In Windows you can use a default debugger (gflag) that is called when a image name is run.
Can be this done with GDB and Linux? In Windows it's useful for debugging services.
Regards.
There is no way to do this on Linux, short of hacking your kernel.
Nor is it usually necessary. If you always want to run e.g. /foo/bar under GDB, just do this:
mv /foo/bar /foo/bar.x
cat > /foo/bar <<EOF
#!/bin/bash
exec gdb --args /foo/bar.x "$#"
EOF
chmod +x /foo/bar
Problem solved ;-)
yes, from the command line run:
gdb --args [program] [options]
Related
TL;DR; I guess the shell that std::system use, is sh. But, I'm not sure.
I tried to print the shell, using this code: std::system("echo $SHELL"), and the output was /bin/bash. It was weird for me. So, I wanted to see, what happens if I do that in sh? And, the same output: /bin/bash. Also, if I use a command like SHELL="/usr/bin/something", to set the SHELL variable to another string, it will print the new string that I set to it (/usr/bin/something), and it looks it's not a good way to see what shell it's using. Then, I tried to check it, using the ps command, and the output was: bash, a.out, ps. It was weird to see bash in this list. So, I created a custom shell, and change the shell in gnome-terminal to it:
#include <iostream>
int main()
{
std::string input;
while (true)
{
std::string command;
std::getline(std::cin, command);
std::system(command.c_str());
}
}
Now, it's easier to test, and I think, the results is better.
Then, I tried to test the ps command again, but in the custom shell, and the results was: test_shell, ps.
It was weird again. How the shell isn't sh, nor bash? And, the final test I did was: echo $0. And, the results was sh, in both custom shell, and normal program.
Edit
It seems like /bin/sh is linked to /bin/bash (ll /bin/sh command's output is /bin/sh -> bash), and actually, it seems like the only difference between sh and bash is filename, and the files's contents are the same. I checked the difference between these files with diff command too:
$ xxd /bin/sh > sh
$ xxd /bin/bash > bash
$ diff sh bash
(+ Yes, $SHELL doesn't means the running shell (I didn't know that when I was testing, and I just wanted to see what happens))
The GNU sources (https://github.com/lattera/glibc/blob/master/sysdeps/posix/system.c) say
/bin/sh
So, whatever /bin/sh is hardlinked to is the shell invoked by std::system() on Linux.
(This is correct, as /bin/sh is expected to be linked to a sane shell capable of doing things with the system.)
According to cppreference.com, std::system
calls the host environment's command processor (e.g. /bin/sh, cmd.exe, command.com)
This means the shell used will depend on the operating system.
On any POSIX OS (including Linux), the shell used by std::system is /bin/sh. (Though as the OP points out, /bin/sh could be a symlink to another shell.)
As for the SHELL environment variable, as has been pointed out in the comments, this environment variable cannot be used to reliably identify the running shell program. SHELL is defined by POSIX to
represent a pathname of the user's preferred command language interpreter
(source)
I'm new to kernel development and I would like to know how to run/debug the linux kernel using QEMU and gdb. I'm actually reading Robert Love's book but unfortunately it doesn't help the reader on how to install proper tools to run or debug the kernel... So what I did was to follow this tutorial http://opensourceforu.efytimes.com/2011/02/kernel-development-debugging-using-eclipse/. I'm using eclipse as an IDE to develop on the kernel but I wanted first to get it work under QEMU/gdb. So what I did so far was:
1) To compile the kernel with:
make defconfig (then setting the CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO=y in the .config)
make -j4
2) Once the compilation is over I run Qemu using:
qemu-system-x86_64 -s -S /dev/zero -kernel /arch/x86/boot/bzImage
which launch the kernel in "stopped" state
3) Thus I have to use gdb, I try the following command:
gdb ./vmlinux
which run it correctly but... Now I don't know what to do... I know that I have to use remote debugging on the port 1234 (default port used by Qemu), using the vmlinux as the symbol table file for debugging.
So my question is: What should I do to run the kernel on Qemu, attach my debugger to it and thus, get them work together to make my life easier with kernel development.
I'd try:
(gdb) target remote localhost:1234
(gdb) continue
Using the '-s' option makes qemu listen on port tcp::1234, which you can connect to as localhost:1234 if you are on the same machine. Qemu's '-S' option makes Qemu stop execution until you give the continue command.
Best thing would probably be to have a look at a decent GDB tutorial to get along with what you are doing. This one looks quite nice.
