Running a process on Fuchsia is more complicated than in other systems because there are different loader environments (see “A note about launcher environments” below).
The only way to reliably debug all types of processes is to create a filter on the process name via “attach” and start it the normal way you would start that process. The process name is usually the name of the build target that generates it. To check what this is, use “ps” (either in the debugger or from a system shell) with it running.
Note: only the first 32 bytes of the name are included in the Zircon process description. Sometimes the number of path components can cause the name to be truncated. If the filter isn't working, check the actual name in “ps”. We hope to have a better way to match this in the future.
This example sets a pending breakpoint on main to stop at the beginning of execution, and waits for a process called “my_app” to start:
[zxdb] attach my_app Waiting for process matching "my_app" [zxdb] break main Breakpoint 1 (Software) on Global, Enabled, stop=All, @ main Pending: No matches for location, it will be pending library loads.
Then run the process the way you would in normal use (directly on the command line, via fx test, via the shell's run fuchsia-pkg://..., or another way. The debugger should then immediately break on main (it may take some time to load symbols so you may see a delay before showing the source code):
Attached Process 1 [Running] koid=51590 my_app.cmx 🛑 on bp 1 main(…) • main.cc:222 220 } 221 ▶ 222 int main(int argc, const char* argv[]) { 223 foo::CommandLineOptions options; 224 cmdline::Status status = ParseCommandLine(argc, argv, &options);
You can then do basic commands that are similar to GDB:
next step print argv[1] continue quit
The following loader environments all have different capabilities (in order from least capable to most capable):
run <file name> command (base system process stuff).fx shell (adds some libraries).run and the debugger’s run -c <package url> (adds component capabilities).fx test.This panoply of environments is why the debugger can't have a simple “run” command that always works.
Minimal console apps including some unit tests can be launched directly from within the debugger which avoids the above “attach” dance:
[zxdb] break main Breakpoint 1 (Software) on Global, Enabled, stop=All, @ $main Pending: No matches for location, it will be pending library loads. [zxdb] run /bin/cowsay
If you get a shared library load error or errors about files or services not being found, it means the app can‘t be run from within the debugger’s launcher environment. This is true even for things that may seem relatively simple.
Components that can be executed with the console command run fuchsia-pkg://... can be loaded in the debugger with the following command, substituting your component's URL:
[zxdb] run -c fuchsia-pkg://fuchsia.com/your\_app#meta/your\_app.cmx
Not all components can be launched this way since most higher-level services won‘t be accessible: if you can’t do run ... from the system console, it won‘t work from the debugger either. Note also that fx test is a different environment. According to your test’s dependencies, it may or may not work from the debugger's run command.
You can attach to most running processes given the process’ koid (the kernel object ID that, when applied to a process, is equivalent to a process ID on other systems). You can get the koid by running ps on the target Fuchsia system or use zxdb's built-in ps command:
[zxdb] ps j: 1030 root j: 1079 zircon-drivers p: 1926 driver_host:sys ...
In this listing, “j:” indicates a job (a container for processes) and “p:” indicates a process. The number following the type prefix is the object's koid.
Then to attach:
[zxdb] attach 3517 Process 1 Running koid=1249 pwrbtn-monitor
When you’re done, you can choose to detach (keep running) or kill (terminate) the process.
By default the debugger will attampt to attach to the root job so process launch filters will apply globally. Normally this will appear as “job 1” in the debugger:
[zxdb] job # State Koid Name 1 Attached 1027 root
You can also apply filters for processes launched in a specific job. First attach to the job using the attach-job command, specifying the job's koid:
[zxdb] attach-job 30053 Job 2 state=Attached koid=30053 name=""
The debugger will now be attached to two jobs, with the new job being the current one:
[zxdb] job # State Koid Name 1 Attached 1027 root â–¶ 2 Attached 30053
Now you can make a filter (see above) that applies to the process names only to this job by prefixing the attach command with the job object number (not koid) created above:
[zxdb] job 2 attach my_app Waiting for process matching "my_app". Type "filter" to see the current filters.
You can also attach to all current and future processes in a job using the * wildcard as the filter name:
[zxdb] attach-job 30053 Job 2 state=Attached koid=30053 name="" [zxdb] job 2 attach * Attached Process 1 state=Running koid=28071 name=sysmem_connector.cm
Warning: Be careful only to use the wildcard
attach *command with an explicit, narrowly-scoped job. Making a global filter or applying it to a job with too many children can attach to too many processes that may include drivers necessary for the system to function.
It's not currently possible to set up the debugger early enough in system startup to debug most driver initialization. And since zxdb itself uses the network and filesystem, no drivers associated with network communication can be debuged, and neither can many drivers associated with storage or other critical system functions.
Driver debugging support is tracked in issue 5456.
You can debug running drivers by attaching like any other process (see “Attaching to an existing process”). You can delay initialization to allow time to attach by adding a busyloop at the beginning of your code:
volatile bool stop = false; while (!stop) {}
To break out of the loop after attaching, either set the variable to true:
[zxdb] print stop = true true [zxdb] continue
Or jump to the line after the loop:
[zxdb] jump <line #> [zxdb] continue
Zxdb supports loading a minidump generated by a crash report. Use the “opendump” verb and supply the local file name of the dump. The debugger must not be attached to another dump or a running system (use “disconnect” first if so).
[zxdb] opendump upload_file_minidump-e71256ba30163a0.dmp Opening dump file Dump loaded successfully.
Now the thread, stack, and memory commands can be used to inspect the state of the program. Use disconnect to close the dump.
It's also possible to use the ffx debug core command, for example:
ffx debug core upload_file_minidump-e71256ba30163a0.dmp
To tell zxdb to look for debug symbols for your core dump in a GCS URL and download those symbols automatically, run the following command, substituting the location of your symbols:
zxdb --symbol-server gs://my-bucket-name/namespace
In-tree users automatically have the option set, with the server pointed to a bucket containing symbols for all release builds.
The first time you use the symbol server, you will have to authenticate using the auth command. The authentication flow will require you to complete part of the authentication in your browser.
[zxdb] auth To authenticate, please supply an authentication token. You can retrieve a token from: https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/v2/< very long URL omitted > Once you've retrieved a token, run 'auth <token>' [zxdb] auth 4/hAF-pASODIFUASDIFUASODIUFSADF329827349872V6 Successfully authenticated with gs://fuchsia-artifacts-release/debug
You can debug many arbitrary processes at the same time. Attaching or running when a process is already running in the debugger will just create a new one in parallel.
Recall from the “Interaction model” section you can list the current processes with:
[zxdb] process # State Koid Name â–¶ 1 Running 1249 pwrbtn-monitor 2 Not running 7235 pwrbtn-monitor
Select one of those as the default by providing its index (not koid):
[zxdb] process 2
Or apply commands to a specific process (even if it’s not the default) with:
[zxdb] process 2 pause