DDB(4) NetBSD Kernel Interfaces Manual DDB(4)
NAME
ddb -- in-kernel debugger
SYNOPSIS
options DDB To enable history editing: options DDB_HISTORY_SIZE=integer To disable entering ddb upon kernel panic: options DDB_ONPANIC=0 To enable teeing all ddb output to the kernel msgbuf: options DDB_TEE_MSGBUF=1
DESCRIPTION
ddb is the in-kernel debugger. It may be entered at any time via a spe- cial key sequence, and optionally may be invoked when the kernel panics.
ENTERING THE DEBUGGER
Unless DDB_ONPANIC is set to 0, ddb will be activated whenever the kernel would otherwise panic. ddb may also be activated from the console. In general, sending a break on a serial console will activate ddb. There are also key sequences for each port that will activate ddb from the keyboard: alpha <Ctrl>-<Alt>-<Esc> on PC style keyboards. amiga <LAlt>-<LAmiga>-<F10> atari <Alt>-<LeftShift>-<F9> hp300 <Shift>-<Reset> hpcarm <Ctrl>-<Alt>-<Esc> hpcmips <Ctrl>-<Alt>-<Esc> hpcsh <Ctrl>-<Alt>-<Esc> i386 <Ctrl>-<Alt>-<Esc> <Break> on serial console. mac68k <Command>-<Power>, or the Interrupt switch. macppc Some models: <Command>-<Option>-<Power> mvme68k Abort switch on CPU card. pmax <Do> on LK-201 rcons console. <Break> on serial console. sparc <L1>-A, or <Stop>-A on a Sun keyboard. <Break> on serial console. sparc64 <L1>-A, or <Stop>-A on a Sun keyboard. <Break> on serial console. sun3 <L1>-A, or <Stop>-A on a Sun keyboard. <Break> on serial console. vax <Esc>-<Shift>-D on serial console. x68k Interrupt switch on the body. The key sequence to activate ddb can be changed by modifying ``hw.cnmagic'' with sysctl(8). If the console is not dedicated to ddb the sequence should not be easily typed by accident. In addition, ddb may be explicitly activated by the debugging code in the kernel if DDB is configured.
COMMAND SYNTAX
The general command syntax is: command[/modifier] address [,count] The current memory location being edited is referred to as dot, and the next location is next. They are displayed as hexadecimal numbers. Commands that examine and/or modify memory update dot to the address of the last line examined or the last location modified, and set next to the next location to be examined or modified. Other commands don't change dot, and set next to be the same as dot. A blank line repeats the previous command from the address next with the previous count and no modifiers. Specifying address sets dot to the address. If address is omitted, dot is used. A missing count is taken to be 1 for printing commands, and infinity for stack traces. The syntax: ,count repeats the previous command, just as a blank line does, but with the specified count. ddb has a more(1)-like functionality; if a number of lines in a command's output exceeds the number defined in the lines variable, then ddb dis- plays ``--db more--'' and waits for a response, which may be one of: <return> one more line. <space> one more page. q abort the current command, and return to the command input mode. If ddb history editing is enabled (by defining the options DDB_HISTORY_SIZE=num kernel option), then a history of the last num commands is kept. The history can be manipulated with the following key sequences: <Ctrl>-P retrieve previous command in history (if any). <Ctrl>-N retrieve next command in history (if any).
