Android ndk-stack tool
----------------------
Introduction:
-------------
This document describes the 'ndk-stack' tool that is distributed with
the Android NDK, since release r6.
Overview:
---------
'ndk-stack' is a simple tool that allows you to filter stack traces as they
appear in the output of 'adb logcat' and replace any address inside a shared
library with the corresponding <source-file>
:
<line-number>
values.
In a nutshell, it will translate something like:
I/DEBUG ( 31): *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
I/DEBUG ( 31): Build fingerprint: 'generic/google_sdk/generic/:2.2/FRF91/43546:eng/test-keys'
I/DEBUG ( 31): pid: 351, tid: 351 %gt;%gt;%gt; /data/local/ndk-tests/crasher <<<
I/DEBUG ( 31): signal 11 (SIGSEGV), fault addr 0d9f00d8
I/DEBUG ( 31): r0 0000af88 r1 0000a008 r2 baadf00d r3 0d9f00d8
I/DEBUG ( 31): r4 00000004 r5 0000a008 r6 0000af88 r7 00013c44
I/DEBUG ( 31): r8 00000000 r9 00000000 10 00000000 fp 00000000
I/DEBUG ( 31): ip 0000959c sp be956cc8 lr 00008403 pc 0000841e cpsr 60000030
I/DEBUG ( 31): #00 pc 0000841e /data/local/ndk-tests/crasher
I/DEBUG ( 31): #01 pc 000083fe /data/local/ndk-tests/crasher
I/DEBUG ( 31): #02 pc 000083f6 /data/local/ndk-tests/crasher
I/DEBUG ( 31): #03 pc 000191ac /system/lib/libc.so
I/DEBUG ( 31): #04 pc 000083ea /data/local/ndk-tests/crasher
I/DEBUG ( 31): #05 pc 00008458 /data/local/ndk-tests/crasher
I/DEBUG ( 31): #06 pc 0000d362 /system/lib/libc.so
I/DEBUG ( 31):
Into the more readable output:
********** Crash dump: **********
Build fingerprint: 'generic/google_sdk/generic/:2.2/FRF91/43546:eng/test-keys'
pid: 351, tid: 351 >>> /data/local/ndk-tests/crasher <<<
signal 11 (SIGSEGV), fault addr 0d9f00d8
Stack frame #00 pc 0000841e /data/local/ndk-tests/crasher : Routine zoo in /tmp/foo/crasher/jni/zoo.c:13
Stack frame #01 pc 000083fe /data/local/ndk-tests/crasher : Routine bar in /tmp/foo/crasher/jni/bar.c:5
Stack frame #02 pc 000083f6 /data/local/ndk-tests/crasher : Routine my_comparison in /tmp/foo/crasher/jni/foo.c:9
Stack frame #03 pc 000191ac /system/lib/libc.so
Stack frame #04 pc 000083ea /data/local/ndk-tests/crasher : Routine foo in /tmp/foo/crasher/jni/foo.c:14
Stack frame #05 pc 00008458 /data/local/ndk-tests/crasher : Routine main in /tmp/foo/crasher/jni/main.c:19
Stack frame #06 pc 0000d362 /system/lib/libc.so
Usage:
------
To do this, you will first need a directory containing symbolic versions of your
application's shared libraries. If you use the NDK build system (i.e. ndk-build),
then these are always located under $PROJECT_PATH/obj/local/<ab>, where
<ab> stands for your device's ABI (i.e. 'armeabi' by default).
You can feed the logcat text either as direct input to the program, e.g.:
adb logcat | $NDK/ndk-stack -sym $PROJECT_PATH/obj/local/armeabi
Or you can use the -dump option to specify the logcat as an input file, e.g.:
adb logcat > /tmp/foo.txt
$NDK/ndk-stack -sym $PROJECT_PATH/obj/local/armeabi -dump foo.txt
** IMPORTANT **:
The tool looks for the initial line containing starts in the logcat output,
i.e. something that looks like:
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
When copy/pasting traces, don't forget this line from the traces, or
ndk-stack won't work correctly.
TODO:
-----
A future version of 'ndk-stack' will try to launch 'adb logcat' and select the
library path automatically. For now, you'll have to do these steps manually.
As of now, ndk-stack doesn't handle libraries that don't have debug information
in them. It may be useful to try to detect the nearest function entry point to
a given PC address (e.g. as in the libc.so example above).