Hi, just a ping. Any comments on the series ?
On Mon, Dec 04, 2023 at 08:29:36PM +0530, Aditya Gupta wrote:
> The Problem:
> ============
>
> Currently crash is unable to show function arguments and local variables, as
> gdb can do. And functionality for moving between frames ('up'/'down') is not
> working in crash.
>
> Crash has 'gdb passthroughs' for things gdb can do, but the gdb passthroughs
> 'bt', 'frame', 'info locals', 'up', 'down' are not working either, due to
> gdb not getting the register values from `crash_target::fetch_registers`,
> which then uses `machdep->get_cpu_reg`, which is not implemented for PPC64
>
> Proposed Solution:
> ==================
>
> Fix the gdb passthroughs by implementing "machdep->get_cpu_reg" for PPC64.
> This way, "gdb mode in crash" will support this feature for both ELF and
> kdump-compressed vmcore formats, while "gdb" would only have supported ELF
> format
>
> This way other features of 'gdb', such as seeing
> backtraces/registers/variables/arguments/local variables, moving up and
> down stack frames, can be used with any ppc64 vmcore, irrespective of
> being ELF format or kdump-compressed format.
>
> Implications on Architectures:
> ====================================
>
> No architecture other than PPC64 has been affected, other than in case of
> 'frame' command
>
> As mentioned in patch #2, since frame will not be prohibited, so it will print:
>
> crash> frame
> #0 <unavailable> in ?? ()
>
> Instead of before prohibited message:
>
> crash> frame
> crash: prohibited gdb command: frame
>
> Major change will be in 'gdb mode' on PPC64, that it will print the frames, and
> local variables, instead of failing with errors showing no frame, or showing
> that couldn't get PC, it will be able to give all this information.
>
> Testing:
> ========
>
> Git tree with this patch series applied:
> https://github.com/adi-g15-ibm/crash/tree/stack-unwind-3
>
> To test various gdb passthroughs:
>
> gdb> set
> gdb> set gdb on
> gdb> thread
> gdb> bt
> gdb> info threads
> gdb> info threads
> gdb> info locals
> gdb> info variables irq_rover_lock
> gdb> info args
> gdb> thread 2
> gdb> set gdb off
> gdb> set
> gdb> set -c 6
> gdb> gdb thread
> gdb> bt
> gdb> gdb bt
> gdb> frame
> gdb> up
> gdb> down
> gdb> info locals
>
> Known Issues:
> =============
>
> 1. In gdb mode, 'bt' might fail to show backtrace in few vmcores collected
> from older kernels. This is a known issue due to register mismatch, and
> its fix has been merged upstream:
>
> Commit: https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/b684c09f09e7a6af3794d4233ef785819e72db79
>
> Fixing GDB passthroughs on other architectures
> ==============================================
>
> Much of the work for making gdb passthroughs like 'gdb bt', 'gdb
> thread', 'gdb info locals' etc. has been done by the patches introducing
> 'machdep->get_cpu_reg' and this series fixing some issues in that.
>
> Other architectures should be able to fix these gdb functionalities by
> simply implementing 'machdep->get_cpu_reg (cpu, regno, ...)'.
>
> The reasoning behind that has been explained with a diagram in commit
> description of patch #1
>
> I will assist with my findings/observations fixing it on ppc64 whenever needed.
>
> Additional Notes:
> =================
>
> Sorry, it took a long time to send this version. Tried fixing 'info
> threads' but wasn't able to. Gave it time again, and was able to fix it
> this time after multiple days of debugging.
>
> Some other things from last version review:
>
> * 'info rv' not working:
> It's not supported in gdb, instead we need to use 'info locals rv' or
> 'info variables rv'
>
> * 'info variables' command hangs... and prints nothing after hanging for long
> It likely hangs due to a lot of symbols being there, and it's trying to
> get all gdb's output and page it, so Control+C messes it up, but if we pass
> a regex filter to limit the output, eg. info variables rq, then it doesn't
> hang, and prints the variables/symbols.
> Even with gdb, ie. simply running 'gdb vmlinux vmcore' also hangs due
> to the lot of symbols
>
> * making crashing thread as default in gdb:
> This is implemented now, along with synchronising crash & gdb contexts, in
> patch #3
>
> * 'info threads' not working:
> This turned to be due to a bug in gdb_interface. I fixed 'info
> threads' in 2 patches, to simplify it, first for the gdb_interface,
> and another patch for setting the context correctly in crash
>
> * other info commands:
> I tested all the info commands, in crash along with this patch.
> Most of those that fail in crash are due to gdb itself not supporting
> them with vmcores, and other than that is the 'info pretty' command,
> which might not be needed in crash anyways
>
> * live debugging showing only one thread:
> I tried it with crash, crash shows only the current thread, ie.
> itself, so it does not have information of registers for the other
> CPUs. Similarly gdb does not support live kernel debugging (without
> connecting to a gdbstub/QEMU etc.).
> If you need I can make it show the current thread id correctly for
> the one thread, but I don't think it might help much with live
> debugging
>
> Hope, I set the context, thanks for the reviews, I replied and worked
> on your suggestions, but got stuck there due to 'info threads'
>
> Changelog:
> ==========
>
> V3:
> + default gdb thread will be the crashing thread, instead of being
> thread '0'
> + synchronise crash cpu and gdb thread context
> + fix bug in gdb_interface, that replaced gdb's output stream, losing
> output in some cases, such as info threads and extra output in info
> variables
> + fix 'info threads'
>
> RFC V2:
> - removed patch implementing 'frame', 'up', 'down' in crash
> - updated the cover letter by removing the mention of those commands other
> than the respective gdb passthrough
>
> Aditya Gupta (5):
> ppc64: correct gdb passthroughs by implementing machdep->get_cpu_reg
> remove 'frame' from prohibited commands list
> synchronise cpu context changes between crash/gdb
> fix gdb_interface: restore gdb's output streams at end of
> gdb_interface
> fix 'info threads' command
>
> crash_target.c | 44 ++++++++++++++++
> defs.h | 130 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
> gdb-10.2.patch | 110 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
> gdb_interface.c | 2 +-
> kernel.c | 47 +++++++++++++++--
> ppc64.c | 95 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
> task.c | 14 ++++++
> tools.c | 2 +-
> 8 files changed, 434 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)
>
> --
> 2.41.0
>
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