COMMANDS
ddb supports the following commands: !address[(expression[,...])] A synonym for call. break[/u] address[,count] Set a breakpoint at address. If count is supplied, continues (count-1) times before stopping at the breakpoint. If the break- point is set, a breakpoint number is printed with `#'. This num- ber can be used to delete the breakpoint, or to add conditions to it. If /u is specified, set a breakpoint at a user-space address. Without /u, address is considered to be in the kernel-space, and an address in the wrong space will be rejected, and an error mes- sage will be emitted. This modifier may only be used if it is supported by machine dependent routines. Warning: if a user text is shadowed by a normal user-space debug- ger, user-space breakpoints may not work correctly. Setting a breakpoint at the low-level code paths may also cause strange behavior. bt[/u] [frame-address][,count] A synonym for trace. bt/t [pid][,count] A synonym for trace. call address[(expression[,...])] Call the function specified by address 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. continue[/c] Continue execution until a breakpoint or watchpoint. If /c is specified, count instructions while executing. Some machines (e.g., pmax) also count loads and stores. Warning: when counting, the debugger is really silently single- stepping. This means that single-stepping on low-level may cause strange behavior. delete address | #number Delete a breakpoint. The target breakpoint may be specified by address, as per break, or by the breakpoint number returned by break if it's prefixed with `#'. dmesg [count] Prints the contents of the kernel message buffer. The optional count argument will limit printing to at most the last count bytes of the message buffer. dwatch address Delete the watchpoint at address that was previously set with watch command. examine[/modifier] address[,count] Display the address locations according to the format in modifier. Multiple modifier formats display multiple locations. If modifier isn't specified, the modifier from the last use of examine is used. The valid format characters for modifier are: b examine bytes (8 bits). h examine half-words (16 bits). l examine words (legacy ``long'', 32 bits). L examine long words (implementation dependent) a print the location being examined. 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 charac- ters as displayed as an octal escape code (e.g., `\000'). s display the NUL terminated string at the location. Non- printing characters are displayed as octal escapes. m display in unsigned hex with a character dump at the end of each line. The location is displayed as hex at the beginning of each line. i display as a machine instruction. I display as a machine instruction, with possible alterna- tive formats depending upon the machine: alpha print register operands m68k use Motorola syntax pc532 print instruction bytes in hex vax don't assume that each external label is a procedure entry mask kill pid[,signal_number] Send a signal to the process specified by the pid. Note that pid is interpreted using the current radix (see trace/t command for details). If signal_number isn't specified, the SIGTERM signal is sent. match[/p] A synonym for next. next[/p] Stop at the matching return instruction. If /p is specified, print the call nesting depth and the cumulative instruction count at each call or return. Otherwise, only print when the matching return is hit. print[/axzodurc] address [address ...] Print addresses address according to the modifier character, as per examine. Valid modifiers are: /a, /x, /z, /o, /d, /u, /r, and /c (as per examine). If no modifier is specified, the most recent one specified is used. address may be a string, and is printed ``as-is''. For example: print/x "eax = " $eax "\necx = " $ecx "\n" will produce: eax = xxxxxx ecx = yyyyyy ps[/a][/n][/w] A synonym for show all procs. reboot [flags] Reboot, using the optionally supplied boot flags, which is a bit- mask supporting the same values as for reboot(2). Some of the more useful flags: Value Name Description 0x1 RB_ASKNAME Ask for file name to reboot from 0x2 RB_SINGLE Reboot to single user mode 0x4 RB_NOSYNC Don't sync before reboot 0x8 RB_HALT Halt instead of reboot 0x40 RB_KDB Boot into kernel debugger 0x100 RB_DUMP Dump unconditionally before reboot 0x808 RB_POWERDOWN Power off (or at least halt) Note: Limitations of the command line interface preclude specifi- cation of a boot string. search[/bhl] address value [mask] [,count] Search memory from address for value. The unit size is specified with a modifier character, as per examine. Valid modifiers are: /b, /h, and /l. If no modifier is specified, /l is used. This command might fail in interesting ways if it doesn't find value. This is because ddb doesn't always recover from touching bad memory. The optional count limits the search. set $variable [=] expression Set the named variable or register to the value of expression. Valid variable