4 - Each DSO can now ship an ltrace config file (called prototype
5 library) that ltrace will open when that DSO is loaded to process
6 image. See ltrace(1) for details.
8 - ltrace.conf is no longer part of installation tarball. Instead,
9 we now ship libc.so.conf, libm.so.conf, libacl.so.conf, and
10 syscalls.conf. Those are now istalled to /usr/share/ltrace by
11 default. /etc/ltrace.conf and $HOME/.ltrace.conf are still
12 loaded if present, and can contain arbitrary user configuration.
14 - The option -F was retrofitted to be a colon-separated list of
15 prototype libraries, and directories to look for prototype
16 libraries in. On Linux, ltrace looks into XDG_CONFIG_HOME,
17 XDG_CONFIG_DIRS, and /usr/share/ltrace as well.
19 ** Architectural support
20 - MIPS and MIPSel are now handled by the same backend.
21 - ARMv6 and ARMv7 are supported, including full fetch backend.
22 - Imagination Technologies Meta is now supported.
23 - On Linux, tracing of IFUNC symbols is supported. On i386 and
24 x86_64, IRELATIVE PLT slots are traced as well.
26 ** -w output now shows full library path
27 The output format is similar to glibc's backtrace_symbols, e.g.:
28 > /bin/ls(_init+0x19be) [0x40398e]
29 > /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xed) [0x7f50cbc3676d]
30 > /bin/ls(_init+0x25fd) [0x4045cd]
32 * Version 0.7.3 [2013-09-15 Sun]
34 *** [MIPS] Fix build on mips big endian
35 This bug caused messages like:
37 | /bin/sh: line 17: cd: mips: No such file or directory
38 *** [MIPS] Fix SIGSEGV on mips big endian
39 This bug caused runtime messages like:
40 | [0x4000000] --- SIGSEGV (Segmentation fault) ---
41 | [0xffffffff] +++ killed by SIGSEGV +++
42 *** Fix build with CLANG on FREEBSD
44 * Version 0.7.2 [2012-12-07 Fri]
46 *** (Again) detect VDSO entry in r_debug linkmap with non-empty name
47 This bug caused messages like:
48 | Couldn't determine base address of linux-vdso32.so.1
49 | Couldn't load ELF object linux-vdso32.so.1: No such file or directory
50 *** Fix building with libunwind 1.1
51 *** Fix prototype lookup for -x symbols from shared libraries
52 Ltrace was unable to find prototypes of static symbols in shared
53 libraries. It changed the symbol name internally to the form
54 name@libfoo.so. Thus mangled, symbols were not found in config
57 * Version 0.7.1 [2012-11-29 Thu]
59 *** ltrace.conf.5 is now installed to man5 as it should be
60 *** [PowerPC] A header file necessary for building is now shipped
61 *** [MIPS] Work around duplicate symbol request bug
62 This fixes the ltrace abort:
63 | ./ltrace: proc.c: 755: breakpoint_for_symbol: Assertion `bp->libsym == ((void *)0)' failed.
65 *** Detect VDSO entry in r_debug linkmap with non-empty name
66 This bug caused messages like:
67 | Couldn't determine base address of linux-vdso32.so.1
68 | Couldn't load ELF object linux-vdso32.so.1: No such file or directory
70 *** Temporary files are wiped properly after the test suite has been run
71 *** Parsing typedefs with common prefix now works as it should
72 More exactly, if there were typedefs X and XY (in this order), and
73 a reference was made to X, ltrace would match XY instead.
76 *** The following prototypes in ltrace.conf were added or updated
77 __ctype_get_mb_cur_max, __endmntent, __getmntent_r, __setmntent,
78 a64l, abort, abs, addmntent, getmntent_r, hasmntopt, inet_addr,
79 inet_aton, inet_lnaof, inet_makeaddr, inet_netof, inet_network,
80 inet_ntoa, kill, l64a, labs, memcpy, memmove, setlocale,
81 sigaction, sigaddset, sigandset, sigdelset, sigemptyset,
82 sigfillset, sigisemptyset, sigismember, signal, sigorset,
83 sigpending, sigprocmask, sigsuspend.
