From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 31604 invoked by alias); 23 Mar 2011 22:51:29 -0000 Received: (qmail 31591 invoked by uid 22791); 23 Mar 2011 22:51:28 -0000 X-SWARE-Spam-Status: No, hits=-0.1 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00,SARE_SPEC_REPLICA_OBFU,T_RP_MATCHES_RCVD X-Spam-Check-By: sourceware.org Received: from g5t0009.atlanta.hp.com (HELO g5t0009.atlanta.hp.com) (15.192.0.46) by sourceware.org (qpsmtpd/0.43rc1) with ESMTP; Wed, 23 Mar 2011 22:51:23 +0000 Received: from G6W0641.americas.hpqcorp.net (g6w0641.atlanta.hp.com [16.230.34.77]) (using TLSv1 with cipher RC4-MD5 (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by g5t0009.atlanta.hp.com (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 7E3F830612; Wed, 23 Mar 2011 22:51:22 +0000 (UTC) Received: from G5W0325.americas.hpqcorp.net (16.228.8.67) by G6W0641.americas.hpqcorp.net (16.230.34.77) with Microsoft SMTP Server (TLS) id 8.2.176.0; Wed, 23 Mar 2011 22:50:36 +0000 Received: from GVW1121EXC.americas.hpqcorp.net ([16.228.24.178]) by G5W0325.americas.hpqcorp.net ([16.228.8.67]) with mapi; Wed, 23 Mar 2011 22:50:36 +0000 From: "Maucci, Cyrille" To: Joel Brobecker CC: Eli Zaretskii , "gdb@sourceware.org" Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2011 22:51:00 -0000 Subject: RE: Backtrace extraction ONLY gdb Message-ID: <0E02F16954AF394BB163AEE50FDF548569009DAB62@GVW1121EXC.americas.hpqcorp.net> References: <0E02F16954AF394BB163AEE50FDF5485690094DFED@GVW1121EXC.americas.hpqcorp.net> <8339mg9unq.fsf@gnu.org> <0E02F16954AF394BB163AEE50FDF548569009DAB5A@GVW1121EXC.americas.hpqcorp.net> <20110323224339.GS2534@adacore.com> In-Reply-To: <20110323224339.GS2534@adacore.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable MIME-Version: 1.0 Mailing-List: contact gdb-help@sourceware.org; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: gdb-owner@sourceware.org X-SW-Source: 2011-03/txt/msg00140.txt.bz2 Hi Joel >> You'd then debug on a separate host using that core file. A few companie= s I know do that routinely. On the principle I agree. However, it gets complex when: . the core files are multi GB large and the 'separate' host is not located= on the customer network. . you not only need the core files but the libs to debug the core. Indeed,= you could argue to setup a 'replica' system to read the core file, but whe= n you've got dozens of customers with dozens of different software versions= , this becomes the nightmare. This is why the method we had put in place years ago is a kind of automated= gdb backtrace extraction upon core dump detection (ends up with a very sma= ll file a few KB at most) with more or less an automatic 'sending' of that = file from the customer to the support team by mail. If the backtrace is a 'known' backtrace or if the backtrace is enough for u= s to understand the problem, then no need to get the full core. Upon rare circumstances, we need the full core (that represents maybe less = than 5% of the cases). Again, that is part of an efficient support line. Thanks anyway ++Cyrille =20 -----Original Message----- From: Joel Brobecker [mailto:brobecker@adacore.com]=20 Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2011 11:44 PM To: Maucci, Cyrille Cc: Eli Zaretskii; gdb@sourceware.org Subject: Re: Backtrace extraction ONLY gdb > >From what I read it gives a very 'raw' output, very far from the=20 > >beautiful gdb backtrace with function names and function arguments=20 > >values. You would be indeed missing the function argument values. But getting the = function names from the addresses can be done later on, using a tool such a= s addr2line. The best option, IMO, is to get your process to dump a core file. You'd then debug on a separate host using that core file. A few companies I= know do that routinely. -- Joel