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author | Andy Bonventre <andybons@chromium.org> | 2015-09-22 17:29:52 -0400 |
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committer | Mark Mentovai <mark@chromium.org> | 2015-09-22 17:29:52 -0400 |
commit | 0ff15b41edf1dfd50776877edce7cae6e757574f (patch) | |
tree | c670617291b3476ab2622d7ea2509d8369db2f0d /docs/linux_starter_guide.md | |
parent | Linux ExceptionHandler: don't allocate the CrashContext on the stack (diff) | |
download | breakpad-0ff15b41edf1dfd50776877edce7cae6e757574f.tar.xz |
[Docs] add markdown docs (converted from Wiki)
BUG=none
R=mark
CC=google-breakpad-dev@googlegroups.com
Review URL: https://codereview.chromium.org/1357773004 .
Patch from Andy Bonventre <andybons@chromium.org>.
Diffstat (limited to 'docs/linux_starter_guide.md')
-rw-r--r-- | docs/linux_starter_guide.md | 97 |
1 files changed, 97 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/docs/linux_starter_guide.md b/docs/linux_starter_guide.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..9ab48624 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/linux_starter_guide.md @@ -0,0 +1,97 @@ +# How To Add Breakpad To Your Linux Application + +This document is an overview of using the Breakpad client libraries on Linux. + +## Building the Breakpad libraries + +Breakpad provides an Autotools build system that will build both the Linux +client libraries and the processor libraries. Running `./configure && make` in +the Breakpad source directory will produce +**src/client/linux/libbreakpad\_client.a**, which contains all the code +necessary to produce minidumps from an application. + +## Integrating Breakpad into your Application + +First, configure your build process to link **libbreakpad\_client.a** into your +binary, and set your include paths to include the **src** directory in the +**google-breakpad** source tree. Next, include the exception handler header: ``` + +# include "client/linux/handler/exception_handler.h" + +``` + +Now you can instantiate an `ExceptionHandler` object. Exception handling is active for the lifetime of the `ExceptionHandler` object, so you should instantiate it as early as possible in your application's startup process, and keep it alive for as close to shutdown as possible. To do anything useful, the `ExceptionHandler` constructor requires a path where it can write minidumps, as well as a callback function to receive information about minidumps that were written: +``` + +static bool dumpCallback(const google_breakpad::MinidumpDescriptor& descriptor, +void* context, bool succeeded) { printf("Dump path: %s\n", descriptor.path()); +return succeeded; } + +void crash() { volatile int* a = (int*)(NULL); *a = 1; } + +int main(int argc, char* argv[]) { google_breakpad::MinidumpDescriptor +descriptor("/tmp"); google_breakpad::ExceptionHandler eh(descriptor, NULL, +dumpCallback, NULL, true, -1); crash(); return 0; } ``` + +Compiling and running this example should produce a minidump file in /tmp, and +it should print the minidump filename before exiting. You can read more about +the other parameters to the `ExceptionHandler` constructor <a +href='http://code.google.com/p/google-breakpad/source/browse/trunk/src/client/linux/handler/exception_handler.h'>in +the exception_handler.h source file</a>. + +**Note**: You should do as little work as possible in the callback function. +Your application is in an unsafe state. It may not be safe to allocate memory or +call functions from other shared libraries. The safest thing to do is `fork` and +`exec` a new process to do any work you need to do. If you must do some work in +the callback, the Breakpad source contains <a +href='http://code.google.com/p/google-breakpad/source/browse/trunk/src/common/linux/linux_libc_support.h'>some +simple reimplementations of libc functions</a>, to avoid calling directly into +libc, as well as <a href='http://code.google.com/p/linux-syscall-support/'>a +header file for making Linux system calls</a> (in **src/third\_party/lss**) to +avoid calling into other shared libraries. + +## Sending the minidump file + +In a real application, you would want to handle the minidump in some way, likely +by sending it to a server for analysis. The Breakpad source tree contains <a +href='http://code.google.com/p/google-breakpad/source/browse/#svn/trunk/src/common/linux'>some +HTTP upload source</a> that you might find useful, as well as <a +href='http://code.google.com/p/google-breakpad/source/browse/#svn/trunk/src/tools/linux/symupload'>a +minidump upload tool</a>. + +## Producing symbols for your application + +To produce useful stack traces, Breakpad requires you to convert the debugging +symbols in your binaries to <a +href='http://code.google.com/p/google-breakpad/wiki/SymbolFiles'>text-format +symbol files</a>. First, ensure that you've compiled your binaries with `-g` to +include debugging symbols. Next, compile the `dump_syms` tool by running +`configure && make` in the Breakpad source directory. Next, run `dump_syms` on +your binaries to produce the text-format symbols. For example, if your main +binary was named `test`: `$ google-breakpad/src/tools/linux/dump_syms/dump_syms +./test > test.sym +` + +In order to use these symbols with the `minidump_stackwalk` tool, you will need +to place them in a specific directory structure. The first line of the symbol +file contains the information you need to produce this directory structure, for +example (your output will vary): `$ head -n1 test.sym MODULE Linux x86_64 +6EDC6ACDB282125843FD59DA9C81BD830 test $ mkdir -p +./symbols/test/6EDC6ACDB282125843FD59DA9C81BD830 $ mv test.sym +./symbols/test/6EDC6ACDB282125843FD59DA9C81BD830 +` + +You may also find the <a +href='http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/source/toolkit/crashreporter/tools/symbolstore.py'>symbolstore.py</a> +script in the Mozilla repository useful, as it encapsulates these steps. + +## Processing the minidump to produce a stack trace + +Breakpad includes a tool called `minidump_stackwalk` which can take a minidump +plus its corresponding text-format symbols and produce a symbolized stacktrace. +It should be in the **google-breakpad/src/processor** directory if you compiled +the Breakpad source using the directions above. Simply pass it the minidump and +the symbol path as commandline parameters: +`google-breakpad/src/processor/minidump_stackwalk minidump.dmp ./symbols +` It produces verbose output on stderr, and the stacktrace on stdout, so you may +want to redirect stderr. |