/** @file $Id$ $Date$ $Author$ @copy © Marc Wäckerlin @license LGPL, see file COPYING */ #ifndef __MRW_STACKTRACE_HPP__ #define __MRW_STACKTRACE_HPP__ #include #include #include #include #include #include #include #include #if (__GNUC__==3 && __GNUC_MINOR__<4 || __GNUC__<3) && _REENTRANT && !_MT #define _MT #endif #ifdef _MT #include #endif namespace mrw { /** @defgroup debug Debug Utilities */ //@{ /** @defgroup grpStackTrace Collect and Format a Stack Trace Somewhere in a program, there is a fatal error, e.g. an unexpected exception is thrown. How is it possible to debug the problem in such a case? Sometimes you can start a debugger and trace the execution of your program. But what if it occurs only once a week, or if you cannot set a breakpoint, because you don't know where the problem is located, or because only the 1000th run of a method causes a problem, or what if the problem occurs only at your customers installation? One way to solve these problems is to do logging, or even function tracing, so you can narrow down the lines of code, where the problem occurs. But sometimes this is not enough, especially with exceptions. One of the worst things with exceptions is, you can catch an exception somewhere, but you don't know where it was thrown. Here it is very handy, to be able to write a stacktrace to a logging device. For logging, I recommend log4cxx on page: - http://logging.apache.org/log4cxx These classes are for collecting a stack trace and later for formatting with source code file name, line number and the method name. For collecting the stack trace (the addresses): - either the GNU gcc compiler is required - or the GNU glibc library function @c backtrace For extracting information from an address, the ELF library is required. @note For all features and full operation, this class requires: - either a GNU glibc bases system (LINUX), or the GNU gcc compiler - a system with ELF binaries (LINUX, Solaris, ...) - debug information, compile option @c -g */ //@{ /** @brief store and print a stack trace of the actual position in code @pre \#include In the constructor, a stack trace is stored, but not yet evaluated. Therefore storing a stack trace is relatively fast. The evaluation is done when the stack trace is printed on a stream or converted to a string. "Evaluation" means, that the addresses are mapped to the correspoding symbols, the method names, sorce file names and line numbers are evaluated. @note Method StackTrace::createSymtable must be called exactely once, before evaluating the first stack trace. Best place is the first line of the @c main function. @note Debug information is required for compiling. You nee the compile option @c -g, or even better @c -ggdb3. @note The stack trace is known to work perfectly on Linux and Solaris both with GNU gcc compiler. But it should work with the GNU compiler on all systems, or wherever there is a glibc library. @note Symbol evaluation requires the ELF library and an ELF system.

Technology

On GNU glibc based systems (Linux), the stack trace is collected with GNU glibc's function @c backtrace(). On other systems (Solaris) it is collected using the GNU gcc's internal function @c __builtin_return_address(). With both functions, at most 50 steps back are collected. The evaluation is not done with the glibc library function @c backtrace_symbols(), because this function is unable to print the source file name and line number information. Instead of this, the executable binary is loaded into the memory and evaluated using the bdf library functions. For this the stack tracer needs to know how to find out which executable is running. It is possible to get this information automatically on Linux and Solaris. On other systems, I don't have this information, but you can either tell me, and I integrate support for your system (when I have time to do it), or provide the executable file name as an argument to @c mrw::StackTrace::createSymtable().

