Bug 32483

Summary: developers handbook should mention debug.enter_debugger
Product: Documentation Reporter: Archie Cobbs <archie>
Component: Books & ArticlesAssignee: freebsd-doc (Nobody) <doc>
Status: Closed FIXED    
Severity: Affects Only Me    
Priority: Normal    
Version: Latest   
Hardware: Any   
OS: Any   

Description Archie Cobbs 2001-12-04 00:50:01 UTC 
	The FreeBSD developer's handbook, in the chapter on kernel
	debugging, in the sections "On-line Kernel Debugging..."
	it doesn't seem to mention that there is a very easy way
	to make the kernel drop into DDB or GDB from the command line.

	You simply say one of these commands:

		$ sysctl -w debug.enter_debugger=ddb

	or

		$ sysctl -w debug.enter_debugger=gdb

	and the kernel immediately drops into the debugger.

	Often it's more convenient to let a system boot fully
	and then do the above gdb command that trying to rig up
	gdb from the boot prompt.
Comment 1 Murray Stokely freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2001-12-08 04:31:36 UTC 
State Changed
From-To: open->closed

Thanks for the submission!  I've added some text about this to  
section "15.4 On-Line Kernel Debugging Using DDB". 

This chapter in general needs a lot of work.  Do you think you could 
make a quick pass through the chapter and see if you can spot anything 
else that is outdated or no longer relevant?  It's not really my area 
of expertise.