Improve gcore manpage and clarify "-o" option
Commit Message
Ref.: https://bugs.debian.org/904628
It has been reported that gcore's manpage is a bit imprecise when it
comes to two things:
- It doesn't explicity say that the command accepts more than one PID
on its CLI.
- It fails to mention that the argument passed through the "-o" option
is actually a prefix that will be used to compose the corefile's
filename, and not the actual filename.
I decided to give it a try and rewrite parts of the text to further
clarify these two points. I ended up rewording the "Description"
section because, IMHO, it was a bit confuse to understand.
To make things consistent, I've also renamed the "$name" variable in
the gcore.in script, and expanded the usage text.
gdb/doc/ChangeLog:
yyyy-mm-dd Sergio Durigan Junior <sergiodj@redhat.com>
* gdb.texinfo (gcore man): Rewrite "Description" and "-o"
option sections to further clarify that gcore can take more
than one PID, and that "-o" is used to specify a prefix, not a
filename.
gdb/ChangeLog:
yyyy-mm-dd Sergio Durigan Junior <sergiodj@redhat.com>
* gcore.in: Rename variable "name" to "prefix". Expand
"usage" text.
---
gdb/doc/gdb.texinfo | 24 +++++++++++++-----------
gdb/gcore.in | 14 +++++++-------
2 files changed, 20 insertions(+), 18 deletions(-)
Comments
> From: Sergio Durigan Junior <sergiodj@redhat.com>
> Cc: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>,
> Sergio Durigan Junior <sergiodj@redhat.com>
> Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2018 01:02:34 -0400
>
> Ref.: https://bugs.debian.org/904628
>
> It has been reported that gcore's manpage is a bit imprecise when it
> comes to two things:
>
> - It doesn't explicity say that the command accepts more than one PID
> on its CLI.
>
> - It fails to mention that the argument passed through the "-o" option
> is actually a prefix that will be used to compose the corefile's
> filename, and not the actual filename.
>
> I decided to give it a try and rewrite parts of the text to further
> clarify these two points. I ended up rewording the "Description"
> section because, IMHO, it was a bit confuse to understand.
>
> To make things consistent, I've also renamed the "$name" variable in
> the gcore.in script, and expanded the usage text.
>
> gdb/doc/ChangeLog:
> yyyy-mm-dd Sergio Durigan Junior <sergiodj@redhat.com>
>
> * gdb.texinfo (gcore man): Rewrite "Description" and "-o"
> option sections to further clarify that gcore can take more
> than one PID, and that "-o" is used to specify a prefix, not a
> filename.
>
> gdb/ChangeLog:
> yyyy-mm-dd Sergio Durigan Junior <sergiodj@redhat.com>
>
> * gcore.in: Rename variable "name" to "prefix". Expand
> "usage" text.
This is OK, thanks.
On Friday, July 27 2018, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>> From: Sergio Durigan Junior <sergiodj@redhat.com>
>> Cc: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>,
>> Sergio Durigan Junior <sergiodj@redhat.com>
>> Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2018 01:02:34 -0400
>>
>> Ref.: https://bugs.debian.org/904628
>>
>> It has been reported that gcore's manpage is a bit imprecise when it
>> comes to two things:
>>
>> - It doesn't explicity say that the command accepts more than one PID
>> on its CLI.
>>
>> - It fails to mention that the argument passed through the "-o" option
>> is actually a prefix that will be used to compose the corefile's
>> filename, and not the actual filename.
>>
>> I decided to give it a try and rewrite parts of the text to further
>> clarify these two points. I ended up rewording the "Description"
>> section because, IMHO, it was a bit confuse to understand.
>>
>> To make things consistent, I've also renamed the "$name" variable in
>> the gcore.in script, and expanded the usage text.
>>
>> gdb/doc/ChangeLog:
>> yyyy-mm-dd Sergio Durigan Junior <sergiodj@redhat.com>
>>
>> * gdb.texinfo (gcore man): Rewrite "Description" and "-o"
>> option sections to further clarify that gcore can take more
>> than one PID, and that "-o" is used to specify a prefix, not a
>> filename.
