Hi,

We are developing a crash analisys tool -- xencrash --
like "crash" for Xen hypervisor.

Though the structure of Linux and Xen hypervisor is different,
the requirements for an analisys tool is same essentially.
I think "crash" can be spported analisys of Xen hypervisor
to add quite small modification, and this is best way to
avoid reinvent the wheel.

The attached patch is a prototype of xencrash and it is
a proof-of-concept mentioned above.
(I think this is already usefull for developers of Xen
 hypervisor thouth it is a prototype and only support x86.)

Please evaluate this if you are interesting in crash analisys
for Xen hypervisor. (We must analyze both Linux kernel and
Xen hypervisor. Don't you?)
Any comments are welcome.

To use xencrash:
- cd crash-4.0-3.8
- zcat xencrash-4.0-3.8-0.1.patch.gz | patch -p1
- make xencrash

usage: xencrash xen-syms dump-file
   where dump-file is either
   - vmcore (whole memory dump image) get by kdump, or
   - xendump (the part of xen hypervisor) cut by dom0cut

xencrash supports only x86 now. (x86_64 and IA64 is under
development)

Thanks.
--
Itsuro ODA <oda@valinux.co.jp>

Hello Itsuro,

I have only briefly scanned your patch, and find it very
interesting.  I am not at all familiar with the hypervisor
code, but I do have a couple simple questions at this point:

1. Is it necessary to create a separate "xencrash"
   binary?  Would it be possible to create a single
   crash binary that can be used for both vmlinux
   and xen-syms sessions?

2. Can you make it work with a live hypervisor system
   in the same way the crash works with a live Linux
   kernel?

Thanks,
  Dave