Automation API: extending UDB¶

The debugger_extensions package provides functionalities which can be used from inside the debugger.

Most of the functionalities as provided through the udb object (see the documentation on its interface for details) in the debugger_extensions module, but the module also provides other utility functions and types.

Inferface for the `udb` object¶

The following classes represent the interface of the udb object in the debugger_extensions module and they cannot be instantiated by the user.

class debugger_extensions.controller.Recording¶

Groups methods related to recording files.

Access this as udb.recording. For instance, to load a recording, do:

from undodb.debugger_extensions import udb

udb.recording.load('recording_file_name.undo')

load(recording_filename: str) → None¶

Loads the recording for the execution of a program from the specified file.

This method corresponds to the functionality provided by the uload command.

Parameters: recording_filename (str) – The path of the file to load.
Raises: debugger_extensions.LoadError – If the loading of the recording fails.

save(recording_filename: str) → None¶

Saves the current execution history to the specified file.

This method corresponds to the functionality provided by the usave command.

Parameters: recording_filename (str) – The path of the recording file to load.
Raises: SaveError – If the saving fails.

class debugger_extensions.controller.Time¶

Groups methods related to times in execution history.

Access this as udb.time. For instance, to go to the end of the execution history, do:

from undodb.debugger_extensions import udb

udb.time.goto_end()

For details on how UDB represents time, see UDB time notation.

auto_reverting() → Iterator[None]¶

Context manager to automatically revert to the current time at the beginning of the block when execution leaves it.

This can be used to do some goto or similar operations and then revert the time:

with udb.time.auto_reverting():
    udb.time.goto_start()
    ...
    udb.time.goto(...)
    ...
    ...

get() → debugger_extensions._udb_wrapper.Time ¶

Gets the current time in execution history.

Returns: The current time in execution history.
Return type: debugger_extensions.Time

get_wallclock_extent() → Tuple[datetime.datetime, datetime.datetime]¶

Gets the wall clock time corresponding to the start and end of the recorded history of the currently running process or loaded LiveRecorder recording.

Returns: A tuple with the start and end times as UTC datetime instances. The first element is the time when recording of the target process started. The second element is the time when the recording session stopped for LiveRecorder recordings; for live debugging sessions it’s the current time (as debugging has not terminated yet).

goto(time: Union[debugger_extensions._udb_wrapper.Time, int]) → None¶

Goes to the specified time in execution history.

Parameters: time (debugger_extensions.Time | int) – The time to go to. It can be either a debugger_extensions.Time or, for convenience, just an integer representing the bbcount.

goto_end()¶: Go to the latest time in recording history.

goto_start()¶: Goes to the earliest time in recording history.

class debugger_extensions.controller.Udb¶

The main component to control UDB.

get_event_log_extent()¶

Gets the range of bbcounts available in recorded history.

Returns: A named tuple representing the range of bbcounts. The first element (also accessible as start) is the oldest point in recorded history. The second element (also accessible as end) is the most recent point in recorded history.

get_signal_info()¶

Returns the details of the latest signal sent to the debugged program.

Returns: An object describing the latest signal delivered or None if this information is not available, for instance because no program is running.
Return type: (debugger_extensions.SigInfo | None)

The `debugger_extensions` package¶

Package for code available only to extensions running inside UDB.

debugger_extensions.udb¶: The main object used to access UDB functionalities, see the documentation on its interface.

exception debugger_extensions.LoadError(filename: str, msg: str)¶: An error occurred while trying to load a recording.

exception debugger_extensions.NotRecordingError(*args, **kwargs)¶

Raised while in deferred recording mode if UDB tries to execute an operation which requires the debugged process to be recorded.

This happens, for instance, if a reverse-execution command is used in deferred recording mode.

exception debugger_extensions.NotRunningError(*args, **kwargs)¶

Raised if UDB tries to execute an operation which requires the debugged process to be running, but the process was not started.

This happens, for instance, if a command like next is used before running the process with the run, start or starti commands.

class debugger_extensions.RecordingTime(bbcount: int, pc: Optional[int] = None)¶: Deprecated since version 6.4: use Time instead.

exception debugger_extensions.SaveError(filename: str, msg: str)¶: An error occurred while trying to save a recording.

class debugger_extensions.SigInfo(si_signo: int, si_code: int, from_event_replay: bool)¶

Information about a signal delivered to a program.

This class mirrors the siginfo_t C structure (see man 2 sigaction), but also contains UDB specific fields.

from_event_replay: bool¶

True if the signal was replayed from an event that happened during the recording of the program. False if the signal corresponds to a real signal delivered to the program.

This is useful, for instance, to distinguish if a SIGINT corresponds the the user pressing CTRL-C while replaying a recording or if the signal was recorded at execution time.

si_code: int¶

Extra information about the signal whose value depends on the value of si_signo.

See the sigaction man page for details.

si_signo: int¶

The number of the received signal.

See the signal module for details.

class debugger_extensions.Time(bbcount: int, pc: Optional[int] = None)¶

A time in execution history.

For details on how UDB represents time, see UDB time notation.

bbcount: int¶

The bbcount for this time.

Type: int

pc: Optional[int] = None¶

The PC (program counter) for this time or None if the PC is not specified.

Type: int or None

to_string(include_pc: bool = True, extend_pc: bool = False) → str¶

Converts this time into a string suitable for displaying to the user.

This is equivalent to using str, unless any argument is specified.

Parameters

include_pc (bool) – If true, then the returned string contains the PC, if it’s available, otherwise the PC is omitted.
extend_pc (bool) – If true, then the PC part of the return values is padded with zeroes to make all the PCs from different times the same width.

