freebsd-dev/lib/libkvm/kvm.3
John Baldwin 7f911abe54 Add support to libkvm for reading vmcores from other architectures.
- Add a kvaddr_type to represent kernel virtual addresses instead of
  unsigned long.
- Add a struct kvm_nlist which is a stripped down version of struct nlist
  that uses kvaddr_t for n_value.
- Add a kvm_native() routine that returns true if an open kvm descriptor
  is for a native kernel and memory image.
- Add a kvm_open2() function similar to kvm_openfiles().  It drops the
  unused 'swapfile' argument and adds a new function pointer argument for
  a symbol resolving function.  Native kernels still use _fdnlist() from
  libc to resolve symbols if a resolver function is not supplied, but cross
  kernels require a resolver.
- Add a kvm_nlist2() function similar to kvm_nlist() except that it uses
  struct kvm_nlist instead of struct nlist.
- Add a kvm_read2() function similar to kvm_read() except that it uses
  kvaddr_t instead of unsigned long for the kernel virtual address.
- Add a new kvm_arch switch of routines needed by a vmcore backend.
  Each backend is responsible for implementing kvm_read2() for a given
  vmcore format.
- Use libelf to read headers from ELF kernels and cores (except for
  powerpc cores).
- Add internal helper routines for the common page offset hash table used
  by the minidump backends.
- Port all of the existing kvm backends to implement a kvm_arch switch and
  to be cross-friendly by using private constants instead of ones that
  vary by platform (e.g. PAGE_SIZE).  Static assertions are present when
  a given backend is compiled natively to ensure the private constants
  match the real ones.
- Enable all of the existing vmcore backends on all platforms.  This means
  that libkvm on any platform should be able to perform KVA translation
  and read data from a vmcore of any platform.

Tested on:	amd64, i386, sparc64 (marius)
Differential Revision:	https://reviews.freebsd.org/D3341
2015-11-27 18:58:26 +00:00

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.\" @(#)kvm.3 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
.\" $FreeBSD$
.\"
.Dd November 27, 2015
.Dt KVM 3
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm kvm
.Nd kernel memory interface
.Sh LIBRARY
.Lb libkvm
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
library provides a uniform interface for accessing kernel virtual memory
images, including live systems and crash dumps.
Access to live systems is via
.Xr sysctl 3
for some functions, and
.Xr mem 4
and
.Xr kmem 4
for other functions,
while crash dumps can be examined via the core file generated by
.Xr savecore 8 .
The interface behaves similarly in both cases.
Memory can be read and written, kernel symbol addresses can be
looked up efficiently, and information about user processes can
be gathered.
.Pp
The
.Fn kvm_open
function is first called to obtain a descriptor for all subsequent calls.
.Sh COMPATIBILITY
The kvm interface was first introduced in SunOS.
A considerable
number of programs have been developed that use this interface,
making backward compatibility highly desirable.
In most respects, the Sun kvm interface is consistent and clean.
Accordingly, the generic portion of the interface (i.e.,
.Fn kvm_open ,
.Fn kvm_close ,
.Fn kvm_read ,
.Fn kvm_write ,
and
.Fn kvm_nlist )
has been incorporated into the
.Bx
interface.
Indeed, many kvm
applications (i.e., debuggers and statistical monitors) use only
this subset of the interface.
.Pp
The process interface was not kept.
This is not a portability
issue since any code that manipulates processes is inherently
machine dependent.
.Pp
Finally, the Sun kvm error reporting semantics are poorly defined.
The library can be configured either to print errors to
.Dv stderr
automatically,
or to print no error messages at all.
In the latter case, the nature of the error cannot be determined.
To overcome this, the
.Bx
interface includes a
routine,
.Xr kvm_geterr 3 ,
to return (not print out) the error message
corresponding to the most recent error condition on the
given descriptor.
.Sh CROSS DEBUGGING
The
.Nm
library supports inspection of crash dumps from non-native kernels.
Only a limited subset of the kvm interface is supported for these dumps.
To inspect a crash dump of a non-native kernel,
the caller must provide a
.Fa resolver
function when opening a descriptor via
.Fn kvm_open2 .
In addition,
the kvm interface defines an integer type
.Pq Vt kvaddr_t
that is large enough to hold all valid addresses of all supported
architectures.
The interface also defines a new namelist structure type
.Pq Vt "struct kvm_nlist"
for use with
.Fn kvm_nlist2 .
To avoid address truncation issues,
the caller should use
.Fn kvm_nlist2
and
.Fn kvm_read2
in place of
.Fn kvm_nlist
and
.Fn kvm_read ,
respectively.
Finally, only a limited subset of operations are supported for non-native
crash dumps:
.Fn kvm_close ,
.Fn kvm_geterr
.Fn kvm_open2 ,
.Fn kvm_native ,
.Fn kvm_nlist2 ,
and
.Fn kvm_read2 .
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr kvm_close 3 ,
.Xr kvm_getargv 3 ,
.Xr kvm_getenvv 3 ,
.Xr kvm_geterr 3 ,
.Xr kvm_getfiles 3 ,
.Xr kvm_getloadavg 3 ,
.Xr kvm_getprocs 3 ,
.Xr kvm_getswapinfo 3 ,
.Xr kvm_native 3 ,
.Xr kvm_nlist 3 ,
.Xr kvm_nlist2 3 ,
.Xr kvm_open 3 ,
.Xr kvm_open2 3 ,
.Xr kvm_openfiles 3 ,
.Xr kvm_read 3 ,
.Xr kvm_read2 3 ,
.Xr kvm_write 3 ,
.Xr sysctl 3 ,
.Xr kmem 4 ,
.Xr mem 4