Product: 013147751X

If you build software targeted for the Linux operating system, odds are you’re going to run into a sticky problem now and then. You’ll need to know how to debug either your program or the Linux kernel to see what’s going on. This book can help you with that chore… Self-Service Linux - Mastering the Art of Problem Determination by Mark Wilding and Dan Behman.

Contents: Best Practices and Initial Investigation; strace and System Call Tracing Explained; The /proc Filesystem; Compiling; The Stack; The GNU Debugger (GDB); Linux System Crashes and Hangs; Kernel Debugging with KDB; ELF: Executable and Linking Format; The Toolbox; Data Collection Script; Index

This book has some pretty heavy-duty stuff it covers. It starts out with a well-thought-out methodology for debugging a system problem. These first 40 pages are like gold, and they’d be well-applied by any system developer, not just a Linux programmer. You’d think that developers would already know this stuff, but sadly it seems like a lost art all too often. From that point, things get deep into the different techniques for debugging problems specific to different areas of Linux. You many not need all the different sections, in that it may just be your program, not a problem with the kernel. But having all the information on debugging techniques in one place should cut down on a lot of research time, and will lead to much quicker system resolutions.

As Linux continues to grow in the market, I see the need for solid debugging skills to also be on the rise. This book will likely have a long shelf-life…
Rating: 4
013147751X
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