85 *** Duplicate typedefs are now guarded against
86 *** It's now possible to define recursive structures
87 Please read ltrace.conf(5) man page, chapter "recursive
88 structures", to learn about this new feature.
90 *** New lens "bitvec" is available
91 This allows displaying various data types as bit vectors. Please
92 read ltrace.conf(5) to learn more.
94 *** Octal lens renamed to "oct"
95 For reasons of consistency with "hex". "octal" is still valid and
96 will be for forseeable future.
98 *** The hex lens can now format floating point arguments
100 * Version 0.7.0 [2012-11-09 Fri]
102 *** Full support for tracing multi-threaded processes
104 Ltrace now understands thread groups, and it stops all threads
105 before manipulating breakpoints. The downside is that performance
106 of multi-threaded processes is rather bad, because handling any
107 event implies stopping the whole job. The upside is that
108 individual threads don't get random SIGILL's and SIGSEGV's and
109 events are not missed.
111 *** Support for tracing inter-library calls
113 -e and -x were extended to allow library selectors. See the man
116 *** Better support for parameter passing ("fetch backend")
118 This version brings more complete support for parameter passing,
119 including passing structures in registers, passing double on i386,
120 and other edge cases that were not handled correctly before. The
121 following architectures now have implementation of fetch backend:
122 i386, x86_64, ppc, ppc64, ia64, s390, s390x, m68k.
124 *** Awareness of deny_ptrace SELinux boolean
126 The deny_ptrace boolean denies all processes from being able to
127 use ptrace to manipulate other processes. Ltrace now understands
128 that this boolean exists, and recommends turning it off, if it is
129 on and ltrace fails to attach to a process.
131 *** Limited support for tracing returns from tail call functions
132 *** -e, -x and -l selectors now allow using globs and regular expressions
134 See the man page for details of the selector syntax. This changes
135 the way -x and -l behave with respect to tracing libraries opened
138 - In 0.6.0, only those -x symbols that were unmatched in main
139 binary were used to search through symbol table of libraries
140 opened with dlopen. In 0.7.0, -x and -e are applied uniformly
141 to each mapped binary: the main binary, dependent DSO's, and any
144 - In 0.6.0, -l argument was a filename to open and inspect. In
145 0.7.0, -l is a glob expression matched against each mapped
148 *** -g command line option dropped
150 This option was introduced in 0.6.0 with the meaning identical to
151 -L, which should be used instead.
153 *** Test suite can now be run under valgrind
155 Use --enable-valgrind to turn this on.
157 *** [ppc] Support both BSS and secure PLTs for 32-bit processes
158 *** [mips] Implement software singlestepping
159 *** [mips] Add support for CPIC main programs
160 *** Support tracing PIE binaries
162 ** Configuration Files
164 *** New abstraction: parameter pack
166 Parameter packs describe zero or more of actual arguments, whose
167 type can be determined in runtime. The only parameter pack
168 currently implemented is "format" for decoding printf-style format
171 In future, it should be relatively straightforward to add more
172 parameter packs for functions like execl, and others.
174 *** New expression: zero
176 When used in array length expressions, it means "this array ends
177 at the first element with zero value". C strings are essentially
180 *** Lenses: change the way that underlying type is rendered
182 Lenses are used similarly to parametrized types, e.g.:
183 | void func(lens(int)); |
187 "octal", which used to be a separate type, is now lens, which can
188 be used to render any underlying type in base 8. Plain "octal"
189 is still valid and means the same thing as "octal(int)".
193 Similarly, "hex" lens was introduced to format as base 16.
194 "hide" was introduced to conceal given argument. "bool" lens was
195 added to format objects as either true, or false.
