4 LLDB is separated into a shared library that contains the core of the debugger,
5 and a driver that implements debugging and a command interpreter. LLDB can be
6 used to symbolicate your crash logs and can often provide more information than
7 other symbolication programs:
10 - Variables that are in scope for an address, along with their locations
12 The simplest form of symbolication is to load an executable:
16 (lldb) target create --no-dependents --arch x86_64 /tmp/a.out
18 We use the ``--no-dependents`` flag with the ``target create`` command so that
19 we don't load all of the dependent shared libraries from the current system.
20 When we symbolicate, we are often symbolicating a binary that was running on
21 another system, and even though the main executable might reference shared
22 libraries in ``/usr/lib``, we often don't want to load the versions on the
25 Using the ``image list`` command will show us a list of all shared libraries
26 associated with the current target. As expected, we currently only have a
32 [ 0] 73431214-6B76-3489-9557-5075F03E36B4 0x0000000100000000 /tmp/a.out
33 /tmp/a.out.dSYM/Contents/Resources/DWARF/a.out
35 Now we can look up an address:
39 (lldb) image lookup --address 0x100000aa3
40 Address: a.out[0x0000000100000aa3] (a.out.__TEXT.__text + 131)
41 Summary: a.out`main + 67 at main.c:13
43 Since we haven't specified a slide or any load addresses for individual
44 sections in the binary, the address that we use here is a file address. A file
45 address refers to a virtual address as defined by each object file.
47 If we didn't use the ``--no-dependents`` option with ``target create``, we
48 would have loaded all dependent shared libraries:
53 [ 0] 73431214-6B76-3489-9557-5075F03E36B4 0x0000000100000000 /tmp/a.out
54 /tmp/a.out.dSYM/Contents/Resources/DWARF/a.out
55 [ 1] 8CBCF9B9-EBB7-365E-A3FF-2F3850763C6B 0x0000000000000000 /usr/lib/system/libsystem_c.dylib
56 [ 2] 62AA0B84-188A-348B-8F9E-3E2DB08DB93C 0x0000000000000000 /usr/lib/system/libsystem_dnssd.dylib
57 [ 3] C0535565-35D1-31A7-A744-63D9F10F12A4 0x0000000000000000 /usr/lib/system/libsystem_kernel.dylib
60 Now if we do a lookup using a file address, this can result in multiple matches
61 since most shared libraries have a virtual address space that starts at zero:
65 (lldb) image lookup -a 0x1000
66 Address: a.out[0x0000000000001000] (a.out.__PAGEZERO + 4096)
68 Address: libsystem_c.dylib[0x0000000000001000] (libsystem_c.dylib.__TEXT.__text + 928)
69 Summary: libsystem_c.dylib`mcount + 9
71 Address: libsystem_dnssd.dylib[0x0000000000001000] (libsystem_dnssd.dylib.__TEXT.__text + 456)
72 Summary: libsystem_dnssd.dylib`ConvertHeaderBytes + 38
74 Address: libsystem_kernel.dylib[0x0000000000001000] (libsystem_kernel.dylib.__TEXT.__text + 1116)
75 Summary: libsystem_kernel.dylib`clock_get_time + 102
78 To avoid getting multiple file address matches, you can specify the name of the
79 shared library to limit the search:
83 (lldb) image lookup -a 0x1000 a.out
84 Address: a.out[0x0000000000001000] (a.out.__PAGEZERO + 4096)
86 Defining Load Addresses for Sections
87 ------------------------------------
89 When symbolicating your crash logs, it can be tedious if you always have to
90 adjust your crashlog-addresses into file addresses. To avoid having to do any
91 conversion, you can set the load address for the sections of the modules in
92 your target. Once you set any section load address, lookups will switch to
93 using load addresses. You can slide all sections in the executable by the same
94 amount, or set the load address for individual sections. The ``target modules
95 load --slide`` command allows us to set the load address for all sections.
