idb: File > Open Core Dump.... greyed out

[Alexis_R_]

Hello,

With recent idb versions (currently I'm using xe 2011 sp1.10.319), I have been unable to open core dump files - the menu item is just greyed out. When I try from the command line (e.g. "idb my_exec core.1234"), idb just crashes out after a second or so (too fast for me to read output in the console).

It feels like I may be missing something obvious. On the other hand I remember being able to do this.

Any help much appreciated!

Alexis

[Rob_Mueller-Albrecht · Accepted solution]

Hi Alexis,

what you need to do to get this working is to use

$ idb -core &

The debugger actually has two operation modes. One for static core fiel debug and one for interactive debug

* When using the -core debugger option on startup, then the GUI switches to Post Mortem mode.

This enables the Open Core Dump menu and disables several other GUI commands that are not available in this static environment.

* When NOT using the -core debugger option on startup, then the GUI remains in Native mode.

Then Open Core Dump will be disabled and the normal Native features will be enabled.

----------------------------

This is not very well documented it seems. Once you opend the debugger in this mode the Open Core-Dump menu item will be available and allow you to open other alternative core dump files as well.

Thanks, Rob

[Alexis_R_]

Oh thanks a lot, that's good to know. I don't remember having had to do this in the past, and I have to say I agree with you about the documentation - before posting here I tried the documentation but couldn't find this info.

Thanks again!

[Rob_Mueller-Albrecht]

Thanks Alexis -

I'll file a documentation defect with our technical writing team.

[Georg_Z_Intel]

Hello,

regarding the missing documentation I just spoke with the responsible engineer:

We made the changes because of design requirements and an update of the manual was not possible. In such cases we document last-minute changes in the "Release Notes".
This is an excerpt from the Intel Composer XE 2011 Update 10 Release Notes:

4.5.4 Core File Debugging
To be able to debug core files you need to start the debugger (command line debugger idbc or
GUI debugger idb) with command-line options as follows:
idb|idbc

idb|idbc core
Once started with a core file, the debugger is not able to debug a live process e.g. attaching or
creating a new process. Also, when debugging a live process a core file cannot be debugged.

Best regards,

Georg Zitzlsberger