Step-by-step procedure tested on Ubuntu 16.10 host
To get started from scratch quickly I've made a minimal fully automated QEMU + Buildroot example at: https://github.com/cirosantilli/linux-kernel-module-cheat/blob/c7bbc6029af7f4fab0a23a380d1607df0b2a3701/gdb-step-debugging.md Major steps are covered below.
First get a root filesystem rootfs.cpio.gz. If you need one, consider:
a minimal init-only executable image: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/122717/custom-linux-distro-that-runs-just-one-program-nothing-else/238579#238579
a Busybox interactive system: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/2692/what-is-the-smallest-possible-linux-implementation/203902#203902
Then on the Linux kernel:
git checkout v4.15
make mrproper
make x86_64_defconfig
cat <<EOF >.config-fragment
CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO=y
CONFIG_DEBUG_KERNEL=y
CONFIG_GDB_SCRIPTS=y
EOF
./scripts/kconfig/merge_config.sh .config .config-fragment
make -j"$(nproc)"
qemu-system-x86_64 -kernel arch/x86/boot/bzImage \
-initrd rootfs.cpio.gz -S -s \
-append nokaslr
On another terminal, from inside the Linux kernel tree, supposing you want to start debugging from start_kernel:
gdb \
-ex "add-auto-load-safe-path $(pwd)" \
-ex "file vmlinux" \
-ex 'set arch i386:x86-64:intel' \
-ex 'target remote localhost:1234' \
-ex 'break start_kernel' \
-ex 'continue' \
-ex 'disconnect' \
-ex 'set arch i386:x86-64' \
-ex 'target remote localhost:1234'
and we are done!!
For kernel modules see: How to debug Linux kernel modules with QEMU?
For Ubuntu 14.04, GDB 7.7.1, hbreak was needed, break software breakpoints were ignored. Not the case anymore in 16.10. See also: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/qemu-kvm/+bug/901944
The messy disconnect and what come after it are to work around the error:
Remote 'g' packet reply is too long: 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
Related threads:
https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=13984 might be a GDB bug
Remote 'g' packet reply is too long
http://wiki.osdev.org/QEMU_and_GDB_in_long_mode osdev.org is as usual an awesome source for these problems
https://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/qemu-discuss/2014-10/msg00069.html
nokaslr: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/397939/turning-off-kaslr-to-debug-linux-kernel-using-qemu-and-gdb/421287#421287
Known limitations:
the Linux kernel does not support (and does not even compile without patches) with -O0: How to de-optimize the Linux kernel to and compile it with -O0?
GDB 7.11 will blow your memory on some types of tab completion, even after the max-completions fix: Tab completion interrupt for large binaries Likely some corner case which was not covered in that patch. So an ulimit -Sv 500000 is a wise action before debugging. Blew up specifically when I tab completed file<tab> for the filename argument of sys_execve as in: https://stackoverflow.com/a/42290593/895245
See also:
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/v4.9/Documentation/dev-tools/gdb-kernel-debugging.rst official Linux kernel "documentation"
Linux kernel live debugging, how it's done and what tools are used?
When you try to start vmlinux exe using gdb, then first thing on gdb is to issue cmds:
(gdb) target remote localhost:1234
(gdb) break start_kernel
(continue)
This will break the kernel at start_kernel.
BjoernID's answer did not really work for me. After the first continuation, no breakpoint is reached and on interrupt, I would see lines such as:
0x0000000000000000 in ?? ()
(gdb) break rapl_pmu_init
Breakpoint 1 at 0xffffffff816631e7
(gdb) c
Continuing.
^CRemote 'g' packet reply is too long: 08793000000000002988d582000000002019[..]
I guess this has something to do with different CPU modes (real mode in BIOS vs. long mode when Linux has booted). Anyway, the solution is to run QEMU first without waiting (i.e. without -S):
qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -kernel arch/x86/boot/bzImage -cpu SandyBridge -s
In my case, I needed to break at something during boot, so after some deciseconds, I ran the gdb command. If you have more time (e.g. you need to debug a module that is loaded manually), then the timing doesn't really matter.
gdb allows you to specify commands that should be run when started. This makes automation a bit easier. To connect to QEMU (which should now already be started), break on a function and continue execution, use:
gdb -ex 'target remote localhost:1234' -ex 'break rapl_pmu_init' -ex c ./vmlinux
As for me the best solution for debugging the kernel - is to use gdb from Eclipse environment. You should just set appropriate port for gdb (must be the same with one you specified in qemu launch string) in remote debugging section. Here is the manual:
http://www.sw-at.com/blog/2011/02/11/linux-kernel-development-and-debugging-using-eclipse-cdt/
On Linux systems, vmlinux is a statically linked executable file that contains
the Linux kernel in one of the object file formats supported by Linux, which
includes ELF, COFF and a.out. The vmlinux file might be required for kernel
debugging, symbol table generation or other operations, but must be made
bootable before being used as an operating system kernel by adding a multiboot
header, bootsector and setup routines.
