From owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Jun 11 15:46:33 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0B02016A41C for ; Sat, 11 Jun 2005 15:46:33 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from bakul@bitblocks.com) Received: from gate.bitblocks.com (bitblocks.com [209.204.185.216]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B69BF43D1D for ; Sat, 11 Jun 2005 15:46:32 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from bakul@bitblocks.com) Received: from bitblocks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by gate.bitblocks.com (8.13.3/8.13.1) with ESMTP id j5BFkToq011515; Sat, 11 Jun 2005 08:46:29 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from bakul@bitblocks.com) Message-Id: <200506111546.j5BFkToq011515@gate.bitblocks.com> To: "Poul-Henning Kamp" In-reply-to: Your message of "Sat, 11 Jun 2005 09:22:45 +0200." <1078.1118474565@critter.freebsd.dk> Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 08:46:29 -0700 From: Bakul Shah Cc: Antoine Brodin , freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Subject: Re: RFC: Stack saving/tracing functionality. X-BeenThere: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion related to FreeBSD architecture List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 15:46:33 -0000 > ... but it would be neat if it could also save/print userland stacks > so that we could get tracebacks from abort()'ing userland programs. Along these lines; wouldn't it be neat if there was a sysctl to leave a segfaulted or aborted process around so that you can attach a debugger to it and find out what went wrong (and may be even correct it!)? Debugging a live process (even if fatally injured) yields more clues as you can poke around at its I/O connections, its caller process etc. A separate program can be used to create a coredump if you really wish to preseve the dead body for later autopsy.