names are described in VARIABLES. show all procs[/a][/n][/w] Display all process information. Valid modifiers: /n show process information in a ps(1) style format (this is the default). Information printed includes: process ID, parent process ID, process group, UID, process status, process flags, process command name, and process wait channel mes- sage. /a show the kernel virtual addresses of each process' proc structure, u-area, and vmspace structure. The vmspace address is also the address of the process' vm_map structure, and can be used in the show map command. /w show each process' PID, command, system call emulation, wait channel address, and wait channel message. show breaks Display all breakpoints. show buf[/f] address Print the struct buf at address. The /f does nothing at this time. show event[/f] Print all the non-zero evcnt(9) event counters. If /f is speci- fied, all event counters with a count of zero are printed as well. show map[/f] address Print the vm_map at address. If /f is specified, the complete map is printed. show mount[/f] address Print the mount structure at address. If /f is specified, the complete vnode list is printed. show ncache address Dump the namecache list associated with vnode at address. show object[/f] address Print the vm_object at address. If /f is specified, the complete object is printed. show page[/f] address Print the vm_page at address. If /f is specified, the complete page is printed. show pool[/clp] address Print the pool at address. 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 registers[/u] Display the register set. If /u is specified, display user regis- ters instead of kernel registers or the currently save one. Warning: support for /u is machine dependent. If not supported, incorrect information will be displayed. show sched_qs Print the state of the scheduler's run queues. For each run queue that has an LWP, the run queue index and the list of LWPs will be shown. If the run queue has LWPs, but the sched_whichqs bit is not set for that queue, the queue index will be prefixed with a `!'. show uvmexp Print a selection of UVM counters and statistics. show vnode[/f] address Print the vnode at address. If /f is specified, the complete vnode is printed. show watches Display all watchpoints. sifting[/F] string Search the symbol tables for all symbols of which string is a sub- string, and display them. If /F is specified, a character is dis- played immediately after each symbol name indicating the type of symbol. For a.out(5)-format symbol tables, absolute symbols display @, text segment symbols display *, data segment symbols display +, BSS segment symbols display -, and filename symbols display /. For ELF-format symbol tables, object symbols display +, function symbols display *, section symbols display &, and file symbols display /. To sift for a string beginning with a number, escape the first character with a backslash as: sifting \386 step[/p] [,count] Single-step count times. If /p is specified, print each instruc- tion at each step. Otherwise, only print the last instruction. Warning: depending on the 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. sync Force a crash dump, and then reboot. trace [/u[l]] [frame-address][,count] Stack trace from frame-address. If /u is specified, trace user- space, otherwise trace kernel-space. count is the number of frames to be traced. If count is omitted, all frames are printed. If /l is specified, the trace is printed and also stored in the kernel message buffer. Warning: user-space stack trace is valid only if the machine dependent code supports it. trace/t[l] [pid][,count] Stack trace by ``thread'' (process, on NetBSD) rather than by stack frame address. Note that pid is interpreted using the cur- rent radix, whilst ps displays pids in decimal; prefix pid with `0t' to force it to be interpreted as decimal (see VARIABLES sec- tion for radix). If /l is specified, the trace is printed and also stored in the kernel message buffer. Warning: trace by pid is valid only if the machine dependent code supports it. until[/p] Stop at the next call or return instruction. If /p is specified, print the call nesting depth and the cumulative instruction count at each call or return. Otherwise, only print when the matching return is hit. watch address[,size] Set a watchpoint for a region. Execution stops when an attempt to modify the region occurs. size 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 unre- coverable error in some systems such as i386. Watchpoints on user addresses work the best. write[/bhl] address expression [expression ...] Write the expressions at succeeding locations. The unit size is specified with a modifier character, as per examine. Valid modi- fiers are: /b, /h, and /l. If no modifier is specified, /l is used. Warning: since there is no delimiter between expressions, strange things may occur. It's best to enclose each expression in paren- theses. x[/modifier] address[,count] A synonym for examine.
