Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2015 14:21:19 -0700 From: John Baldwin <jhb@freebsd.org> To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Supporting cross-debugging vmcores in libkvm (Testing needed) Message-ID: <4121266.HXN5YIfUMj@ralph.baldwin.cx> In-Reply-To: <5166205.rtMjEmhvmo@ralph.baldwin.cx> References: <3121152.ujdxFEovO3@ralph.baldwin.cx> <5166205.rtMjEmhvmo@ralph.baldwin.cx>
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On Wednesday, August 12, 2015 10:50:20 AM John Baldwin wrote: > On Tuesday, August 04, 2015 10:56:09 AM John Baldwin wrote: > > Many debuggers (recent gdb and lldb) support cross-architecture debugging > > just fine. My current WIP port of kgdb to gdb7 supports cross-debugging for > > remote targets already, but I wanted it to also support cross-debugging for > > vmcores. > > > > The existing libkvm/kgdb code in the tree has some limited support for > > cross-debugging. It requires building a custom libkvm (e.g. libkvm-i386.a) > > and custom kgdb for each target platform. However, gdb (and lldb) both > > support multiple targets in a single binary, so I'd like to have a single > > kgdb binary that can cross-debug anything. > > > > I started hacking on libkvm last weekend and have a prototype that I've used > > (along with some patches to my kgdb port) to debug an amd64 vmcore on an > > i386 machine and vice versa. > > > > ... > > > > What I'm mostly after is comments on the API, etc. Once that is settled I > > will move forward on converting and/or stubbing the other backends (the > > stub route would be to only support other backends on native systems for > > now). > > I guess this is closer to a nuclear power plant than a bikeshed judging by the > feedback. I have ported the rest of the MD backends and verified that the > updated libkvm passes a universe build (including various static assertions > for the duplicated constants in other backends). What I have not done is any > runtime testing and I would like to ask for help with that now. In particular > I need someone to test that kgdb and/or ps works against a native core dump > on all platforms other than amd64 and i386. Note that some of the trickiness > is that the backends now have to make runtime decisions for things that were > previously compile-time decisions. The biggest one affected by this is the > MIPS backend as that backend handles three ABIs (mipso32, mipsn32, and mipsn64). > I believe I have the handling for that correct (mips[on]32 use 32-bit KSEGs > where as mipsn64 uses the extended segments and compat32 KSEGS, and mipso32 > uses 32-bit PTEs and mipsn32/n64 both use 64-bit PTEs) (plus both endians > for both in theory). The ARM backend also handles both endians (in theory). > > Another wrinkle is that sparc64 uses its own dump format instead of writing > out an ELF file. I had to convert the header structures to use fixed-width > types to be cross-friendly. It would be good to ensure that a new libkvm > can read a vmcore from an old kernel and vice versa to make sure my conversion > is correct (I added an explicit padding field that I believe was implicit > before). > > The code is currently available for review in phabric at > https://reviews.freebsd.org/D3341 > > To test, you can run 'arc patch D3341' in a clean tree to apply the patch. I've just rebased this to port aarch64's minidump support. I just need people willing and able to test on non-x86. Testing with the in-tree kgdb using an updated libkvm would be sufficient. -- John Baldwin
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