From 6e7de13ac928f0928b03f8bf4d533936692e743a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Petr Machata Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2014 11:50:49 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] Improve wording on -e, -x, -l in ltrace.1 --- ltrace.1 | 25 ++++++++++++++++--------- 1 file changed, 16 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-) diff --git a/ltrace.1 b/ltrace.1 index f683844..93032f2 100644 --- a/ltrace.1 +++ b/ltrace.1 @@ -122,11 +122,13 @@ describing which debug messages should be displayed. Use the option \-Dh to see what can be used, but note that currently the only reliable debugmask is 77, which shows all debug messages. .IP "\-e \fIfilter" -A qualifying expression which modifies which library calls to trace. -The format of the filter expression is described in the section -\fBFILTER EXPRESSIONS\fR. If more than one \-e option appears on the -command line, the library calls that match any of them are traced. If -no \-e is given, \fB@MAIN\fR is assumed as a default. +A qualifying expression which modifies which library calls (i.e. calls +done through PLT slots, which are typically calls from the main binary +to a library, or inter-library calls) to trace. The format of the +filter expression is described in the section \fBFILTER +EXPRESSIONS\fR. If more than one \-e option appears on the command +line, the library calls that match any of them are traced. If no \-e +is given, \fB@MAIN\fR is assumed as a default. .IP \-f Trace child processes as they are created by currently traced processes as a result of the fork(2) @@ -145,6 +147,9 @@ Print the instruction pointer at the time of the library call. .IP "\-l, \-\-library \fIlibrary_pattern" Display only calls to functions implemented by libraries that match .I library_pattern. +This is as if you specified one \-e for every symbol implemented in a +library specified by +.I library_pattern. Multiple library patters can be specified with several instances of this option. Syntax of library_pattern is described in section \fBFILTER EXPRESSIONS\fR. @@ -200,10 +205,12 @@ option enabled only if elfutils or libunwind support was enabled at compile time. .IP "\-x \fIfilter" A qualifying expression which modifies which symbol table entry points -to trace. The format of the filter expression is described in the -section \fBFILTER EXPRESSIONS\fR. If more than one \-x option appears -on the command line, the symbols that match any of them are traced. -No entry points are traced if no \-x is given. +to trace (those are typically calls inside a library or main binary, +though PLT calls, traced by \-e, land on entry points as well). The +format of the filter expression is described in the section \fBFILTER +EXPRESSIONS\fR. If more than one \-x option appears on the command +line, the symbols that match any of them are traced. No entry points +are traced if no \-x is given. .IP "\-V, \-\-version" Show the version number of ltrace and exit. -- 2.7.4