to be repeated using next in place of address, a count of 1, and no modifiers. ddb has a feature like more(1) for the output. If the number of lines output in response to one command exceeds the number set in the $lines variable, it displays the message `--db_more--' and waits for a response. The valid responses are: <space> One more page. <return> One more line. q Abort the current command, and return to the command input mode. The following command line editing keys are provided: ^b back one character ^f forward one character ^a beginning of line ^e end of line ^w erase word back ^h | <del> erase previous character ^d erase next character ^k delete to end of line ^u delete line ^p previous in command history ^n next in command history ^r redraw line COMMANDS The following commands may be typed at the `ddb>' prompt. Some commands consist of more than one word, and if only the first word or words are entered, the possible alternatives to complete the command are displayed and no other action is performed. help List the available commands. [e]x[amine] [/bhlaAxzodurcsmiI] [addr][,count] Display the contents at address addr according to the formats in the modifier. Multiple modifier formats display multiple locations. If no format is specified, the last formats spec- ified for this command are used. The format characters are: /b look at by bytes (8 bits) /h look at by half words (16 bits) /l look at by long words (32 bits) (default) /a print the location being displayed /A print the location with a line number if possible /x display in unsigned hex /z display in signed hex /o display in unsigned octal /d display in signed decimal /u display in unsigned decimal /r display in current radix, signed /c display low 8 bits as a character. Non-printing char- acters are displayed as an octal escape code (e.g., '\000'). /s display the null-terminated string at the location. Non-printing characters are displayed as octal escapes. /m display in unsigned hex with character dump at the end of each line. The location is also displayed in hex at the beginning of each line. /i display as an instruction /I display as an alternate format instruction depending on the machine: vax Don't assume that each external label is a procedure entry mask. i386 Don't round to the next long word boundary. mips Print register contents. The value of next is set to the addr plus the size of the da- ta examined. xf Examine forward. Execute an examine command with the last specified parameters to it except that the next address dis- played by it is used as the start address. xb Examine backward. Execute an examine command with the last specified parameters to it except that the last start address subtracted by the size displayed by it is used as the start address. print [/axzodurc] [addr [addr ...]] Print each addr according to the modifier character. The valid modifiers are a subset of those from the examine com- mand, and act as described there. If no modifier is speci- fied, the last one specified in a previous use of print is used. The addr argument can be a string, and it is printed as a literal. For example, print/x "eax = " $eax "\necx = " $ecx "\n" will print something like this: eax = xxxxxx ecx = yyyyyy w[rite] [/bhl] [addr] expr [expr ...] Write the value of each expr expression at succeeding loca- tions start at addr. The write unit size can be specified using one of the modifiers: /b byte (8 bits) /h half word (16 bits) /l long word (32 bits) (default) The value of next is set to addr plus the size of values written. Warning: since there is no delimiter between expressions, the command may not parse as you expect. It is best to enclose each expression in parentheses. set $name [=] expr Set the named variable or register with the value of expr. Valid variable names are described below. boot how Reboot the machine depending on how: boot sync Sync disks and reboot. boot crash Dump core and reboot. boot dump Sync disks, dump core and reboot. boot halt Just halt. boot reboot Just reboot. boot poweroff Power down the machine whenever possible; if it fails, just halt. break [/u] [addr][,count] Set a break point at addr. If count is supplied, ddb allows the breakpoint to be silently hit (count - 1) times before stopping at the break point. If the break point is successfully set, a break point number is displayed, in the form #number. This can later be used in deleting the break point or for adding conditions to it. When the /u modifier is specified, addr is taken as a user space address. Without it, the address is considered as a kernel space address. Wrong space addresses are rejected with an error message. The /u modifier can be used only if it is supported by machine dependent routines. Warning: if a user text is shadowed by a normal user space debugger, user space break points may not work correctly. Setting a breakpoint at the low-level code paths may also cause strange behavior. d[elete] [addr | #number] Delete the break point set with the break command. s[tep] [/p] [,count] Single step count times. If the /p modifier is specified, print each instruction at each step. Otherwise, only print the last instruction. Warning: depending on machine type, it may not be possible to single-step through some low-level code paths or user space code. On machines with software-emulated single-stepping (e.g., pmax), stepping through code executed by interrupt handlers will probably do the wrong thing. call name(expr [, expr ...] ) Call the function named by name with the argument(s) listed in parentheses. Parentheses may be omitted if the function takes no arguments. The number of arguments is currently limited to 10. c[ontinue] [/c] Continue execution until a breakpoint or watchpoint. If the /c modifier is given, instructions are counted while execut- ing. Some machines (e.g., pmax) also count loads and stores. Warning: when counting with /c, ddb is really silently sin- gle-stepping. This means that single-stepping on low-level code may cause strange behavior. watch addr [,size] Set a watchpoint for the region starting at addr. Execution stops and control returns to ddb when an attempt is made to modify a watched region. The size argument defaults to 4. If you specify a wrong space address, the request is rejected with an error message. Warning: attempts to watch wired kernel memory may cause an unrecoverable error on some systems (e.g., i386). Watch- points on user addresses work best. dwatch addr Delete the watchpoint at address addr that was previously set with a watch