An image of this initial root file system must be stored somewhere accessible
by the Linux bootloader to the boot firmware of the computer. This can be the
root file system itself, a boot image on an optical disc, a small partition on
a local disk (a boot paratition, usually using ext4 or FAT file systems), or a
TFTP server (on systems that can boot from Ethernet).
Compile linux kernel
Build the kernel with this series applied, enabling CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO (but leave CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO_REDUCED off)
https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/README.html
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Kernel/Traditional_compilation
https://lwn.net/Articles/533552/
Install GDB and Qemu
sudo pacman -S gdb qemu
Create initramfs
#!/bin/bash
# Os : Arch Linux
# Kernel : 5.0.3
INIT_DIR=$(pwd)
BBOX_URL="https://busybox.net/downloads/busybox-1.30.1.tar.bz2"
BBOX_FILENAME=$(basename ${BBOX_URL})
BBOX_DIRNAME=$(basename ${BBOX_FILENAME} ".tar.bz2")
RAM_FILENAME="${INIT_DIR}/initramfs.cpio.gz"
function download_busybox {
wget -c ${BBOX_URL} 2>/dev/null
}
function compile_busybox {
tar xvf ${BBOX_FILENAME} && cd "${INIT_DIR}/${BBOX_DIRNAME}/"
echo "[*] Settings > Build options > Build static binary (no shared libs)"
echo "[!] Please enter to continue"
read tmpvar
make menuconfig && make -j2 && make install
}
function config_busybox {
cd "${INIT_DIR}/${BBOX_DIRNAME}/"
rm -rf initramfs/ && cp -rf _install/ initramfs/
rm -f initramfs/linuxrc
mkdir -p initramfs/{dev,proc,sys}
sudo cp -a /dev/{null,console,tty,tty1,tty2,tty3,tty4} initramfs/dev/
cat > "${INIT_DIR}/${BBOX_DIRNAME}/initramfs/init" << EOF
#!/bin/busybox sh
mount -t proc none /proc
mount -t sysfs none /sys
exec /sbin/init
EOF
chmod a+x initramfs/init
cd "${INIT_DIR}/${BBOX_DIRNAME}/initramfs/"
find . -print0 | cpio --null -ov --format=newc | gzip -9 > "${RAM_FILENAME}"
echo "[*] output: ${RAM_FILENAME}"
}
download_busybox
compile_busybox
config_busybox
Boot Linux Kernel With Qemu
#!/bin/bash
KER_FILENAME="/home/debug/Projects/kernelbuild/linux-5.0.3/arch/x86/boot/bzImage"
RAM_FILENAME="/home/debug/Projects/kerneldebug/initramfs.cpio.gz"
qemu-system-x86_64 -s -kernel "${KER_FILENAME}" -initrd "${RAM_FILENAME}" -nographic -append "console=ttyS0"
$ ./qemuboot_vmlinux.sh
SeaBIOS (version 1.12.0-20181126_142135-anatol)
iPXE (http://ipxe.org) 00:03.0 C980 PCI2.10 PnP PMM+07F92120+07EF2120 C980
Booting from ROM...
Probing EDD (edd=off to disable)... o
[ 0.019814] Spectre V2 : Spectre mitigation: LFENCE not serializing, switching to generic retpoline
can't run '/etc/init.d/rcS': No such file or directory
Please press Enter to activate this console.
/ # uname -a
Linux archlinux 5.0.3 #2 SMP PREEMPT Mon Mar 25 10:27:13 CST 2019 x86_64 GNU/Linux
/ #
Debug Linux Kernel With GDB
~/Projects/kernelbuild/linux-5.0.3 ➭ gdb vmlinux
...
(gdb) target remote localhost:1234
Remote debugging using localhost:1234
0xffffffff89a4b852 in ?? ()
(gdb) break start_kernel
Breakpoint 1 at 0xffffffff826ccc08
(gdb)
Display all 190 possibilities? (y or n)
(gdb) info functions
All defined functions:
Non-debugging symbols:
0xffffffff81000000 _stext
0xffffffff81000000 _text
0xffffffff81000000 startup_64
0xffffffff81000030 secondary_startup_64
0xffffffff810000e0 verify_cpu
0xffffffff810001e0 start_cpu0
0xffffffff810001f0 __startup_64
0xffffffff81000410 pvh_start_xen
0xffffffff81001000 hypercall_page
0xffffffff81001000 xen_hypercall_set_trap_table
0xffffffff81001020 xen_hypercall_mmu_update
0xffffffff81001040 xen_hypercall_set_gdt
0xffffffff81001060 xen_hypercall_stack_switch
0xffffffff81001080 xen_hypercall_set_callbacks
0xffffffff810010a0 xen_hypercall_fpu_taskswitch
0xffffffff810010c0 xen_hypercall_sched_op_compat
0xffffffff810010e0 xen_hypercall_platform_op
I'm writing a script which starts gdb in xterm, and I would like to start my program with the output redirected to a file.
