8 LLDB is separated into a shared library that contains the core of the debugger,
9 and a driver that implements debugging and a command interpreter. LLDB can be
10 used to symbolicate your crash logs and can often provide more information than
11 other symbolication programs:
14 - Variables that are in scope for an address, along with their locations
16 The simplest form of symbolication is to load an executable:
20 (lldb) target create --no-dependents --arch x86_64 /tmp/a.out
22 We use the ``--no-dependents`` flag with the ``target create`` command so that
23 we don't load all of the dependent shared libraries from the current system.
24 When we symbolicate, we are often symbolicating a binary that was running on
25 another system, and even though the main executable might reference shared
26 libraries in ``/usr/lib``, we often don't want to load the versions on the
29 Using the ``image list`` command will show us a list of all shared libraries
30 associated with the current target. As expected, we currently only have a
36 [ 0] 73431214-6B76-3489-9557-5075F03E36B4 0x0000000100000000 /tmp/a.out
37 /tmp/a.out.dSYM/Contents/Resources/DWARF/a.out
39 Now we can look up an address:
43 (lldb) image lookup --address 0x100000aa3
44 Address: a.out[0x0000000100000aa3] (a.out.__TEXT.__text + 131)
45 Summary: a.out`main + 67 at main.c:13
47 Since we haven't specified a slide or any load addresses for individual
48 sections in the binary, the address that we use here is a file address. A file
49 address refers to a virtual address as defined by each object file.
51 If we didn't use the ``--no-dependents`` option with ``target create``, we
52 would have loaded all dependent shared libraries:
57 [ 0] 73431214-6B76-3489-9557-5075F03E36B4 0x0000000100000000 /tmp/a.out
58 /tmp/a.out.dSYM/Contents/Resources/DWARF/a.out
59 [ 1] 8CBCF9B9-EBB7-365E-A3FF-2F3850763C6B 0x0000000000000000 /usr/lib/system/libsystem_c.dylib
60 [ 2] 62AA0B84-188A-348B-8F9E-3E2DB08DB93C 0x0000000000000000 /usr/lib/system/libsystem_dnssd.dylib
61 [ 3] C0535565-35D1-31A7-A744-63D9F10F12A4 0x0000000000000000 /usr/lib/system/libsystem_kernel.dylib
64 Now if we do a lookup using a file address, this can result in multiple matches
65 since most shared libraries have a virtual address space that starts at zero:
69 (lldb) image lookup -a 0x1000
70 Address: a.out[0x0000000000001000] (a.out.__PAGEZERO + 4096)
72 Address: libsystem_c.dylib[0x0000000000001000] (libsystem_c.dylib.__TEXT.__text + 928)
73 Summary: libsystem_c.dylib`mcount + 9
75 Address: libsystem_dnssd.dylib[0x0000000000001000] (libsystem_dnssd.dylib.__TEXT.__text + 456)
76 Summary: libsystem_dnssd.dylib`ConvertHeaderBytes + 38
78 Address: libsystem_kernel.dylib[0x0000000000001000] (libsystem_kernel.dylib.__TEXT.__text + 1116)
79 Summary: libsystem_kernel.dylib`clock_get_time + 102
82 To avoid getting multiple file address matches, you can specify the name of the
83 shared library to limit the search:
87 (lldb) image lookup -a 0x1000 a.out
88 Address: a.out[0x0000000000001000] (a.out.__PAGEZERO + 4096)
90 Defining Load Addresses for Sections
91 ------------------------------------
93 When symbolicating your crash logs, it can be tedious if you always have to
94 adjust your crashlog-addresses into file addresses. To avoid having to do any
95 conversion, you can set the load address for the sections of the modules in
96 your target. Once you set any section load address, lookups will switch to
97 using load addresses. You can slide all sections in the executable by the same
98 amount, or set the load address for individual sections. The ``target modules
99 load --slide`` command allows us to set the load address for all sections.
