Debugging software including background processes

Debugging software including background processes

[SF Markus Elfring]

Hello,

I would like to debug specific software occasionally which uses also
background processes (on my openSUSE Tumbleweed system).

* Can the tool "gdb 7.9-3.1" be configured to start detailed debugging
  if another background process will be started?

* How can a corresponding backtrace be collected and analysed if a subprocess
  might have failed by a segmentation fault for example?

Regards,
Markus

RE: Debugging software including background processes

[Breazeal, Don]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: gdb-owner@sourceware.org [mailto:gdb-owner@sourceware.org] On
> Behalf Of SF Markus Elfring
> Sent: Tuesday, July 28, 2015 1:51 PM
> To: gdb@sourceware.org
> Subject: Debugging software including background processes
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I would like to debug specific software occasionally which uses also
> background processes (on my openSUSE Tumbleweed system).
> 
> * Can the tool "gdb 7.9-3.1" be configured to start detailed debugging
>   if another background process will be started?
> 
> * How can a corresponding backtrace be collected and analysed if a
> subprocess
>   might have failed by a segmentation fault for example?


Markus,
The GDB manual's sections on debugging forks(https://sourceware.org/gdb/onlinedocs/gdb/Forks.html) and on debugging multiple programs (https://sourceware.org/gdb/onlinedocs/gdb/Inferiors-and-Programs.html#Inferiors-and-Programs) should help with this.  The Linux core(5) man page has information on naming core files that might also help.
--Don

Re: Debugging software including background processes

[SF Markus Elfring]

> The GDB manual's sections on debugging forks … and on debugging multiple programs … should help with this.

Thanks for your hint.

Are there any attempts to make the debugging of child processes
and several inferiors a bit more convenient by dedicated user interfaces?

Do you know if any scripts can be reused to collect corresponding data
inferiors and child processes in an easier way?

Regards,
Markus