HP-UX Kernel Debugging Tools

This section describes the HP-UX kernel debugging tools and techniques available for HP-UX release 10.0. These tools and techniques may change from release to release. This manual will focus primarily on the Series 700 and 800 debugging tools and techniques. Sources of additional information for the Series 700 are cited below.

Kernel level debugging is associated with the hardware that a kernel is running on. The kernel level debugging tools are different for the different hardware platforms.

For the Series 700, kernel level debugging may be performed using ddb. ddb can be used to set breakpoints, single-step through code, examine the contents of data structures at key points, change the contents of structures and variables, and use most other normal debugging techniques. ddb is documented in HP-UX Driver Development Guide, part number 98577-90013. ddb is not part of the standard Series 700 HP-UX product. To obtain a copy of ddb software, contact your HP representative.

For Series 700 and 800, kernel level debugging may be performed using adb, which is a general purpose assembly language debugging program. adb allows you to look at HP-UX files and system core files that result from system panics, to examine system registers and memory locations as they were at the time of the panic, and to print data from these files in a variety of formats. adb can also be used to examine a running HP-UX system. adb is part of the standard HP-UX product and is located in
/usr/bin on every HP-UX system. It is important to use the revision of adb which corresponds with the release of the kernel being debugged -- for example, a 9.0 version of adb will not work well on a 10.0 kernel. This chapter describes in detail how to use adb to debug kernel problems on Series 700 and 800 systems. For additional information on adb, refer to the following items: