Re: utrace vs. ptrace

Andi Kleen
2006-07-13T12:37:26Z

On Thursday 13 July 2006 11:24, Ingo Molnar wrote:
> * Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu> wrote:
> > utrace enables something like 'transparent live debugging': an app
> > crashes in your distro, a window pops up, and you can 'hand over' a
> > debugging session to a developer you trust. Or you can instruct the
> > system to generate a coredump. Or you can generate a shorter summary
> > of the crash, sent to a central site.
>
> not to mention that utrace could be used to move most of the ELF
> coredumping code out of the kernel. (the moment you have access to all
> crashed threads userspace can construct its own coredump - instead of
> having the kernel construct a coredump file) Roland's patch does not go
> as far yet, but it could be a possible target.

I'm not sure that's particularly useful (I think I would prefer to keep
it in kernel), but executing a program when a core dump happens is useful with
lots of applications. I had patches for this
that i should probably submit at some point.

-Andi

> Ingo