I am sponsoring this fast-track for Ed Pilatowicz.
It times out on 8/7/2008.
Thanks,
Jerry
Template Version: @(#)sac_nextcase 1.66 04/17/08 SMI
This information is Copyright 2008 Sun Microsystems
1. Introduction
1.1. Project/Component Working Name:
core files should contain symtab sections
1.2. Name of Document Author/Supplier:
Author: Ed Pilatowicz
1.3 Date of This Document:
31 July, 2008
4. Technical Description
core files should contain symtab sections
This case requests patch binding.
(With an intent to back port this functionality to s10.)
There are no new interfaces introduced by this case.
A. INTRODUCTION
Core file content is configurable by coreadm[1],[2]. Currently, the
default content for core files includes the following application
sections:
stack + heap + shm + ism + dism + text + data + rodata +
anon + shanon + ctf
Most these sections were added to the default core file content in
Solaris 10 to improve the core file debugging experience.
B. DESCRIPTION
This case proposes to further improve the core file debugging
experience by adding symtab sections to the default content
of core files.
Core files already contain ctf sections[3] by default, but unfortunately
ctf sections are only found in objects generated by the ON consolidation
since the tools that generate ctf sections are project private to the ON
consolidation. Adding symtab sections to the default core file content
will have no impact on objects which already contain ctf sections because
ctf sections depend on symtab data, so core files that contain ctf data
already contain symtab data.
Of course the majority of objects on the system don't have ctf sections.
Also, with the introductions of BrandZ[4] and the proliferation of
branded Zones[5][6], there are lots of applications running on Solaris
from other environment that will never have ctf data. But since these
applications are now running on Solaris we'd still like to be able to
debug core files produced by these applications.
The only drawback to adding symtab sections into the default core file
content is an increase in the size of core files But luckily disk space
is cheap. This issue has been debated before[3] and it was decided
that improved debugging experience is worth the extra disk space usage.
Regardless, to quantify this impact of saving symtab data, I compared
core dumps from a recent version of staroffice both with and without
symtab sections. Without symtab data the core file was 121MB, and
symtab sections add 7.1MB to the core file size, so approx a 6%
increase in size[7].
C. REFERENCES
[1] PSARC/1999/243 coreadm(1m)
[2] PSARC/2003/164 coreadm enhancements
4231598 core dumps should include MAP_SHARED segments
[3] PSARC/2003/283 Userland CTF Support
[4] PSARC/2005/471 BrandZ
[5] PSARC/2007/350 Etude
[6] PSARC/2008/125 Etude Part Deux
[7] 6605032 default core file content should include symtab sections
D. MANPAGE CHANGES
*** coreadm.old Wed Jul 30 21:31:34 2008
--- coreadm.new Wed Jul 30 21:32:26 2008
***************
*** 165,171 ****
mappings are to be included. The default token indicates
inclusion of the system default content
! (stack+heap+shm+ism+dism+text+data+rodata+anon+shanon+ctf).
! The /proc file system data structures are always present in
! core files regardless of the mapping content.
--- 165,171 ----
mappings are to be included. The default token indicates
inclusion of the system default content
! (stack+heap+shm+ism+dism+text+data+rodata+anon+shanon+ctf+
! symtab). The /proc file system data structures are always
! present in core files regardless of the mapping content.
6. Resources and Schedule
6.4. Steering Committee requested information
6.4.1. Consolidation C-team Name:
ON
6.5. ARC review type: FastTrack
6.6. ARC Exposure: open