MACHINE-SPECIFIC COMMANDS
The "glue" code that hooks ddb into the NetBSD kernel for any given port can also add machine specific commands to the ddb command parser. All of these commands are preceded by the command word machine to indicate that they are part of the machine-specific command set (e.g. machine reboot). Some of these commands are: ALPHA halt Call the PROM monitor to halt the CPU. reboot Call the PROM monitor to reboot the CPU. ARM32 vmstat Equivalent to vmstat(1) output with "-s" option (statistics). vnode Print out a description of a vnode. intrchain Print the list of IRQ handlers. panic Print the current "panic" string. frame Given a trap frame address, print out the trap frame. MIPS kvtop Print the physical address for a given kernel virtual address. tlb Print out the Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB). Only works in NetBSD kernels compiled with DEBUG option. SH3 tlb Print TLB entries cache Print cache entries frame Print switch frame and trap frames. stack Print kernel stack usage. Only works in NetBSD kernels com- piled with the KSTACK_DEBUG option. SPARC prom Exit to the Sun PROM monitor. SPARC64 buf Print buffer information. ctx Print process context information. dtlb Print data translation look-aside buffer context information. dtsb Display data translation storage buffer information. kmap Display information about the listed mapping in the kernel pmap. Use the ``f'' modifier to get a full listing. pcb Display information about the ``struct pcb'' listed. pctx Attempt to change process context. page Display the pointer to the ``struct vm_page'' for this physi- cal address. phys Display physical memory. pmap Display the pmap. Use the ``f'' modifier to get a fuller listing. proc Display some information about the process pointed to, or cur- proc. prom Enter the OFW PROM. pv Display the ``struct pv_entry'' pointed to. stack Dump the window stack. Use the ``u'' modifier to get userland information. tf Display full trap frame state. This is most useful for inclu- sion with bug reports. ts Display trap state. traptrace Display or set trap trace information. Use the ``r'' and ``f'' modifiers to get reversed and full information, respec- tively. uvmdump Dumps the UVM histories. watch Set or clear a physical or virtual hardware watchpoint. Pass the address to be watched, or ``0'' to clear the watchpoint. Append ``p'' to the watch point to use the physical watchpoint registers. window Print register window information about given address. SUN3 and SUN3X abort Drop into monitor via abort (allows continue). halt Exit to Sun PROM monitor as in halt(8). reboot Reboot the machine as in reboot(8). pgmap Given an address, print the address, segment map, page map, and Page Table Entry (PTE).
VARIABLES
ddb accesses registers and variables as $name. Register names are as per the show registers command. Some variables are suffixed with numbers, and may have a modifier following a colon immediately after the variable name. For example, register variables may have a `u' modifier to indi- cate user register (e.g., $eax:u). Built-in variables currently supported are: lines The number of lines. This is used by the more feature. maxoff Addresses are printed as 'symbol'+offset unless offset is greater than maxoff. maxwidth The width of the displayed line. onpanic If non-zero (the default), ddb will be invoked when the kernel panics. If the kernel configuration option options DDB_ONPANIC=0 is used, onpanic will be initialized to off. fromconsole If non-zero (the default), the kernel allows to enter ddb from the console (by break signal or special key sequence). If the kernel configuration option options DDB_FROMCONSOLE=0 is used, fromconsole will be initialized to off. radix Input and output radix. tabstops Tab stop width. tee_msgbuf If explictly set to non zero (zero is the default) all ddb output will not only be displayed on screen but also be fed to the msgbuf. The default of the variable can be set using the kernel configuration option options DDB_TEE_MSGBUF=1 wich will initialise tee_msgbuf to be 1. This option is especially handy for poor souls who don't have a serial console but want to recall ddb output from a crash inves- tigation. This option is more generic than the /l com- mand modifier possible for selected commands as discussed above to log the output. Mixing both /l and this setting can give double loggings. All built-in variables are accessible via sysctl(3).
EXPRESSIONS
Almost all expression operators in C are supported, except `~', `^', and unary `&'. Special rules in ddb are: identifier name of a symbol. It is translated to the address (or value) of it. `.' and `:' can be used in the identi- fier. If supported by an object format dependent rou- tine, [filename:]function[:line number],[filename:]variable,and filename[:line number], can be accepted as a symbol. The symbol may be pre- fixed with symbol_table_name:: (e.g., emulator::mach_msg_trap) to specify other than kernel symbols. number number. Radix is determined by the first two charac- ters: `0x' - hex, `0o' - octal, `0t' - decimal, other- wise follow current radix. . dot + next .. address of the start of the last line examined. Unlike dot or next, this is only changed by the examine or write commands. " last address explicitly specified. $name register name or variable. It is translated to the value of it. It may be followed by a `:' and modifiers as described above. a multiple of right-hand side. *expr expression indirection. It may be followed by a `:' and modifiers as described above.
SEE ALSO
options(4), reboot(2), reboot(8), sysctl(8), cnmagic(9)
HISTORY
The ddb kernel debugger was written as part of the MACH project at Carnegie-Mellon University. NetBSD 3.0.1 February 14, 2005 NetBSD 3.0.1
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