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Standard debugger interface
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===========================
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The run-time linker exposes a rendezvous structure to allow debuggers
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to interface with it. This structure, r_debug, is defined in link.h.
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If the executable's dynamic section has a DT_DEBUG element, the
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run-time linker sets that element's value to the address where this
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structure can be found.
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The r_debug structure contains (amongst others) the following fields:
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struct link_map *r_map:
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A linked list of loaded objects.
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enum { RT_CONSISTENT, RT_ADD, RT_DELETE } r_state:
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The current state of the r_map list. RT_CONSISTENT means that r_map
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is not currently being modified and may safely be inspected. RT_ADD
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means that an object is being added to r_map, and that the list is
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not guaranteed to be consistent. Likewise RT_DELETE means that an
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object is being removed from the list.
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The address of a function internal to the run-time linker which is
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called whenever r_state is changed. The debugger should set a
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breakpoint at this address if it wants to notice mapping changes.
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This protocol is widely supported, but somewhat limited in that it
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has no provision to provide access to multiple namespaces, and that
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the notifications (via r_brk) only refer to changes to r_map--the
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debugger is notified that a new object has been added, for instance,
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but there is no way for the debugger to discover whether any of the
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objects in the link-map have been relocated or not.
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Probe-based debugger interface
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==============================
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Systemtap is a dynamic tracing/instrumenting tool available on Linux.
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Probes that are not fired at run time have close to zero overhead.
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glibc contains a number of probes that debuggers can set breakpoints
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on in order to notice certain events.
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All rtld probes have the following arguments:
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The link-map ID of the link-map list that the object was loaded
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into. This will be LM_ID_BASE for the application's main link-map
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list, or some other value for different namespaces.
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arg2: struct r_debug *r_debug:
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A pointer to the r_debug structure containing the link-map list
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that the object was loaded into. This will be the value stored in
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DT_DEBUG for the application's main link-map list, or some other
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value for different namespaces.
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map_complete and reloc_complete may have the following additional
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arg3: struct link_map *new:
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A pointer which, if not NULL, points to the entry in the specified
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r_debug structure's link-map list corresponding to the first new
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object to have been mapped or relocated, with new->l_next pointing
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to the link-map of the next new object to have been mapped or
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relocated, and so on. Note that because `new' is an entry in a
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larger list, new->l_prev (if not NULL) will point to what was the
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last link-map in the link-map list prior to the new objects being
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The following probes are available:
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This is called once, when the linker is about to fill in the main
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r_debug structure at application startup. init_start always has
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lmid set to LM_ID_BASE and r_debug set to the value stored in
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DT_DEBUG. r_debug is not guaranteed to be consistent until
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init_complete is fired.
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This is called once, when the linker has filled in the main
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r_debug structure at application startup. init_complete always
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has lmid set to LM_ID_BASE and r_debug set to the value stored
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in DT_DEBUG. The r_debug structure is consistent and may be
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inspected, and all objects in the link-map are guaranteed to
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The linker is about to map new objects into the specified
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namespace. The namespace's r_debug structure is not guaranteed
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to be consistent until a corresponding map_complete is fired.
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The linker has finished mapping new objects into the specified
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namespace. The namespace's r_debug structure is consistent and
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may be inspected, although objects in the namespace's link-map
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are not guaranteed to have been relocated.
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The linker failed while attempting to map new objects into
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the specified namespace. The namespace's r_debug structure
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is consistent and may be inspected.
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The linker is about to relocate all unrelocated objects in the
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specified namespace. The namespace's r_debug structure is not
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guaranteed to be consistent until a corresponding reloc_complete
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The linker has relocated all objects in the specified namespace.
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The namespace's r_debug structure is consistent and may be
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inspected, and all objects in the namespace's link-map are
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guaranteed to have been relocated.
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The linker is about to remove objects from the specified
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namespace. The namespace's r_debug structure is not guaranteed to
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be consistent until a corresponding unmap_complete is fired.
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The linker has finished removing objects into the specified
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namespace. The namespace's r_debug structure is consistent and