199 "enum" became lens as well. Because enum already uses
200 parentheses to denote the list of enumeration values, the
201 underlying type is selected by square brackets:
203 | void func(enum[short](RED,GREEN,BLUE)); |
207 "string" was also turned to lens. The argument can be either a
208 char*, or pointer to array of char, or array of char. The latter
209 is useful in cases like the following:
211 | void func_struct_2(struct(string(array(char, 6)))); |
213 *** Misspelling of "int" as "itn" temporarily accepted, but deprecated
215 Pre-0.7 ltrace shipped a buggy version of ltrace.conf that
216 contained the following prototype:
218 | itn acl_valid(addr); |
220 To support extant versions of ltrace.conf, that use is now
221 considered valid, and "itn" is a synonym of "int". It is however
222 deprecated, and will produce a warning in future.
224 *** Using void as top-level function argument now deprecated
226 Functions that take no arguments shouldn't pretend to take one
227 parameter of void type. For example the following:
231 ... should be declared like this:
235 To support extant versions of ltrace.conf, that use is now
236 considered valid. It is however deprecated, and will produce a
239 *** Using void to hide one argument is now obsolete
241 Ltrace needs to know the exact underlying type to decide what the
242 calling convention is. The use of void to mean "hide this
243 argument", such as the following example, is therefore obsolete:
245 | void func(void, array(int, arg1)); |
247 Instead, rewrite the prototype depending on the exact underlying
250 | void func(hide(int), array(int, arg1)); |
251 | void func(hide(long), array(int, arg1)); |
253 To support extant versions of ltrace.conf, this use is still
254 accepted, and "void" is taken to mean "hide(int)". It is however
255 obsolete, produces a warning, and will be removed in future.
259 *** New manual page ltrace.conf(5)
260 *** README, INSTALL brought up to date
261 *** New file CREDITS with a list of contributors
265 *** Fix detaching from a process
267 Earlier, a process that ltrace detached from would sometimes die
268 of SIGSEGV, SIGTRAP, or SIGILL. These were caused by ltrace
269 detaching from the process just after that process hit a
270 breakpoint. Program counter would thus be left pointing
271 mid-instruction, or signals would be left pending.
273 *** Argument to -n is now checked for validity
274 *** Fix tracing across exec in a stripped binary
275 *** [x86] ORIG_RAX/ORIG_EAX may not contain original syscall number
277 In cases where the system call shouldn't be restarted, these are
278 set to -1. In that case assume that the return is from the
279 topmost syscall. This gets rid of some "unexpected breakpoint"
280 messages on x86_64 and i386.
282 *** [ppc] Fix races in tracing -e events in 64-bit processes
284 On ppc, the contents of PLT table change after the first call.
285 Ltrace used to handle this by reinserting the (now overwritten)
286 breakpoint after the function returns. This introduced a window
287 where calls to the same function from the same binary (either a
288 recursive calls, or calls from another thread) weren't traced.
289 This is fixed as of 0.7.0.
291 As a side effect, events requested via -e now only hit when a PLT
292 call is made, which is consistent with other architectures.
294 *** [ppc] Allow stepping over lwarx instruction
298 *** [arm] Tracing is not supported at all on ARM
300 ltrace might work on older kernels, but no attempt was made to
301 fully support it. Newer kernels don't support PTRACE_SINGLESTEP,
302 which ltrace depends on. Before singlestepping is implemented in
303 software, ARM is considered unsupported.
305 * Version 0.6.0 [2011-01-06 Thu]
309 *** Use autotools for building
310 *** New option -b: disables output of signals received by the tracee
311 *** New option -w: print stack trace of events
313 Pass --with-libunwind to configure to enable the feature. This
316 *** Support tracing of symbols from libraries opened with dlopen
318 These symbols are selected by -x.
320 ** Architecture-specific Changes
322 *** Various fixes for MIPS and PowerPC
323 *** Support for ARM Thumb mode
324 *** Implement fetching of 5th and further function arguments on s390
325 *** Support fork/exec syscalls on 31-bit s390
326 *** Support for float and double arguments on x86_64
327 *** Fixes for return arguments (after '+') in nested calls on x86_64
330 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
331 Copyright (C) 2012,2013 Petr Machata <pmachata@redhat.com>
332 This file is part of ltrace.
334 ltrace is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
335 under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
336 Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
337 option) any later version.
339 ltrace is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
340 ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
341 FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
344 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
345 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.