How This Book Is Organized

Chapter 1, Modular Debugger Overview provides an overview of the debugger.

Chapter 2, Debugger Concepts describes the MDB architecture and explains the terminology for the debugger concepts used throughout this book.

Chapter 3, MDB Language Syntax describes the syntax, operators and evaluation rules for the MDB language.

Chapter 4, Using MDB Commands Interactively describes the MDB interactive command-line editing facilities and output pager.

Chapter 5, Built-In Commands describes the set of built-in debugger commands that are always available.

Chapter 6, Execution Control describes the MDB facilities for controlling the execution of live running programs. This chapter is intended for application developers and device driver developers. Execution control features might also be useful for system administrators.

Chapter 7, Kernel Execution Control describes the MDB facilities for controlling the execution of the live operating system kernel that are specific to kmdb. This chapter is intended for operating system kernel developers and device driver developers.

Chapter 8, Kernel Debugging Modules describes the set of loadable debugger commands that are provided for debugging the Oracle Solaris kernel. This chapter is intended for users who intend to examine kernel crash dumps and for kernel software developers.

Chapter 9, Debugging With the Kernel Memory Allocator describes the debugging features of the Oracle Solaris kernel memory allocator and the MDB commands provided to take advantage of these features. This chapter is intended for advanced programmers and kernel software developers.

Chapter 10, Module Programming API describes the facilities for writing loadable debugger modules. This chapter is intended for advanced programmers and software developers who intend to develop custom debugging support for MDB.

Appendix A, MDB Options provides a reference for MDB command-line options.

Appendix B, Notes provides warnings and notes about using the debugger.

Appendix C, Transition From adb and kadb provides a reference for adb commands and their MDB equivalents. The adb command is implemented by mdb.

Appendix D, Transition From crash provides a reference for crash commands and their MDB equivalents. The crash command is no longer present in the Oracle Solaris OS.