>>
>> gdb/ChangeLog:
>> yyyy-mm-dd Sergio Durigan Junior <sergiodj@redhat.com>
>>
>> * gcore.in: Rename variable "name" to "prefix". Expand
>> "usage" text.
>
> This is OK, thanks.
Thanks, pushed:
129eb0f1f16dc7a49799a024a7bcb109d954a1e7
@@ -43765,16 +43765,17 @@ Richard M. Stallman and Roland H. Pesch, July 1991.
@format
@c man begin SYNOPSIS gcore
-gcore [-a] [-o @var{filename}] @var{pid}
+gcore [-a] [-o @var{prefix}] @var{pid1} [@var{pid2}...@var{pidN}]
@c man end
@end format
@c man begin DESCRIPTION gcore
-Generate a core dump of a running program with process ID @var{pid}.
-Produced file is equivalent to a kernel produced core file as if the process
-crashed (and if @kbd{ulimit -c} were used to set up an appropriate core dump
-limit). Unlike after a crash, after @command{gcore} the program remains
-running without any change.
+Generate core dumps of one or more running programs with process IDs
+@var{pid1}, @var{pid2}, etc. A core file produced by @command{gcore}
+is equivalent to one produced by the kernel when the process crashes
+(and when @kbd{ulimit -c} was used to set up an appropriate core dump
+limit). However, unlike after a crash, after @command{gcore} finishes
+its job the program remains running without any change.
@c man end
@c man begin OPTIONS gcore
@@ -43786,11 +43787,12 @@ the Operating System. On @sc{gnu}/Linux, it will disable
enable @code{dump-excluded-mappings} (@pxref{set
dump-excluded-mappings}).
-@item -o @var{filename}
-The optional argument
-@var{filename} specifies the file name where to put the core dump.
-If not specified, the file name defaults to @file{core.@var{pid}},
-where @var{pid} is the running program process ID.
+@item -o @var{prefix}
+The optional argument @var{prefix} specifies the prefix to be used
+when composing the file names of the core dumps. The file name is
+composed as @file{@var{prefix}.@var{pid}}, where @var{pid} is the
+process ID of the running program being analyzed by @command{gcore}.
+If not specified, @var{prefix} defaults to @var{gcore}.
@end table
@c man end
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@
#
# Need to check for -o option, but set default basename to "core".
-name=core
+prefix=core
# When the -a option is present, this may hold additional commands
# to ensure gdb dumps all mappings (OS dependent).
@@ -38,10 +38,10 @@ while getopts :ao: opt; do
esac
;;
o)
- name=$OPTARG
+ prefix=$OPTARG
;;
*)
- echo "usage: @GCORE_TRANSFORM_NAME@ [-a] [-o filename] pid"
+ echo "usage: @GCORE_TRANSFORM_NAME@ [-a] [-o prefix] pid1 [pid2...pidN]"
exit 2
;;
esac
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ shift $((OPTIND-1))
if [ "$#" -eq "0" ]
then
- echo "usage: @GCORE_TRANSFORM_NAME@ [-a] [-o filename] pid"
+ echo "usage: @GCORE_TRANSFORM_NAME@ [-a] [-o prefix] pid1 [pid2...pidN]"
exit 2
fi
@@ -100,12 +100,12 @@ do
"$binary_path/@GDB_TRANSFORM_NAME@" </dev/null --nx --batch \
-ex "set pagination off" -ex "set height 0" -ex "set width 0" \
"${dump_all_cmds[@]}" \
- -ex "attach $pid" -ex "gcore $name.$pid" -ex detach -ex quit
+ -ex "attach $pid" -ex "gcore $prefix.$pid" -ex detach -ex quit
- if [ -r "$name.$pid" ] ; then
+ if [ -r "$prefix.$pid" ] ; then
rc=0
else
- echo "@GCORE_TRANSFORM_NAME@: failed to create $name.$pid"
+ echo "@GCORE_TRANSFORM_NAME@: failed to create $prefix.$pid"
rc=1
break
fi