101 Below is an example of sliding all sections in a.out by adding 0x123000 to each
102 section's file address:
106 (lldb) target create --no-dependents --arch x86_64 /tmp/a.out
107 (lldb) target modules load --file a.out --slide 0x123000
110 It is often much easier to specify the actual load location of each section by
111 name. Crash logs on macOS have a Binary Images section that specifies that
112 address of the __TEXT segment for each binary. Specifying a slide requires
113 requires that you first find the original (file) address for the __TEXT
114 segment, and subtract the two values. If you specify the address of the __TEXT
115 segment with ``target modules load section address``, you don't need to do any
116 calculations. To specify the load addresses of sections we can specify one or
117 more section name + address pairs in the ``target modules load`` command:
121 (lldb) target create --no-dependents --arch x86_64 /tmp/a.out
122 (lldb) target modules load --file a.out __TEXT 0x100123000
124 We specified that the __TEXT section is loaded at 0x100123000. Now that we have
125 defined where sections have been loaded in our target, any lookups we do will
126 now use load addresses so we don't have to do any math on the addresses in the
127 crashlog backtraces, we can just use the raw addresses:
131 (lldb) image lookup --address 0x100123aa3
132 Address: a.out[0x0000000100000aa3] (a.out.__TEXT.__text + 131)
133 Summary: a.out`main + 67 at main.c:13
135 Loading Multiple Executables
136 ----------------------------
138 You often have more than one executable involved when you need to symbolicate a
139 crash log. When this happens, you create a target for the main executable or
140 one of the shared libraries, then add more modules to the target using the
141 ``target modules add`` command.
143 Lets say we have a Darwin crash log that contains the following images:
148 0x100000000 - 0x100000ff7 <A866975B-CA1E-3649-98D0-6C5FAA444ECF> /tmp/a.out
149 0x7fff83f32000 - 0x7fff83ffefe7 <8CBCF9B9-EBB7-365E-A3FF-2F3850763C6B> /usr/lib/system/libsystem_c.dylib
150 0x7fff883db000 - 0x7fff883e3ff7 <62AA0B84-188A-348B-8F9E-3E2DB08DB93C> /usr/lib/system/libsystem_dnssd.dylib
151 0x7fff8c0dc000 - 0x7fff8c0f7ff7 <C0535565-35D1-31A7-A744-63D9F10F12A4> /usr/lib/system/libsystem_kernel.dylib
153 First we create the target using the main executable and then add any extra
154 shared libraries we want:
158 (lldb) target create --no-dependents --arch x86_64 /tmp/a.out
159 (lldb) target modules add /usr/lib/system/libsystem_c.dylib
160 (lldb) target modules add /usr/lib/system/libsystem_dnssd.dylib
161 (lldb) target modules add /usr/lib/system/libsystem_kernel.dylib
164 If you have debug symbols in standalone files, such as dSYM files on macOS,
165 you can specify their paths using the --symfile option for the ``target create``
166 (recent LLDB releases only) and ``target modules add`` commands:
170 (lldb) target create --no-dependents --arch x86_64 /tmp/a.out --symfile /tmp/a.out.dSYM
171 (lldb) target modules add /usr/lib/system/libsystem_c.dylib --symfile /build/server/a/libsystem_c.dylib.dSYM
172 (lldb) target modules add /usr/lib/system/libsystem_dnssd.dylib --symfile /build/server/b/libsystem_dnssd.dylib.dSYM
173 (lldb) target modules add /usr/lib/system/libsystem_kernel.dylib --symfile /build/server/c/libsystem_kernel.dylib.dSYM
175 Then we set the load addresses for each __TEXT section (note the colors of the
176 load addresses above and below) using the first address from the Binary Images
177 section for each image:
181 (lldb) target modules load --file a.out 0x100000000
182 (lldb) target modules load --file libsystem_c.dylib 0x7fff83f32000
183 (lldb) target modules load --file libsystem_dnssd.dylib 0x7fff883db000
184 (lldb) target modules load --file libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x7fff8c0dc000
187 Now any stack backtraces that haven't been symbolicated can be symbolicated
188 using ``image lookup`` with the raw backtrace addresses.