Draw Backs

Unfortunately it is not possible to extract the source file name and line number information if the executable was not compiled with debug option @c -g. @note If file and line is wrong, but the function name is correct, try to build without optimizations. For GNU compiler, this means no option @c -O or @c -O0 and enable the debug information with @c -g and don't inline functions with compiler option @c -fno-inline. To build this project, you may enter: @code CXXFLAGS="-g -fno-inline" ./configure && make clean check @endcode @todo Should I add support for alternative symbol evaluation using @c backtrace_symbols? I think rather not...? */ class StackTrace { friend class StackTraceTest; public: //............................................................... typedefs /// container for the adresses typedef std::vector AddressTrace; /// binary file with offset (for shared libraries, 0 for executables) typedef std::list< std::pair > BinFiles; /// structure to store all evaluated information struct CodePos { CodePos(void const*const a, const std::string& fu, const std::string& fi, unsigned int l): address(a), function(fu), file(fi), line(l) { } void const*const address; ///< the address pointer std::string function; ///< function/method name std::string file; ///< code file name unsigned int line; ///< code line number }; //................................................................ methods /// the constructor stores the actual stack trace StackTrace() throw(std::bad_exception); /// depending on how we got the stack trace, we may have to free memory ~StackTrace() throw(); /// evaluates the symbol table and returns the formatted stack trace operator std::string() const throw(std::bad_exception); /** @return list of raw stack addresses */ operator const AddressTrace&() const throw(std::bad_exception) { return _trace; } /// evaluate the stack trace and print it to a stream const StackTrace& print(std::ostream& os) const throw(std::bad_exception); /// evaluates and returns all information from a raw address /** @classmutex _mutex */ static CodePos translate(void* addr) throw(std::bad_exception); /** @brief read the symbol table from the executable file or a shared library On Solaris and Linux, the executable is automatically detected through the @c /proc file system. Only on Linux the shared libraries are detected through @c /proc/self/maps. So you may leave the parameter empty on these systems. @param fname The file name of the executable or a shared library. On Linux and Solaris, this can be evaluated automatically, so the parameter is optional. @param offs Offset of the address space. It is 0 for executables, but must be given for shared libraries. Use @c ldd on the executable to find out the offset. @return @c true in case of success. If @c false is returned, the symbol table was not read and the evaluation cannot be done. Printing then only prints the raw addresses, without file, line nmber information and method names. @note createSymtable must be executed at least once before a stack trace is printed the very first time. For storing a stack trace (that means for the creation of a mrw::StackTrace object) a call to this method is not yet needed. @note In general, call only one of both createSymtable methods! But instead of callin the other method once, you may also call this one several times. @note If this method is called more than once for the same file, the symbols are created only the first time, so you don't loose too much time. @classmutex _mutex */ static bool createSymtable(const std::string& fname="", void* offs=0) throw(std::bad_exception); /** @brief get the error text if @ref createSymtable returns false In case @ref createSymtable is not successful, you can use this method to retrieve the error text of the exception that was caught in @ref createSymtable. @return error text */ static const std::string& error() throw() { return _error; } /** @brief read the symbol table from a list of an executable file and shared libraries @param files The list of file names that must contain the executable plus all shared libraries that should be included in stack traces. Every file name has an offset address as second parameter. This offset must be given for shared libraries and can be retrieved using the program @c ldd. @return @c true in case of success. If @c false is returned, the symbol table was not completely read and the evaluation cannot be done. Printing then only prints the raw addresses, without file, line nmber information and method names. @note This method must be executed once before a stack trace is printed the very first time. For storing a stack trace (that means for the creation of a mrw::StackTrace object) a call to this method is not yet needed. @note In general, call only one of both createSymtable methods! @note This method calls the other one for all files in parameter @c files. @classmutex _mutex */ static bool createSymtable(const BinFiles& files) throw(std::bad_exception); private: //............................................................... typedefs typedef std::map > Translator; static int bfdClose(bfd*) throw(); typedef mrw::AutoResource AutoBfd; friend class mrw::AutoResource ; //.............................................................. variables AddressTrace _trace; static std::map _dic; static std::map _addrs; static std::map _bfd; static std::map > _syms; #ifdef _MT static boost::recursive_mutex _mutex; #endif static std::string _error; //................................................................ methods static BinFiles filename() throw(std::bad_exception); static void buildSectionMap(bfd*, asection*, void*) throw(std::bad_exception); }; //@} //@} } /** @addtogroup grpStackTrace */ //@{ /// evaluate a stack trace and shift it on a stream inline std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& os, const mrw::StackTrace& st) throw(std::bad_exception) { return os<<(std::string)st; } //@} #endif