I have kgdb for every kernel back to 2.4.0-something. Have a
fish around in http://www.zip.com.au/~akpm/linux/patches/
> ...
> I've always thought it would be useful. Sure, everyone debugs
> differently; but a number of people seem to agree with me that KGDB is
> convenient.
>
I suspect the example which you give is not a very typical one. Generally
people use kgdb for poking around looking at kernel state. I almost never
single-step. I set breakpoints so that I can inspect state within a
particular context, and for coverage testing ("is this path being executed").
Also as a replacement for printk/rebuild/reboot.
Also for inspecting ad-hoc instrumentation: just add `some_global_int++;'
and then take a look at its value - much quicker than exposing it via /proc.
It's also very good to have kgdb on hand when you happen to hit a
really rare bug - I hit a weirdo request queue corruption thing the
other day, an hour into a `dbench 1024' run. Was able to get a
decent amount of information. Heaven knows how long it would take
to make that bug trigger a second time...
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