2012 Embedded Linux Conference | Presentations

Embedded-Appropriate Crash Handling in Linux

Coredump files are the traditional Linux way to record information about a crashed program, for later analysis and debugging. However, in the resource-constrained environment of an embedded system, there is not usually enough space to preserve full core dumps. In this talk, Tim will describe some of the issues and tradeoffs involved with creating embedded-appropriate crash reports, as well as features in Linux that can be used by crash handlers. Tim will compare Android's tombstone generator with other crash handlers, and describe a system he is developing which uses /proc, ptrace and /proc/sys/kernel/core_pattern for crash reporting.

Tim Bird, Sony Network Entertainment

Tim Bird is a Senior Staff Software Engineer for Sony Network Entertainment, where he helps Sony research improvements to Linux for use in Sony's products. Tim is also the Chair of the Architecture Group of the CE Working Group of the Linux Foundation. This group seeks to improve Linux for use in consumer electronics products. In this position, Tim directs technical initiatives, and encourages companies to publish their improvements to Linux and participate in the open source community. Tim has been working with Linux for over 19 years.