Returns

A string representation of the time.

Return type

str

exception debugger_extensions.WrongExecutionModeError(*args, **kwargs)¶

Raised if UDB tries to execute an operation which is not supported in the current execution mode.

This class cannot be instantiated directly, instantiate an appropriate subclass instead. See NotRecordingError, NotRunningError, and NotSupportedWithCoreFile.

Utilities built around the `gdb` module¶

Utility functions built around GDB and the gdb module.

debugger_extensions.debugger_utils.execute_to_string(cmd: str, *, styled: bool = False) → str¶

Executes cmd returning the output (rather than printing it to standard output).

By default, the output is not styled (that is, it doesn’t contain ANSI escape codes) making it easier to process and parse. The output is styled if the styled argument is True making it suitable to print on standard output. System GDB may not support the styled argument to gdb.exexute(), see gdbfeatures.has_execute_to_string_styled. In this case the styled argument is ignored and the returned string is never styled.

This function wraps gdb.execute() with the to_string argument set to True but without being affected by command tracing. Command tracing, if enabled, means that commands being executed are displayed preceeded by a +. If a command calls another command, then the second command will be preceeded by ++, and so on. See help set trace-commands for more details.

debugger_extensions.debugger_utils.suspend_breakpoints(normal_breakpoints=True, watchpoints=True) → Iterator[None]¶

Context manager to temporarily disable breakpoints.

The breakpoints which were previously enabled are automatically restored when the context manager block is left.

It is safe to create or delete breakpoints inside the block.

By default, all types of breakpoints, that is, both watchpoints and normal breakpoints, are disabled. See the normal_breakpoints and watchpoints arguments to change this behaviour.

Example:

with debugger_utils.suspend_breakpoints():
    # No breakpoints (of any type) here.
    ...

# Previosuly enabled breakpoints restored here.

To disable only normal breakpoints but not watchpoints:

with debugger_utils.suspend_breakpoints(watchpoints=False):
    # No normal breakpoints here, but watchpoints still enabled.
    ...

# Normal breakpoints restored here. The watchpoints were never affected.

Parameters

normal_breakpoints (bool) – Whether normal breakpoints (both software and hardware) should be disabled or not.
watchpoints (bool) – Whether watchpoints (all types, including read, write and read/write ones) should be disabled.

debugger_extensions.debugger_utils.temporary_parameter(parameter, temporary_value) → Iterator[None]¶

Context manager that executes its block with the parameter called parameter (see gdb.parameter) temporarily set to temporary_value.

For instance, to temporarily disable pagination and then restore it to its initial value at the end of the block execution, do:

with debugger_utils.temporary_parameter('pagination', False):
    ...

Controlling input and output¶

Utility functions to deal with I/O in the debugger.

class debugger_extensions.debugger_io.CollectOutput¶

Context manager that captures all the output produced during the execution of its block. The accumulated output is acessible via the output property.

The context manager redirects both the output produced by UDB directly and direct writes to sys.stdout or sys.stderr.

For instance:

with CollectOutput() as collector:
    gdb.execute('echo He')
    print(collector.output) # Will print "He"

    gdb.execute('echo llo')
    print(collector.output) # Will print "Hello"

print(collector.output) # Will print "Hello"

It’s safe to nest multiple CollectOutput instances. The output will be collected only by the most nested instance of CollectOutput:

with CollectOutput() as outer:
    gdb.execute('echo Hello ')

    with CollectOutput() as inner:
        gdb.execute(r'echo Something else')

    gdb.execute('echo world')

print(outer.output) # Will print "Hello world"
print(inner.output) # Will print "Something else"

If you need the output to go to a file, use RedirectOutput instead.

property output: str¶

Get the output collected up so far.

It’s safe to access this both within the with block and after the block terminated.

class debugger_extensions.debugger_io.RedirectOutput(path: str, overwrite: bool = True)¶

Context manager that redirects all the output produced during the execution of its block to a file.

The context manager redirects both the output produced by UDB directly and direct writes to sys.stdout or sys.stderr.

For instance:

with RedirectOutput('some_file.txt'):
    gdb.execute('echo Hello\n')

Will write Hello\n to some_file.txt.

It’s safe to nest multiple RedirectOutput instances. The output will be redirected to the file specified by the most nested instance of RedirectOutput

If you want to redirect the output for later use in your code but you don’t need it to be in a file, use CollectOutput instead.

debugger_extensions.debugger_io.redirect_to_launcher_output() → Iterator[None]¶

Context manager that redirects all the output produced during the execution of its block to the standard output of the UdbLauncher.

This is useful to discard all the output from a UDB launched through the UdbLauncher except for the parts printed inside this context manager.

For instance, you could start UDB like this:

launcher = udb_launcher.UdbLauncher()
launcher.add_extension('code_to_run_inside_undodb')
launcher.run_debugger(output=os.devnull)

This makes all the normal output from UDB be redirected to /dev/null. If you have some output you want to preserve coming from the extension running inside UDB, you can do this:

with launcher.redirect_to_launcher_output():
    print('This will come out instead of ending up in /dev/null!')
    gdb.execute('echo And this too!\n')

If UDB was not launched through UdbLauncher, then the output is not redirected and is printed to the normal standard output.

Automation API: extending UDB¶

Inferface for the udb object¶

The debugger_extensions package¶

Utilities built around the gdb module¶

Controlling input and output¶

Inferface for the `udb` object¶

The `debugger_extensions` package¶

Utilities built around the `gdb` module¶