FreeBSD kernel Debugging tools for Virtual Memory Module

[Pranav Peshwe]

On Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 7:57 AM, Kamlesh Patel <shilp.kamal at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Hi Friends, Happy New Year,
>
> I am working on Virtual Memory parts of FreeBSD OS. My Problem is, whenever
> i modify little code of vmpage.c file i need to build the whole kernel to
> check the modification and i even am not able to debug the kernel code.
>
> Could anyone please inform me kernel Debugging tools for FreeBSD OS?
>


Hi,
   ddb and kgdb are two useful and often indispensable tools for kernel
debugging on FBSD. ddb won't allow you source level debugging, kgdb will,
but you'll need an extra machine. Dtrace from the Solaris world is being
ported to FBSD, that too can be useful at times.
You can find more information in the FBSD developers handbook here -
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/developers-handbook/kerneldebug.html

AFAIK, if you are modifying the kernel source directly  there is no option
but to recompile all the changed and dependent files. I do not know whether
it works out of the box, but you can try using ccache to speed up the
compilation.

HTH.

Best regards,
Pranav
http://pranavsbrain.peshwe.com