97 Below is an example of sliding all sections in a.out by adding 0x123000 to each
98 section's file address:
102 (lldb) target create --no-dependents --arch x86_64 /tmp/a.out
103 (lldb) target modules load --file a.out --slide 0x123000
106 It is often much easier to specify the actual load location of each section by
107 name. Crash logs on macOS have a Binary Images section that specifies that
108 address of the __TEXT segment for each binary. Specifying a slide requires
109 requires that you first find the original (file) address for the __TEXT
110 segment, and subtract the two values. If you specify the address of the __TEXT
111 segment with ``target modules load section address``, you don't need to do any
112 calculations. To specify the load addresses of sections we can specify one or
113 more section name + address pairs in the ``target modules load`` command:
117 (lldb) target create --no-dependents --arch x86_64 /tmp/a.out
118 (lldb) target modules load --file a.out __TEXT 0x100123000
120 We specified that the __TEXT section is loaded at 0x100123000. Now that we have
121 defined where sections have been loaded in our target, any lookups we do will
122 now use load addresses so we don't have to do any math on the addresses in the
123 crashlog backtraces, we can just use the raw addresses:
127 (lldb) image lookup --address 0x100123aa3
128 Address: a.out[0x0000000100000aa3] (a.out.__TEXT.__text + 131)
129 Summary: a.out`main + 67 at main.c:13
131 Loading Multiple Executables
132 ----------------------------
134 You often have more than one executable involved when you need to symbolicate a
135 crash log. When this happens, you create a target for the main executable or
136 one of the shared libraries, then add more modules to the target using the
137 ``target modules add`` command.
139 Lets say we have a Darwin crash log that contains the following images:
144 0x100000000 - 0x100000ff7 <A866975B-CA1E-3649-98D0-6C5FAA444ECF> /tmp/a.out
145 0x7fff83f32000 - 0x7fff83ffefe7 <8CBCF9B9-EBB7-365E-A3FF-2F3850763C6B> /usr/lib/system/libsystem_c.dylib
146 0x7fff883db000 - 0x7fff883e3ff7 <62AA0B84-188A-348B-8F9E-3E2DB08DB93C> /usr/lib/system/libsystem_dnssd.dylib
147 0x7fff8c0dc000 - 0x7fff8c0f7ff7 <C0535565-35D1-31A7-A744-63D9F10F12A4> /usr/lib/system/libsystem_kernel.dylib
149 First we create the target using the main executable and then add any extra
150 shared libraries we want:
154 (lldb) target create --no-dependents --arch x86_64 /tmp/a.out
155 (lldb) target modules add /usr/lib/system/libsystem_c.dylib
156 (lldb) target modules add /usr/lib/system/libsystem_dnssd.dylib
157 (lldb) target modules add /usr/lib/system/libsystem_kernel.dylib
160 If you have debug symbols in standalone files, such as dSYM files on macOS,
161 you can specify their paths using the --symfile option for the ``target create``
162 (recent LLDB releases only) and ``target modules add`` commands:
166 (lldb) target create --no-dependents --arch x86_64 /tmp/a.out --symfile /tmp/a.out.dSYM
167 (lldb) target modules add /usr/lib/system/libsystem_c.dylib --symfile /build/server/a/libsystem_c.dylib.dSYM
168 (lldb) target modules add /usr/lib/system/libsystem_dnssd.dylib --symfile /build/server/b/libsystem_dnssd.dylib.dSYM
169 (lldb) target modules add /usr/lib/system/libsystem_kernel.dylib --symfile /build/server/c/libsystem_kernel.dylib.dSYM
171 Then we set the load addresses for each __TEXT section (note the colors of the
172 load addresses above and below) using the first address from the Binary Images
173 section for each image:
177 (lldb) target modules load --file a.out 0x100000000
178 (lldb) target modules load --file libsystem_c.dylib 0x7fff83f32000
179 (lldb) target modules load --file libsystem_dnssd.dylib 0x7fff883db000
180 (lldb) target modules load --file libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x7fff8c0dc000
183 Now any stack backtraces that haven't been symbolicated can be symbolicated
184 using ``image lookup`` with the raw backtrace addresses.
