[ECOS] does ecos support generating core files or kernel crash dumps?

[ECOS] does ecos support generating core files or kernel crash dumps?

[Adrian Caceres]

I am wondering if ecos already supports generating core files or crash
dumps for post-mortem analysis using gdb.

thanks

adrian


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Re: [ECOS] does ecos support generating core files or kernel crash dumps?

[Gary Thomas]

On Wed, 2003-10-15 at 11:28, Adrian Caceres wrote:
> I am wondering if ecos already supports generating core files or crash
> dumps for post-mortem analysis using gdb.

No.  Where would you put them [in an embedded system]?

If the application "crashes", just connect to it using GDB
and figure out why.

-- 
Gary Thomas <gary@mlbassoc.com>
MLB Associates


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Re: [ECOS] does ecos support generating core files or kernel crash dumps?

[Adrian Caceres]

Many embedded systems have  a local/ide type bus
to a flash.  Assuming the basic driver to such interface was not affected
by the crash, it would be possible to write a dump to it.
Or there might be some storage available across some network
interface.  The embedded system
could send the crash dump over to the other end for storage.

Having gdb support is great for development, but when it comes
to beta,  a core dump can be more useful.  It is not rare for
a specific problem to only occur at some beta site and there
is simply no way to gdb to it.  The serial port might not even
be stuffed or accesible in these units.  But give them a unit
with an extra large flash, wait for the problem to happen again,
get the unit back,  and now you might have all the information you need.
If the embedded device already has a removable flash such
as a digital or video camera,  the process is simply a swap of
a flash.

- adrian

Gary Thomas wrote:

>On Wed, 2003-10-15 at 11:28, Adrian Caceres wrote:
>  
>
>>I am wondering if ecos already supports generating core files or crash
>>dumps for post-mortem analysis using gdb.
>>    
>>
>
>No.  Where would you put them [in an embedded system]?
>
>If the application "crashes", just connect to it using GDB
>and figure out why.
>
>  
>


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Re: [ECOS] does ecos support generating core files or kernel crash dumps?

[Gary Thomas]

On Wed, 2003-10-15 at 14:37, Adrian Caceres wrote:
> Many embedded systems have  a local/ide type bus
> to a flash.  Assuming the basic driver to such interface was not affected
> by the crash, it would be possible to write a dump to it.
> Or there might be some storage available across some network
> interface.  The embedded system
> could send the crash dump over to the other end for storage.
> 
> Having gdb support is great for development, but when it comes
> to beta,  a core dump can be more useful.  It is not rare for
> a specific problem to only occur at some beta site and there
> is simply no way to gdb to it.  The serial port might not even
> be stuffed or accesible in these units.  But give them a unit
> with an extra large flash, wait for the problem to happen again,
> get the unit back,  and now you might have all the information you need.
> If the embedded device already has a removable flash such
> as a digital or video camera,  the process is simply a swap of
> a flash.
> 

These are wonderful arguments (I made the same ones more than 25
years ago to my boss at the time...).  The infrastructure is all
there for you to add such a capability, it's just not something
that has ever been done before.

As for your first statement about having a local IDE bus with
FLASH - that's probably less than 2% of all of the systems that
eCos is normally deployed on, but if you've got it, flaunt it!

> - adrian
> 
> Gary Thomas wrote:
> 
> >On Wed, 2003-10-15 at 11:28, Adrian Caceres wrote:
> >  
> >
> >>I am wondering if ecos already supports generating core files or crash
> >>dumps for post-mortem analysis using gdb.
> >>    
> >>
> >
> >No.  Where would you put them [in an embedded system]?
> >
> >If the application "crashes", just connect to it using GDB
> >and figure out why.
> >
> >  
> >
-- 
Gary Thomas <gary@mlbassoc.com>
MLB Associates


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