190 Given the following raw backtrace:
194 Thread 0 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
195 0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x00007fff8a1e6d46 __kill + 10
196 1 libsystem_c.dylib 0x00007fff84597df0 abort + 177
197 2 libsystem_c.dylib 0x00007fff84598e2a __assert_rtn + 146
198 3 a.out 0x0000000100000f46 main + 70
199 4 libdyld.dylib 0x00007fff8c4197e1 start + 1
201 We can now symbolicate the load addresses:
205 (lldb) image lookup -a 0x00007fff8a1e6d46
206 (lldb) image lookup -a 0x00007fff84597df0
207 (lldb) image lookup -a 0x00007fff84598e2a
208 (lldb) image lookup -a 0x0000000100000f46
211 Getting Variable Information
212 ----------------------------
214 If you add the --verbose flag to the ``image lookup --address`` command, you
215 can get verbose information which can often include the locations of some of
216 your local variables:
220 (lldb) image lookup --address 0x100123aa3 --verbose
221 Address: a.out[0x0000000100000aa3] (a.out.__TEXT.__text + 110)
222 Summary: a.out`main + 50 at main.c:13
223 Module: file = "/tmp/a.out", arch = "x86_64"
224 CompileUnit: id = {0x00000000}, file = "/tmp/main.c", language = "ISO C:1999"
225 Function: id = {0x0000004f}, name = "main", range = [0x0000000100000bc0-0x0000000100000dc9)
226 FuncType: id = {0x0000004f}, decl = main.c:9, compiler_type = "int (int, const char **, const char **, const char **)"
227 Blocks: id = {0x0000004f}, range = [0x100000bc0-0x100000dc9)
228 id = {0x000000ae}, range = [0x100000bf2-0x100000dc4)
229 LineEntry: [0x0000000100000bf2-0x0000000100000bfa): /tmp/main.c:13:23
230 Symbol: id = {0x00000004}, range = [0x0000000100000bc0-0x0000000100000dc9), name="main"
231 Variable: id = {0x000000bf}, name = "path", type= "char [1024]", location = DW_OP_fbreg(-1072), decl = main.c:28
232 Variable: id = {0x00000072}, name = "argc", type= "int", location = r13, decl = main.c:8
233 Variable: id = {0x00000081}, name = "argv", type= "const char **", location = r12, decl = main.c:8
234 Variable: id = {0x00000090}, name = "envp", type= "const char **", location = r15, decl = main.c:8
235 Variable: id = {0x0000009f}, name = "aapl", type= "const char **", location = rbx, decl = main.c:8
238 The interesting part is the variables that are listed. The variables are the
239 parameters and local variables that are in scope for the address that was
240 specified. These variable entries have locations which are shown in bold above.
241 Crash logs often have register information for the first frame in each stack,
242 and being able to reconstruct one or more local variables can often help you
243 decipher more information from a crash log than you normally would be able to.
244 Note that this is really only useful for the first frame, and only if your
245 crash logs have register information for your threads.
247 Using Python API to Symbolicate
248 -------------------------------
250 All of the commands above can be done through the python script bridge. The
251 code below will recreate the target and add the three shared libraries that we
252 added in the darwin crash log example above:
254 .. code-block:: python
256 triple = "x86_64-apple-macosx"
258 add_dependents = False
259 target = lldb.debugger.CreateTarget("/tmp/a.out", triple, platform_name, add_dependents, lldb.SBError())
261 # Get the executable module
262 module = target.GetModuleAtIndex(0)
263 target.SetSectionLoadAddress(module.FindSection("__TEXT"), 0x100000000)
264 module = target.AddModule ("/usr/lib/system/libsystem_c.dylib", triple, None, "/build/server/a/libsystem_c.dylib.dSYM")
265 target.SetSectionLoadAddress(module.FindSection("__TEXT"), 0x7fff83f32000)
266 module = target.AddModule ("/usr/lib/system/libsystem_dnssd.dylib", triple, None, "/build/server/b/libsystem_dnssd.dylib.dSYM")
267 target.SetSectionLoadAddress(module.FindSection("__TEXT"), 0x7fff883db000)
268 module = target.AddModule ("/usr/lib/system/libsystem_kernel.dylib", triple, None, "/build/server/c/libsystem_kernel.dylib.dSYM")
269 target.SetSectionLoadAddress(module.FindSection("__TEXT"), 0x7fff8c0dc000)
271 load_addr = 0x00007fff8a1e6d46
272 # so_addr is a section offset address, or a lldb.SBAddress object
273 so_addr = target.ResolveLoadAddress (load_addr)
274 # Get a symbol context for the section offset address which includes
275 # a module, compile unit, function, block, line entry, and symbol
276 sym_ctx = so_addr.GetSymbolContext (lldb.eSymbolContextEverything)
280 Use Builtin Python Module to Symbolicate
281 ----------------------------------------
283 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:
285 - lldb.utils.symbolication.Address
286 - lldb.utils.symbolication.Section
287 - lldb.utils.symbolication.Image
288 - lldb.utils.symbolication.Symbolicator
291 **lldb.utils.symbolication.Address**
293 This class represents an address that will be symbolicated. It will cache any
294 information that has been looked up: module, compile unit, function, block,
295 line entry, symbol. It does this by having a lldb.SBSymbolContext as a member
298 **lldb.utils.symbolication.Section**
300 This class represents a section that might get loaded in a
301 lldb.utils.symbolication.Image. It has helper functions that allow you to set
302 it from text that might have been extracted from a crash log file.
