doc/libunwind-ptrace.tex

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\begin{Name}{3}{libunwind-ptrace}{David Mosberger-Tang}{Programming Library}{ptrace() support in libunwind}libunwind-ptrace -- ptrace() support in libunwind
\end{Name}

\section{Synopsis}

\File{\#include $<$libunwind-ptrace.h$>$}\\

\noindent
\Type{unw\_accessors\_t} \Var{\_UPT\_accessors};\\

\Type{void~*}\Func{\_UPT\_create}(\Type{pid\_t});\\
\noindent
\Type{void} \Func{\_UPT\_destroy}(\Type{void~*});\\

\noindent
\Type{int} \Func{\_UPT\_find\_proc\_info}(\Type{unw\_addr\_space\_t}, \Type{unw\_word\_t}, \Type{unw\_proc\_info\_t~*}, \Type{int}, \Type{void~*});\\
\noindent
\Type{void} \Func{\_UPT\_put\_unwind\_info}(\Type{unw\_addr\_space\_t}, \Type{unw\_proc\_info\_t~*}, \Type{void~*});\\
\noindent
\Type{int} \Func{\_UPT\_get\_dyn\_info\_list\_addr}(\Type{unw\_addr\_space\_t}, \Type{unw\_word\_t~*}, \Type{void~*});\\
\noindent
\Type{int} \Func{\_UPT\_access\_mem}(\Type{unw\_addr\_space\_t}, \Type{unw\_word\_t}, \Type{unw\_word\_t~*}, \Type{int}, \Type{void~*});\\
\noindent
\Type{int} \Func{\_UPT\_access\_reg}(\Type{unw\_addr\_space\_t}, \Type{unw\_regnum\_t}, \Type{unw\_word\_t~*}, \Type{int}, \Type{void~*});\\
\noindent
\Type{int} \Func{\_UPT\_access\_fpreg}(\Type{unw\_addr\_space\_t}, \Type{unw\_regnum\_t}, \Type{unw\_fpreg\_t~*}, \Type{int}, \Type{void~*});\\
\noindent
\Type{int} \Func{\_UPT\_get\_proc\_name}(\Type{unw\_addr\_space\_t}, \Type{unw\_word\_t}, \Type{char~*}, \Type{size\_t}, \Type{unw\_word\_t~*}, \Type{void~*});\\
\noindent
\Type{int} \Func{\_UPT\_resume}(\Type{unw\_addr\_space\_t}, \Type{unw\_cursor\_t~*}, \Type{void~*});\\

\section{Description}

The \Func{ptrace}(2) system-call makes it possible for a process to
gain access to the machine-state and virtual memory of \emph{another}
process.  With the right set of call-back routines, it is therefore
possible to hook up \Prog{libunwind} to another process via
\Func{ptrace}(2).  While it's not very difficult to do so directly,
\Prog{libunwind} further facilitates this task by providing
ready-to-use callbacks for this purpose.  The routines and variables
implementing this facility use a name-prefix of \Func{\_UPT}, which is
stands for ``unwind-via-ptrace''.

An application that wants to use the \Func{\_UPT}-facility first needs
to create a new \Prog{libunwind} address-space that represents the
target process.  This is done by calling
\Func{unw\_create\_addr\_space}().  In many cases, the application
will simply want to pass the address of \Var{\_UPT\_accessors} as the
first argument to this routine.  Doing so will ensure that
\Prog{libunwind} will be able to properly unwind the target process.
However, in special circumstances, an application may prefer to use
only portions of the \Prog{\_UPT}-facility.  For this reason, the
individual callback routines (\Func{\_UPT\_find\_proc\_info}(),
\Func{\_UPT\_put\_unwind\_info}(), etc.)  are also available for direct
use.  Of course, the addresses of these routines could also be picked
up from \Var{\_UPT\_accessors}, but doing so would prevent static
initialization.  Also, when using \Var{\_UPT\_accessors}, \emph{all}
the callback routines will be linked into the application, even if
they are never actually called.

Next, the application can turn on ptrace-mode on the target process,
either by forking a new process, invoking \Const{PTRACE\_TRACEME}, and
then starting the target program (via \Func{execve}(2)), or by
directly attaching to an already running process (via
\Const{PTRACE\_ATTACH}).  Either way, once the process-ID (pid) of the
target process is known, a \Prog{\_UPT}-info-structure can be created
by calling \Func{\_UPT\_create}(), passing the pid of the target process
as the only argument.  The returned void-pointer then needs to be
passed as the ``argument'' pointer (third argument) to
\Func{unw\_init\_remote}().

The \Func{\_UPT\_resume}() routine can be used to resume execution of
the target process.  It simply invokes \Func{ptrace}(2) with a command
value of \Const{PTRACE\_CONT}.

When the application is done using \Prog{libunwind} on the target
process, \Func{\_UPT\_destroy}() needs to be called, passing it the
void-pointer that was returned by the corresponding call to
\Func{\_UPT\_create}().  This ensures that all memory and other
resources are freed up.

\section{Availability}

Since \Func{ptrace}(2) works within a single machine only, the
\Prog{\_UPT}-facility by definition is not available in
\Prog{libunwind}-versions configured for cross-unwinding.

\section{Thread Safety}

The \Prog{\_UPT}-facility assumes that a single \Prog{\_UPT}-info
structure is never shared between threads.  Because of this, no
explicit locking is used.  As long as only one thread uses
a \Prog{\_UPT}-info structure at any given time, this facility
is thread-safe.

\section{Return Value}

\Func{\_UPT\_create}() may return a \Const{NULL} pointer if it fails
to create the \Prog{\_UPT}-info-structure for any reason.  For the
current implementation, the only reason this call may fail is when the
system is out of memory.

\section{Files}

\begin{Description}
\item[\File{libunwind-ptrace.h}] Headerfile to include when using the
  interface defined by this library.
\item[\Opt{-l}\File{unwind-ptrace} \Opt{-l}\File{unwind-generic}]
    Linker-switches to add when building a program that uses the
    functions defined by this library.
\end{Description}

\section{See Also}

execve(2),
\SeeAlso{libunwind(3)},
ptrace(2)

\section{Author}

\noindent
David Mosberger-Tang\\
Email: \Email{dmosberger@gmail.com}\\
WWW: \URL{http://www.nongnu.org/libunwind/}.
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