186 Given the following raw backtrace:
190 Thread 0 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
191 0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x00007fff8a1e6d46 __kill + 10
192 1 libsystem_c.dylib 0x00007fff84597df0 abort + 177
193 2 libsystem_c.dylib 0x00007fff84598e2a __assert_rtn + 146
194 3 a.out 0x0000000100000f46 main + 70
195 4 libdyld.dylib 0x00007fff8c4197e1 start + 1
197 We can now symbolicate the load addresses:
201 (lldb) image lookup -a 0x00007fff8a1e6d46
202 (lldb) image lookup -a 0x00007fff84597df0
203 (lldb) image lookup -a 0x00007fff84598e2a
204 (lldb) image lookup -a 0x0000000100000f46
207 Getting Variable Information
208 ----------------------------
210 If you add the --verbose flag to the ``image lookup --address`` command, you
211 can get verbose information which can often include the locations of some of
212 your local variables:
216 (lldb) image lookup --address 0x100123aa3 --verbose
217 Address: a.out[0x0000000100000aa3] (a.out.__TEXT.__text + 110)
218 Summary: a.out`main + 50 at main.c:13
219 Module: file = "/tmp/a.out", arch = "x86_64"
220 CompileUnit: id = {0x00000000}, file = "/tmp/main.c", language = "ISO C:1999"
221 Function: id = {0x0000004f}, name = "main", range = [0x0000000100000bc0-0x0000000100000dc9)
222 FuncType: id = {0x0000004f}, decl = main.c:9, compiler_type = "int (int, const char **, const char **, const char **)"
223 Blocks: id = {0x0000004f}, range = [0x100000bc0-0x100000dc9)
224 id = {0x000000ae}, range = [0x100000bf2-0x100000dc4)
225 LineEntry: [0x0000000100000bf2-0x0000000100000bfa): /tmp/main.c:13:23
226 Symbol: id = {0x00000004}, range = [0x0000000100000bc0-0x0000000100000dc9), name="main"
227 Variable: id = {0x000000bf}, name = "path", type= "char [1024]", location = DW_OP_fbreg(-1072), decl = main.c:28
228 Variable: id = {0x00000072}, name = "argc", type= "int", location = r13, decl = main.c:8
229 Variable: id = {0x00000081}, name = "argv", type= "const char **", location = r12, decl = main.c:8
230 Variable: id = {0x00000090}, name = "envp", type= "const char **", location = r15, decl = main.c:8
231 Variable: id = {0x0000009f}, name = "aapl", type= "const char **", location = rbx, decl = main.c:8
234 The interesting part is the variables that are listed. The variables are the
235 parameters and local variables that are in scope for the address that was
236 specified. These variable entries have locations which are shown in bold above.
237 Crash logs often have register information for the first frame in each stack,
238 and being able to reconstruct one or more local variables can often help you
239 decipher more information from a crash log than you normally would be able to.
240 Note that this is really only useful for the first frame, and only if your
241 crash logs have register information for your threads.
243 Using Python API to Symbolicate
244 -------------------------------
246 All of the commands above can be done through the python script bridge. The
247 code below will recreate the target and add the three shared libraries that we
248 added in the darwin crash log example above:
250 .. code-block:: python
252 triple = "x86_64-apple-macosx"
254 add_dependents = False
255 target = lldb.debugger.CreateTarget("/tmp/a.out", triple, platform_name, add_dependents, lldb.SBError())
257 # Get the executable module
258 module = target.GetModuleAtIndex(0)
259 target.SetSectionLoadAddress(module.FindSection("__TEXT"), 0x100000000)
260 module = target.AddModule ("/usr/lib/system/libsystem_c.dylib", triple, None, "/build/server/a/libsystem_c.dylib.dSYM")
261 target.SetSectionLoadAddress(module.FindSection("__TEXT"), 0x7fff83f32000)
262 module = target.AddModule ("/usr/lib/system/libsystem_dnssd.dylib", triple, None, "/build/server/b/libsystem_dnssd.dylib.dSYM")
263 target.SetSectionLoadAddress(module.FindSection("__TEXT"), 0x7fff883db000)
264 module = target.AddModule ("/usr/lib/system/libsystem_kernel.dylib", triple, None, "/build/server/c/libsystem_kernel.dylib.dSYM")
265 target.SetSectionLoadAddress(module.FindSection("__TEXT"), 0x7fff8c0dc000)
267 load_addr = 0x00007fff8a1e6d46
268 # so_addr is a section offset address, or a lldb.SBAddress object
269 so_addr = target.ResolveLoadAddress (load_addr)
270 # Get a symbol context for the section offset address which includes
271 # a module, compile unit, function, block, line entry, and symbol
272 sym_ctx = so_addr.GetSymbolContext (lldb.eSymbolContextEverything)
276 Use Builtin Python Module to Symbolicate
277 ----------------------------------------
279 LLDB includes a module in the lldb package named lldb.utils.symbolication. This module contains a lot of symbolication functions that simplify the symbolication process by allowing you to create objects that represent symbolication class objects such as:
281 - lldb.utils.symbolication.Address
282 - lldb.utils.symbolication.Section
283 - lldb.utils.symbolication.Image
284 - lldb.utils.symbolication.Symbolicator
287 **lldb.utils.symbolication.Address**
289 This class represents an address that will be symbolicated. It will cache any
290 information that has been looked up: module, compile unit, function, block,
291 line entry, symbol. It does this by having a lldb.SBSymbolContext as a member
294 **lldb.utils.symbolication.Section**
296 This class represents a section that might get loaded in a
297 lldb.utils.symbolication.Image. It has helper functions that allow you to set
298 it from text that might have been extracted from a crash log file.
