xref: /dragonfly/lib/libexecinfo/backtrace.3 (revision 0ca59c34)
1.\"	$NetBSD: backtrace.3,v 1.5 2013/08/22 17:08:43 christos Exp $
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4.\" Copyright (c) 2012 The NetBSD Foundation, Inc.
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7.\" This code is derived from software contributed to The NetBSD Foundation
8.\" by Christos Zoulas
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31.Dd November 3, 2015
32.Dt BACKTRACE 3
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm backtrace
36.Nd fill in the backtrace of the currently executing thread
37.Sh LIBRARY
38.Lb libexecinfo
39.Sh SYNOPSIS
40.In execinfo.h
41.Ft size_t
42.Fn backtrace "void **addrlist" "size_t len"
43.Ft "char **"
44.Fn backtrace_symbols "void * const *addrlist" "size_t len"
45.Ft int
46.Fn backtrace_symbols_fd "void * const *addrlist" "size_t len" "int fd"
47.Ft "char **"
48.Fn backtrace_symbols_fmt "void * const *addrlist" "size_t len" "const char *fmt"
49.Ft int
50.Fn backtrace_symbols_fd_fmt "void * const *addrlist" "size_t len" "const char *fmt" "int fd"
51.Sh DESCRIPTION
52The
53.Fn backtrace
54function places into the array pointed by
55.Fa addrlist
56the array of the values of the program counter for each frame called up to
57.Fa len
58frames.
59The number of frames found (which can be fewer than
60.Fa len )
61is returned.
62.Pp
63The
64.Fn backtrace_symbols_fmt
65function takes an array of previously filled addresses from
66.Fn backtrace
67in
68.Fa addrlist
69of
70.Fa len
71elements, and uses
72.Fa fmt
73to format them.
74The formatting characters available are:
75.Bl -tag -width a -offset indent
76.It Dv a
77The numeric address of each element as would be printed using %p.
78.It Dv n
79The name of the nearest function symbol (smaller than the address element)
80as determined by
81.Xr dladdr 3
82if the symbol was dynamic, or looked up in the executable if static and
83the /proc filesystem is available to determine the executable path.
84.It Dv d
85The difference of the symbol address and the address element printed
86using 0x%tx.
87.It Dv D
88The difference of the symbol address and the address element printed using
89+0x%tx if non-zero, or nothing if zero.
90.It Dv f
91The filename of the symbol as determined by
92.Xr dladdr 3 .
93.El
94.Pp
95The array of formatted strings is returned as a contiguous memory address which
96can be freed by a single
97.Xr free 3 .
98.Pp
99The
100.Fn backtrace_symbols
101function is equivalent of calling
102.Fn backtrace_symbols_fmt
103with a format argument of
104.Dv "%a <%n%D> at %f"
105.Pp
106The
107.Fn backtrace_symbols_fd
108and
109.Fn backtrace_symbols_fd_fmt
110are similar to the non _fd named functions, only instead of returning
111an array or strings, they print a new-line separated array of strings in
112fd, and return
113.Dv 0
114on success and
115.Dv \-1
116on failure.
117.Sh RETURN VALUES
118The
119.Fn backtrace
120function returns the number of elements that were filled in the backtrace.
121The
122.Fn backtrace_symbols
123and
124.Fn backtrace_symbols_fmt
125return a string array on success, and
126.Dv NULL
127on failure, setting
128.Va errno .
129Diagnostic output may also be produced by the ELF symbol lookup functions.
130.Sh SEE ALSO
131.Xr dladdr 3
132.\".Xr elf 3
133.Sh HISTORY
134The
135.Fn backtrace
136library of functions first appeared in
137.Nx 7.0
138and
139.Fx 10.0 .
140.Sh BUGS
141.Bl -enum
142.It
143Errors should not be printed but communicated to the caller differently.
144.\".It
145.\"Because these functions use
146.\".Xr elf 3
147.\"this is a separate library instead of being part of libc/libutil
148.\"so that no library dependencies are introduced.
149.It
150The Linux versions of the functions (there are no _fmt variants) use
151.Ft int
152instead of
153.Ft size_t
154arguments.
155.El
156