[Crash-utility] [ANNOUNCE] crash version 5.1.8 is available
Dave Anderson
anderson at redhat.com
Fri Sep 16 19:31:21 UTC 2011
Download from: http://people.redhat.com/anderson
Changelog:
- Fixes for gdb-7.0 ppc64/ppc-specific files to handle gcc-4.6 compiler
failures. Without the patch, gcc-4.6 generates "error: variable
‘<variable>’ set but not used [-Werror=unused-but-set-variable]"
fatal errors when the (default) -Werror flag is used. Previous gcc
versions considered local variables were simply set to some value to
be "used", but that is no longer the case.
(anderson at redhat.com)
- Add support for the "bt" command to recognize the new s390x
"restart_stack" used by the PSW restart interrupt in 3.0.1 and
later kernels.
(holzheu at linux.vnet.ibm.com)
- Enhancement to the s390x "bt" command to display the register
contents of the pt_regs strucutre for interrupts, instead of just
printing the string "- Interrupt -". The pt_regs structure contains
all of the current registers and PSW of the interrupted CPU.
(holzheu at linux.vnet.ibm.com)
- Removed the "files -l" option, which does not support 2.6 or later
kernels, and because it requires structure offset data that can only
be determined if the "lockd" and "nfsd" modules have been built into
the kernel. Given the kernel module dependencies, the command is
more suitable as an extension module, if anyone cares to carry on
its legacy.
(anderson at redhat.com)
- Fix for the "ps" command to disallow the mutually-exclusive "-u"
and "-k" options from being entered together. Without the patch,
whichever of the two options was entered last was acted upon.
Also, the help page was clarified by separating the three process
identifier formats from the "-u", "-k" and "-G" qualifiers.
(anderson at redhat.com)
- Fix for the "ps" command to disallow the mutually-exclusive "-a",
"-t", "-c", "-p", "-g", "-l" and "-r" options from being entered
together. Without the patch, whichever of the seven options that was
entered last was acted upon.
- Added new "struct -[xd]" and "union -[xd]" options, which override
the current default output format with hexadecimal or decimal format
for just the command instance. The "-o" member offset values and
the structure size value are also controlled by the new options.
Without the patch, it would require changing the default output
format with "hex" or "dec" prior to executing the "struct" or "union"
command.
(anderson at redhat.com)
- Fix for the "fuser" command, which may occasionally precede its
output with the message "WARNING: FILE_NRHASH has changed from 32"
on 2.6.19 and later kernels. The message is harmless.
(anderson at redhat.com)
- Exported new set_temporary_radix() and restore_current_radix()
functions, which are used to temporarily override the current
output radix setting.
(anderson at redhat.com)
- Fixes for ARM gdb-7.0/bfd/elf32-arm.c file to handle gcc-4.6 compiler
failures. Without the patch, gcc-4.6 generates "error: variable
‘<variable>’ set but not used [-Werror=unused-but-set-variable]"
fatal errors when the (default) -Werror flag is used. Previous gcc
versions considered local variables were simply set to some value to
be "used", but that is no longer the case.
(anderson at redhat.com)
- Cosmetic fix for command-failure "Usage" messages to prevent the
output from exceeding 80 columns.
(anderson at redhat.com)
- Implemented a new "struct -p" option which can be used to dereference
pointer members and display the target data. The option can be used
with the struct_name.member[,member] format, or if not, all pointers
in the structure will be dereferenced. If the member is a pointer,
the member's data type will be prepended to the member name when
displaying the target address; on the subsequent line(s) the target's
symbol name will be displayed in brackets if appropriate, and if
possible, the target data will be displayed. For example, currently
to display an mm_struct's "pgd" member:
crash> mm_struct.pgd ffff810022e7d080
pgd = 0xffff81000e3ac000
crash>
The -p option shows the data type of "pgd", dereferences the pointer
value, and with -x, displays the target's contents in hexadecimal
regardless of the current output format:
crash> mm_struct.pgd ffff810022e7d080 -px
pgd_t *pgd = 0xffff81000e3ac000
-> {
pgd = 0x2c0a6067
}
crash>
Here the "thread_info" and "binfmt" members of a task_struct
are dereferenced and the targets displayed:
crash> task_struct.thread_info,binfmt ffff8100181190c0 -p
struct thread_info *thread_info = 0xffff810023c06000
-> {
task = 0xffff8100181190c0,
exec_domain = 0xffffffff802f78e0,
flags = 128,
status = 1,
cpu = 3,
preempt_count = 0,
addr_limit = {
seg = 18446604435732824064
},
restart_block = {
fn = 0xffffffff80095a52 <do_no_restart_syscall>,
arg0 = 0,
arg1 = 0,
arg2 = 0,
arg3 = 0
}
}
struct linux_binfmt *binfmt = 0xffffffff80305540
-> <elf_format> {
next = 0xffffffff80305500,
module = 0x0,
load_binary = 0xffffffff80017d99 <load_elf_binary>,
load_shlib = 0xffffffff800838c3 <load_elf_library>,
core_dump = 0xffffffff80086465 <elf_core_dump>,
min_coredump = 4096
}
crash>
When a .member is not specified, all pointers in the structure
are dereferenced, which may be quite verbose depending upon
the structure.
(anderson at redhat.com)
- Implemented support for "SADUMP" dumpfiles, which are created by the
Fujitsu Stand Alone Dump facility. The dump-creation mechanism is
based in hardware-specific firmware, generating a dumpfile in three
different formats: sadump dump device (single partition), sadump dump
device (disk set), and archive file formats. The crash utility
recognizes all three formats.
(d.hatayama at jp.fujitsu.com)
- Fix for the "bt" command to display Control registers 8-15 (s390x and
s390) and floating point registers 8-15 (s390x only) correctly.
Without the patch, the register content was copied from the wrong
location of the save area, and the wrong register values were
displayed for the active tasks.
(holzheu at linux.vnet.ibm.com)
- Fix for 2.6.34 ppc64 kernels, which were changed to dynamically
allocate the paca structure, and changed the data type of "paca"
symbol from array to a paca_struct pointer.
(mahesh at linux.vnet.ibm.com)
- Fix for 2.6.36 and later ppc64 kernels, which overwrite the paca
pointer variable to point to a static paca during a crash sequence
just prior to the kexec of the secondary kernel, which contains a
paca_struct.data_offset value that is valid only for crashing cpu.
However, the kernel change also re-introduced the __per_cpu_offset
array, which had been removed in 2.6.15, which will be used as an
alternative to the per-cpu paca_struct.
(mahesh at linux.vnet.ibm.com)
- The new version of makedumpfile, 1.4.0, contains a facility that
allows a user to filter out kernel data (e.g., security keys,
confidential/secret information, etc.) from a vmcore. The data
that is filtered out is poisoned with character 'X' (0x58). A
filtered ELF kdump vmcore now contains a new "ERASEINFO" ELF note
section that contains the filter data strings used by makedumpfile.
A filtered compressed kdump has a header version number 5, and
contains new offset_eraseinfo and size_eraseinfo members in its
sub-header that point to a copy of the filter data strings. In most
cases, the erased kernel data will be inconsequential to the crash
session, but it is certainly possible that the removal of crucial
kernel data that the crash utility needs may cause the crash session
to fail, cause individual commands to fail, or result in other
unpredictable runtime behaviour. This patch detects whether kernel
data has been erased from the dumpfile, and if so, displays an early
warning message alerting the user. The "help -n" command displays
the filter data strings that were used by makedumpfile.
(mahesh at linux.vnet.ibm.com)
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