Skip to content

Debug & Analyzing coredump with gdb

homepage-banner

Introduction

Coredump is a file that contains an image of a process’s memory when it crashes. Debugging coredump with gdb is an effective way of finding the root cause of the crash. Gdb is a powerful debugging tool that can help developers to analyze and fix problems in their code. In this blog post, we will discuss how to debug coredump with gdb.

Setting limit

set coredump file size limit

ulimit -c unlimited

Using gdb

gdb /PATH/TO/BIN /PATH/TO/CORE_DUMP

Analyzing the Coredump

Before we start debugging the coredump with gdb, we need to analyze it. Coredump contains a snapshot of the process’s memory when it crashed. We can use the gdb tool to analyze the coredump and find out what happened at the time of the crash. We can load the coredump into gdb using the following command:

gdb <executable file> <coredump file>

Once the coredump is loaded into gdb, we can use the various gdb commands to analyze the memory contents, stack trace, and other details. The following gdb commands are commonly used for analyzing coredump:

  • bt: Print a backtrace of the stack
  • info registers: Display the contents of CPU registers
  • info threads: Display the list of threads in the process
  • x/<length><format> <address>: Examine memory at a specified address using the specified format and length

Debugging the Coredump

Once we have analyzed the coredump and identified the root cause of the crash, we can start debugging it. We can use the gdb commands to set breakpoints, run the program, and step through the code. The following gdb commands are commonly used for debugging coredump:

  • break <function name>: Set a breakpoint at the specified function
  • run: Start the program and run until a breakpoint or error occurs
  • next: Execute the next line of code
  • step: Execute the next line of code, stepping into function calls
  • continue: Continue running the program until the next breakpoint or error occurs

By using these gdb commands, we can step through the code and identify the root cause of the crash. We can also modify the variables, call functions, and change the flow of the program to test different scenarios.

Conclusion

Debugging coredump with gdb is an essential skill for developers. By analyzing and debugging coredump, we can find the root cause of the crash and fix it. Gdb is a powerful tool that can help us to analyze and debug the coredump effectively. By using the gdb commands, we can step through the code, modify variables, and test different scenarios to find the root cause of the problem.

cheatsheet

/images/GDB-cheatsheet-1.png

/images/GDB-cheatsheet-2.png

Reference

  • https://www.recurse.com/blog/5-learning-c-with-gdb
Small world. Big idea!
  • Welcome to visit the knowledge base of SRE and DevOps!
  • License under CC BY-NC 4.0
  • No personal information is collected
  • Made with Material for MkDocs and generative AI tools
  • Copyright issue feedback me#imzye.com, replace # with @
  • Get latest SRE news and discuss on Discord Channel