304 **lldb.utils.symbolication.Image**
306 This class represents a module that might get loaded into the target we use for
307 symbolication. This class contains the executable path, optional symbol file
308 path, the triple, and the list of sections that will need to be loaded if we
309 choose the ask the target to load this image. Many of these objects will never
310 be loaded into the target unless they are needed by symbolication. You often
311 have a crash log that has 100 to 200 different shared libraries loaded, but
312 your crash log stack backtraces only use a few of these shared libraries. Only
313 the images that contain stack backtrace addresses need to be loaded in the
314 target in order to symbolicate.
316 Subclasses of this class will want to override the
317 locate_module_and_debug_symbols method:
321 class CustomImage(lldb.utils.symbolication.Image):
322 def locate_module_and_debug_symbols (self):
323 # Locate the module and symbol given the info found in the crash log
325 Overriding this function allows clients to find the correct executable module
326 and symbol files as they might reside on a build server.
328 **lldb.utils.symbolication.Symbolicator**
330 This class coordinates the symbolication process by loading only the
331 lldb.utils.symbolication.Image instances that need to be loaded in order to
332 symbolicate an supplied address.
334 **lldb.macosx.crashlog**
336 lldb.macosx.crashlog is a package that is distributed on macOS builds that
337 subclasses the above classes. This module parses the information in the Darwin
338 crash logs and creates symbolication objects that represent the images, the
339 sections and the thread frames for the backtraces. It then uses the functions
340 in the lldb.utils.symbolication to symbolicate the crash logs.
342 This module installs a new ``crashlog`` command into the lldb command
343 interpreter so that you can use it to parse and symbolicate macOS crash
348 (lldb) command script import lldb.macosx.crashlog
349 "crashlog" and "save_crashlog" command installed, use the "--help" option for detailed help
350 (lldb) crashlog /tmp/crash.log
353 The command that is installed has built in help that shows the options that can
354 be used when symbolicating:
358 (lldb) crashlog --help
359 Usage: crashlog [options] [FILE ...]
361 Symbolicate one or more darwin crash log files to provide source file and line
362 information, inlined stack frames back to the concrete functions, and
363 disassemble the location of the crash for the first frame of the crashed
364 thread. If this script is imported into the LLDB command interpreter, a
365 ``crashlog`` command will be added to the interpreter for use at the LLDB
366 command line. After a crash log has been parsed and symbolicated, a target will
367 have been created that has all of the shared libraries loaded at the load
368 addresses found in the crash log file. This allows you to explore the program
369 as if it were stopped at the locations described in the crash log and functions
370 can be disassembled and lookups can be performed using the addresses found in
376 -h, --help show this help message and exit
377 -v, --verbose display verbose debug info
378 -g, --debug display verbose debug logging
379 -a, --load-all load all executable images, not just the images found
380 in the crashed stack frames
381 --images show image list
382 --debug-delay=NSEC pause for NSEC seconds for debugger
383 -c, --crashed-only only symbolicate the crashed thread
384 -d DISASSEMBLE_DEPTH, --disasm-depth=DISASSEMBLE_DEPTH
385 set the depth in stack frames that should be
386 disassembled (default is 1)
387 -D, --disasm-all enabled disassembly of frames on all threads (not just
389 -B DISASSEMBLE_BEFORE, --disasm-before=DISASSEMBLE_BEFORE
390 the number of instructions to disassemble before the
392 -A DISASSEMBLE_AFTER, --disasm-after=DISASSEMBLE_AFTER
393 the number of instructions to disassemble after the
395 -C NLINES, --source-context=NLINES
396 show NLINES source lines of source context (default =
398 --source-frames=NFRAMES
399 show source for NFRAMES (default = 4)
400 --source-all show source for all threads, not just the crashed
402 -i, --interactive parse all crash logs and enter interactive mode
405 The source for the "symbolication" and "crashlog" modules are available in git.