Win32 - Backtrace from C code

Question

I\'m currently looking for a way to get backtrace information under Windows, from C code (no C++).

I\'m building a cross-platform C library, with reference-counting

Answer 1

@Jon Bright: You say "who known whether the stack is valid...": Well there's a way to find out, as the stack addresses are known. Assuming you need a trace in the current thread, of course:

    NT_TIB*     pTEB = GetTEB();
    UINT_PTR    ebp = GetEBPForStackTrace();
    HANDLE      hCurProc = ::GetCurrentProcess();

    while (
        ((ebp & 3) == 0) &&
        ebp + 2*sizeof(VOID*) < (UINT_PTR)pTEB->StackBase &&
        ebp >= (UINT_PTR)pTEB->StackLimit &&
        nAddresses < nTraceBuffers)
        {
        pTraces[nAddresses++]._EIP = ((UINT_PTR*)ebp)[1];
        ebp = ((UINT_PTR*)ebp)[0];
        }

My "GetTEB()" is NtCurrentTeb() from NTDLL.DLL - and it is not only Windows 7 and above as stated in the current MSDN. MS junks up the documentation. It was there for a long time. Using the ThreadEnvironment Block (TEB), you do not need ReadProcessMemory() as you know the stack's lower and upper limit. I assume this is the fastest way to do it.

Using the MS compiler, GetEBPForStackTrace() can be

inline __declspec(naked) UINT_PTR GetEBPForStackTrace()
{
    __asm
        {
        mov eax, ebp
        ret
        }
}

as easy way to get EBP of the current thread (but you can pass any valid EBP to this loop as long as it is for the current thread).

Limitation: This is valid for x86 under Windows.