300 **lldb.utils.symbolication.Image**
302 This class represents a module that might get loaded into the target we use for
303 symbolication. This class contains the executable path, optional symbol file
304 path, the triple, and the list of sections that will need to be loaded if we
305 choose the ask the target to load this image. Many of these objects will never
306 be loaded into the target unless they are needed by symbolication. You often
307 have a crash log that has 100 to 200 different shared libraries loaded, but
308 your crash log stack backtraces only use a few of these shared libraries. Only
309 the images that contain stack backtrace addresses need to be loaded in the
310 target in order to symbolicate.
312 Subclasses of this class will want to override the
313 locate_module_and_debug_symbols method:
317 class CustomImage(lldb.utils.symbolication.Image):
318 def locate_module_and_debug_symbols (self):
319 # Locate the module and symbol given the info found in the crash log
321 Overriding this function allows clients to find the correct executable module
322 and symbol files as they might reside on a build server.
324 **lldb.utils.symbolication.Symbolicator**
326 This class coordinates the symbolication process by loading only the
327 lldb.utils.symbolication.Image instances that need to be loaded in order to
328 symbolicate an supplied address.
330 **lldb.macosx.crashlog**
332 lldb.macosx.crashlog is a package that is distributed on macOS builds that
333 subclasses the above classes. This module parses the information in the Darwin
334 crash logs and creates symbolication objects that represent the images, the
335 sections and the thread frames for the backtraces. It then uses the functions
336 in the lldb.utils.symbolication to symbolicate the crash logs.
338 This module installs a new ``crashlog`` command into the lldb command
339 interpreter so that you can use it to parse and symbolicate macOS crash
344 (lldb) command script import lldb.macosx.crashlog
345 "crashlog" and "save_crashlog" command installed, use the "--help" option for detailed help
346 (lldb) crashlog /tmp/crash.log
349 The command that is installed has built in help that shows the options that can
350 be used when symbolicating:
354 (lldb) crashlog --help
355 Usage: crashlog [options] [FILE ...]
357 Symbolicate one or more darwin crash log files to provide source file and line
358 information, inlined stack frames back to the concrete functions, and
359 disassemble the location of the crash for the first frame of the crashed
360 thread. If this script is imported into the LLDB command interpreter, a
361 ``crashlog`` command will be added to the interpreter for use at the LLDB
362 command line. After a crash log has been parsed and symbolicated, a target will
363 have been created that has all of the shared libraries loaded at the load
364 addresses found in the crash log file. This allows you to explore the program
365 as if it were stopped at the locations described in the crash log and functions
366 can be disassembled and lookups can be performed using the addresses found in
372 -h, --help show this help message and exit
373 -v, --verbose display verbose debug info
374 -g, --debug display verbose debug logging
375 -a, --load-all load all executable images, not just the images found
376 in the crashed stack frames
377 --images show image list
378 --debug-delay=NSEC pause for NSEC seconds for debugger
379 -c, --crashed-only only symbolicate the crashed thread
380 -d DISASSEMBLE_DEPTH, --disasm-depth=DISASSEMBLE_DEPTH
381 set the depth in stack frames that should be
382 disassembled (default is 1)
383 -D, --disasm-all enabled disassembly of frames on all threads (not just
385 -B DISASSEMBLE_BEFORE, --disasm-before=DISASSEMBLE_BEFORE
386 the number of instructions to disassemble before the
388 -A DISASSEMBLE_AFTER, --disasm-after=DISASSEMBLE_AFTER
389 the number of instructions to disassemble after the
391 -C NLINES, --source-context=NLINES
392 show NLINES source lines of source context (default =
394 --source-frames=NFRAMES
395 show source for NFRAMES (default = 4)
396 --source-all show source for all threads, not just the crashed
398 -i, --interactive parse all crash logs and enter interactive mode
401 The source for the "symbolication" and "crashlog" modules are available in git.