NAME

kgdb — kernel debugger

SYNOPSIS

DEPRECATION NOTICE

This version of kgdb is deprecated and will be removed from future versions of the FreeBSD base system. A newer version of kgdb is available from ports or packages (devel/gdb).

DESCRIPTION

The kgdb utility is a debugger based on gdb(1) that allows debugging of kernel core files.

The options are as follows:

-a

Increase the annotation level. An annotation level of 1 features the historical -fullname option of gdb(1). This is useful when running kgdb in Emacs. The -f or -fullname options are supported for backward compatibility as well.

-b rate

Set the baudrate to rate.

-q

Suppress printing of the banner when the debugger starts. The -quiet form is supported for compatibility as well.

-v

Increase verbosity.

-w

Opens kmem-based targets in read-write mode. (This is identical to what --wcore used to do in previous gdb versions for FreeBSD.)

-d crashdir

Use crashdir instead of the default, /var/crash to locate kernel core dump files in. The name vmcore. plus the dump number will be appended to determine the actual dump file name.

-c core

Explicitly use core as the core dump file.

-n dumpnr

Use the kernel core dump file numbered dumpnr for debugging.

-r device

Use device to connect kgdb to for a remote debugging session.

The -c, -n, and -r options are mutually exclusive.

Optionally, the name of the kernel symbol file and the name of the core dump file can be supplied on the command-line as positional arguments. If no kernel symbol file name has been given, the symbol file of the currently running kernel will be used. If no core dump file has been specified through either of the options or the last command-line argument, /dev/mem will be opened to allow debugging the currently running kernel.

FILES

/dev/mem

Default memory image to open if no core dump file has been specified.

/var/crash

Default directory to locate kernel core dump files.

SEE ALSO

gdb(1)

HISTORY

The kgdb utility first appeared in its current form in FreeBSD 5.3.