command. hangman [/s[0-9]] This is a tiny and handy tool for random kernel hangs analy- sis, of which its depth is controlled by the optional argu- ment of the default value of five. It uses some sophisticat- ed heuristics to spot the global symbol that caused the hang. Since the discovering algorithm is a probabilistic one, you may spend substantial time to figure the exact symbol name. This smart thing requires a little of your attention, the in- put it accepts is mostly of the same format as that of the famous hangman(6) game, to which it, apparently, is obliged by the name. Hint: the nm(1) utility might help. until [/p] Stop at the next "call" or "return" instruction. If the /p modifier is specified, ddb prints the call nesting depth and the cumulative instruction count at each call or return. Otherwise, it stays silent until the matching return is hit. match [/p] Stop at the next matching return instruction. If the /p mod- ifier is specified, ddb prints the call nesting depth and the cumulative instruction count at each call or return. Other- wise, it remains mostly quiet. next [/p] The next command is a synonym for match. trace [/u] [frameaddr][,count] Show the stack trace. The /u modifier shows the stack trace of user space; if omitted, the kernel stack is traced in- stead. The count argument is the limit on the number of frames to be followed. If count is omitted, all frames are printed. Warning: user space stack trace is valid only if the machine dependent code supports it. search [/bhl] [addr] value [mask] [,count] Search memory for a value beginning at addr. This command might fail in interesting ways if it doesn't find the searched-for value. This is because ddb doesn't always re- cover from touching bad memory. The optional count argument limits the search. The modifiers are the same as those of the write command. The next address is set to the address where value is found, or just after where the search area finishes. show what Displays various things, depending on what: show breaks Prints a list of all breakpoints that have been set with the break command. show extents Prints a detailed list of all extents. show malloc [addr] Prints malloc debugging information if available. If an optional address is specified, only information about that address is printed. show map [/f] addr Prints the vm_map at addr. If the /f modifier is spec- ified the complete map is printed. show object [/f] addr Prints the vm_object at addr. If the /f modifier is specified the complete object is printed. show page [/f] addr Prints the vm_page at addr. If the /f modifier is specified the complete page is printed. show pool [/clp] addr Prints the pool at addr. Valid modifiers: /c Print the cachelist and its statistics for this pool. /l Print the log entries for this pool. /p Print the pagelist for this pool. show proc [addr] Prints the struct proc at addr. If an optional address is not specified curproc is assumed. show registers [/u] Display the register set. If the /u modifier is speci- fied, it displays user registers (or the currently saved registers) instead of the kernel's. Note: The /u modifier is not supported on every machine, in which case incorrect information may be displayed. show uvmexp Displays a selection of uvm counters and statistics. show watches Displays all watchpoints set with the watch command. show all procs [/anw] Display information on all processes. /n (Default) Show process information in a ps(1)-like format. Information printed includes process ID, parent process ID, process group, UID, process status, process flags, process command name, and process wait channel message. /a Shows the kernel virtual addresses of each pro- cess' proc structure, u-area, and vmspace struc- ture. The vmspace address is also the address of the process' vm_map structure and can be used in the show map command. /w Shows each process' PID, command, system call emu- lation, wait channel address, and wait channel message. show all callout Display the contents of the callout table. callout A synonym for the show all callout command. ps [/anw] A synonym for show all procs. VARIABLES ddb denotes registers and variables by $name. Register names can be found with the show registers command. Some variable names are suffixed with numbers, and some may have a modi- fier following a colon immediately after the variable name. For example, register variables can have the `:u' modifier to indicate a user register (e.g., `$eax:u'). Built-in debugger variables currently supported are: $radix Input and output radix. $maxoff Addresses are printed as symbol+offset unless offset is greater than $maxoff. $maxwidth The width of the displayed lines. $lines The number of lines to page. This is used by the ``more'' feature. $tabstops Tab stop width. $workxx Work variables. The suffix xx is a number from 0 to 31. EXPRESSIONS Almost all expression operators in C are supported except for `~', `^', and unary `&'. Special rules for expressions in ddb are: identifier The name of a symbol. It is translated to the ad- dress (or value) of the symbol. `.' and `:' can be used in the identifier. The following can be accepted as an identifier, if supported by an ob- ject format dependent routine: [filename:]func [:linenumber] [filename:] variable filename [:linenumber] The symbol may be prefixed with `symboltablename::' (e.g., `emulator::mach_msg_trap') to specify other than kernel symbols. number The radix is determined by the first two letters: `0x': hex, `0o': octal, `0t': decimal, otherwise, the value of $radix is used. . dot: the current address. + next: the next address. .. The address of the start of the last line exam- ined. Unlike dot or next, this is only changed by the examine or write command. ' The last address explicitly specified. $variable The value of a register or variable. The name may be followed by a `:' and modifiers as described above with identifier. expr # expr A binary operator which rounds up the left hand side to the next multiple of right hand side. *expr Indirection. It may be followed by a ':' and mod- ifiers as described above. SEE ALSO gdb(1), nm(1), sysctl.conf(5), hangman(6), kgdb(7), sysctl(8), extent(9), pool(9), uvm(9) HISTORY This kernel facility first appeared in MACH 2 operating system developed by CMU. Hangman (which stands for "hangs maniacal analyzer") first ap- peared in OpenBSD 1.2. OpenBSD 3.4 November 30, 1993 7
NAME | DESCRIPTION | COMMANDS | VARIABLES | EXPRESSIONS | SEE ALSO | HISTORY
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