How to unwind the stack to get backtrace for the specified stack pointer (SP)?

Question

I\'m writing this for Android (ARM only), but I believe the principle is the same for generic Linux as well.

I\'m trying to capture the stack trace from within the s

Answer 1

In order to to get stacktrace of code which caused SIGSEGV instead of stacktrace of the signal handler, you have to get ARM registers from ucontext_t and use them for unwinding.

But it is hard to do with _Unwind_Backtrace(). Thus, if you use libc++ (LLVM STL), better try precompiled libunwind for 32-bit ARM, bundled with modern Android NDKs (at sources/cxx-stl/llvm-libc++/libs/armeabi-v7a/libunwind.a). Here is a sample code.

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// This method can only be used on 32-bit ARM with libc++ (LLVM STL).
// Android NDK r16b contains "libunwind.a" for armeabi-v7a ABI.
// This library is even silently linked in by the ndk-build,
// so we don't have to add it manually in "Android.mk".
// We can use this library, but we need matching headers,
// namely "libunwind.h" and "__libunwind_config.h".
// For NDK r16b, the headers can be fetched here:
// https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/libunwind_llvm/+/ndk-r16/include/
#if _LIBCPP_VERSION && __has_include("libunwind.h")
#include "libunwind.h"
#endif

struct BacktraceState {
    const ucontext_t*   signal_ucontext;
    size_t              address_count = 0;
    static const size_t address_count_max = 30;
    uintptr_t           addresses[address_count_max] = {};

    BacktraceState(const ucontext_t* ucontext) : signal_ucontext(ucontext) {}

    bool AddAddress(uintptr_t ip) {
        // No more space in the storage. Fail.
        if (address_count >= address_count_max)
            return false;

        // Reset the Thumb bit, if it is set.
        const uintptr_t thumb_bit = 1;
        ip &= ~thumb_bit;

        // Ignore null addresses.
        if (ip == 0)
            return true;

        // Finally add the address to the storage.
        addresses[address_count++] = ip;
        return true;
    }
};

void CaptureBacktraceUsingLibUnwind(BacktraceState* state) {
    assert(state);

    // Initialize unw_context and unw_cursor.
    unw_context_t unw_context = {};
    unw_getcontext(&unw_context);
    unw_cursor_t  unw_cursor = {};
    unw_init_local(&unw_cursor, &unw_context);

    // Get more contexts.
    const ucontext_t* signal_ucontext = state->signal_ucontext;
    assert(signal_ucontext);
    const sigcontext* signal_mcontext = &(signal_ucontext->uc_mcontext);
    assert(signal_mcontext);

    // Set registers.
    unw_set_reg(&unw_cursor, UNW_ARM_R0, signal_mcontext->arm_r0);
    unw_set_reg(&unw_cursor, UNW_ARM_R1, signal_mcontext->arm_r1);
    unw_set_reg(&unw_cursor, UNW_ARM_R2, signal_mcontext->arm_r2);
    unw_set_reg(&unw_cursor, UNW_ARM_R3, signal_mcontext->arm_r3);
    unw_set_reg(&unw_cursor, UNW_ARM_R4, signal_mcontext->arm_r4);
    unw_set_reg(&unw_cursor, UNW_ARM_R5, signal_mcontext->arm_r5);
    unw_set_reg(&unw_cursor, UNW_ARM_R6, signal_mcontext->arm_r6);
    unw_set_reg(&unw_cursor, UNW_ARM_R7, signal_mcontext->arm_r7);
    unw_set_reg(&unw_cursor, UNW_ARM_R8, signal_mcontext->arm_r8);
    unw_set_reg(&unw_cursor, UNW_ARM_R9, signal_mcontext->arm_r9);
    unw_set_reg(&unw_cursor, UNW_ARM_R10, signal_mcontext->arm_r10);
    unw_set_reg(&unw_cursor, UNW_ARM_R11, signal_mcontext->arm_fp);
    unw_set_reg(&unw_cursor, UNW_ARM_R12, signal_mcontext->arm_ip);
    unw_set_reg(&unw_cursor, UNW_ARM_R13, signal_mcontext->arm_sp);
    unw_set_reg(&unw_cursor, UNW_ARM_R14, signal_mcontext->arm_lr);
    unw_set_reg(&unw_cursor, UNW_ARM_R15, signal_mcontext->arm_pc);

    unw_set_reg(&unw_cursor, UNW_REG_IP, signal_mcontext->arm_pc);
    unw_set_reg(&unw_cursor, UNW_REG_SP, signal_mcontext->arm_sp);

    // unw_step() does not return the first IP.
    state->AddAddress(signal_mcontext->arm_pc);

    // Unwind frames one by one, going up the frame stack.
    while (unw_step(&unw_cursor) > 0) {
        unw_word_t ip = 0;
        unw_get_reg(&unw_cursor, UNW_REG_IP, &ip);

        bool ok = state->AddAddress(ip);
        if (!ok)
            break;
    }
}

void SigActionHandler(int sig, siginfo_t* info, void* ucontext) {
    const ucontext_t* signal_ucontext = (const ucontext_t*)ucontext;
    assert(signal_ucontext);

    BacktraceState backtrace_state(signal_ucontext);
    CaptureBacktraceUsingLibUnwind(&backtrace_state);
    // Do something with the backtrace - print, save to file, etc.
}

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I am also advising to take a look at this my answer which contains more code and more info:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/50027799/1016580

If you use libstdc++ (GNU STL), use Vasily Galkin's solution:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/30515756/1016580

, which is the same as Dar Hoo's solution from another post:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/48593413/1016580

Answer 2

First, you need to read the section on "async signal safe" functions:

http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/signal.7.html

That's the entire set of functions that are safe to call in a signal handler. About the worst thing you can do is to call anything that calls malloc()/free() under the hood - or do it yourself.

Second, get it working outside of a signal handler first.

Third, these are probably apropos:

How to get C++ backtrace on Android

Android NDK: getting the backtrace