Programmable debuggers and the Linux kernel (drg...
summary
drgn exposes kernel types as Python objects backed by a C core, reads vmlinux and kcore (with parallel DWARF loading), and already provides helpers for slab caches, linked‑list iteration and pluggable unwinders including ORC. an alternative approach wires poke’s domain‑specific pickles into GDB so a new code command and libpoke let GDB read/write inferiors and decode ELF TCP USB payloads inline. tradeoffs: drgn favors fast dump analysis and kernel‑aware helpers; GDB+poke leverages existing debugger UX and pickles for rich payload parsing.
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chapters (8)
- 0:00Introduction to Dragon
- 5:20Dragon overview and features
- 10:49Replacing Dragon with GDB and Poke
- 16:29Discussion on kernel debugging needs
- 25:46Use cases for programmable debuggers
- 32:00Performance and use case trade-offs
- 34:27Dump vs live debugging
- 38:06Q&A and closing
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