My command is something like this:
xterm -e gdb --args myprog --myargs > /tmp/file
How do I indicate which command the redirection applies to? It could apply to xterm, gdb, or myprog.
I tried using quotes:
xterm -e gdb --args "myprog --myargs > /tmp/file"
But then gdb tried to open a file with name "myprog --myargs > /tmp/file". Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!
For a reasonably recent version of GDB, the following works:
gdb -q -ex 'set args foo > /tmp/foo.out' -ex run -ex quit /bin/echo
I have a program using LD_PRELOAD. The program should be run like
this, "LD_PRELOAD=/path/to/libfoo.so qemu -U LD_PRELOAD a.out", if
without gdb.
Here are what I did while running gdb.
(gdb) set environment LD_PRELOAD=/nfs_home/chenwj/tools/lib/libdbo.so
(gdb) file /nfs_home/chenwj/tools/bin/qemu-i386
(gdb) r -U LD_PRELOAD bzip2_base.i386-m32-gcc44-annotated input.source 1
But gdb gave me the error below
Starting program: /nfs_home/chenwj/tools/bin/qemu-i386 -U LD_PRELOAD bzip2_base.i386-m32-gcc44-annotated input.source 1
bash: open "/bin/bash" failed: Permission denied
During startup program exited with code 66.
Any sugguestion appreciated.
Regards, chenwj
GDB does not invoke your executable directly. Instead, it does
bash -c '/nfs_home/chenwj/tools/bin/qemu-i386 -U LD_PRELOAD bzip2_base.i386-m32-gcc44-annotated input.source 1'
This is done so that bash takes care of I/O redirection (which you are not using).
My guess is that /bin/bash doesn't work when LD_PRELOAD=libdbo.so is in effect, though I don't understand the exact nature of failure.
One way to work around this problem is to create a wrapper executable, implementing C equivalent of this:
export LD_PRELOAD=/nfs_home/chenwj/tools/lib/libdbo.so
exec /nfs_home/chenwj/tools/bin/qemu-i386 "$#"
and debug that executable (without setting LD_PRELOAD). You'll see an extra SIGTRAP when the wrapper execve()s the wrapped qemu-i386, which you should ignore and continue.
I'd like to have gdb immediately run the executable, as if I'd typed "run"
(motivation: I dislike typing "run").
One way is to pipe the command to gdb like this:
$ echo run | gdb myApp
But the problem with this approach is that you lose interactivity with gdb,
eg. if a breakpoint triggers or myApp crashes, gdb quits.
This method is discussed here.
Looking at the options in --help, I don't see a way to do this, but perhaps I'm missing something.
gdb -ex run ./a.out
If you need to pass arguments to a.out:
gdb -ex run --args ./a.out arg1 arg2 ...
EDIT:
Orion says this doesn't work on Mac OSX.
The -ex flag has been available since GDB-6.4 (released in 2005), but OSX uses Apple's fork of GDB, and the latest XCode for Leopard contains GDB 6.3.50-20050815 (Apple version gdb-967), so you are out of luck.
Building current GDB-7.0.1 release is one possible solution. Just be sure to read this.
I would use a gdb-script:
gdb -x your-script
where your-script contains something like:
file a.out
b main
r
afterwards you have the normal interactive gdb prompt
EDIT:
here is an optimization for the truly lazy:
save the script as .gdbinit in the working directory.
Afterwards you simply run gdb as
gdb
... and gdb automatically loads and executes the content of .gdbinit.
(echo r ; cat) | gdb a.out
The cat allows you keep typing after gdb breaks.
start command
This command is another good option:
gdb -ex start --args ./a.out arg1 arg2
It is like run, but also sets a temporary breakpoint at main and stops there.
This temporary breakpoint is deactivated once it is hit.
starti
There is also a related starti which starts the program and stops at the very first instruction instead, see also: Stopping at the first machine code instruction in GDB
Great when you are doing some low level stuff.
gdb -x <(echo run) --args $program $args