Gain insights into debugging Linux process and kernel failures using GDB and crash utility. Delve into memory dump analysis, identifying issues like memory leaks, CPU spikes, and deadlocks.

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It’s essential to examine core dumps to diagnose any non-trivial hangs or crashes due to a user process or the kernel faults. Most people have no training in dealing with core dumps, so the causes of most crashes remain undiagnosed.

This course starts with debugging core dumps. You will learn how to debug the Linux process and kernel failures (using the GDB debugger and the crash utility), browse core memory dumps, identify corruption, memory leaks, CPU spikes, halted threads, deadlocks and wait chains, among other things.

Instead of taking a theoretical route, you will focus on hands-on lessons on a variety of memory analysis patterns found in 64-bit core memory dumps from the x64 architecture. You will follow the novel pattern-oriented diagnostic analysis approach that considerably helps with the analysis. Moreover, the course will provide you with problematic applications and the associated core dumps, along with brief descriptions of relevant patterns and some frequently asked questions.

Accelerated Linux Core Dump Analysis

In Debian-based systems, which memory range is reserved for catching `NULL` pointers?

In Debian-based systems, which memory range is reserved for catching <code>NULL</code> pointers?

**(True or False)** The unallocated memory is saved in the core dump.

(True or False) The unallocated memory is saved in the core dump.

**(True or False)** A hidden exception is an exception that’s not handled in the code, resulting in it being reported in the stack traces.

(True or False) A hidden exception is an exception that’s not handled in the code, resulting in it being reported in the stack traces.

Which file contains the format of the core dump filenames?

Which file contains the format of the core dump filenames?

It will kill the process without generating the core dump.

It will kill the process and generate the core dump.

It will not kill the process; it will  just take a snapshot of the running process and save it as a dump.


Suppose you have a running process with PID `2`. The command `kill -s SIGQUIT 2` will do what?


Suppose you have a running process with PID <code>2</code>. The command <code>kill -s SIGQUIT 2</code> will do what?

**(Select all that apply.)** What are the main ingredients of the pattern-oriented diagnostic analysis pipeline?



(Select all that apply.) What are the main ingredients of the pattern-oriented diagnostic analysis pipeline?

Test your knowledge of the fundamentals of core dump analysis.

Getting Started

Fundamentals of Core Dump Analysis

Using GDB With Multi-Threaded Applications

Null Pointer Patterns and External Debugging Information

Spiking Threads

Heap Corruption

Stack Corruption and Overflow

Active Threads

Runtime Exceptions and Execution Residues

Heap Errors

Deadlocks

Post-processing

Kernel Dump Analysis with Crash

Wrapping Up

Appendix

Quiz: Fundamentals of Core Dump Analysis