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SubjectRe: accessing kernel structures
Hi,

you wrote:

> I want to make a program that gives system information by
> directly accessing kernel structures.
Very good idea. To access kernel data structures you have the following
options:

1. Write crash(1) utility for Linux. While you are at it, please also
implement crashdump mechanism in the kernel so one can browse not only
live system but do post-mortem analysis as well.

2. Use KME - Kernel Memory Editor. Available under:

http://robertl.freeservers.com/kme/

3. Use plain old gdb(1) on the core file in /proc.
Well, using the standard /proc/kcore won't work because it is in old aout
format so you will need this patch:

http://www.ocston.org/~tigran/patches/elf-kcore-2.3.3.patch

(it is for 2.3.3 but you will trivially update it for 2.3.15-pre2 which is
what you ought to be running at this time). This patch (by David Howells)
will give you /proc/kcore_elf which is same as /proc/kcore but in ELF
format.

> 1) One way is to make my own system calls and link it to
> kernel.
no good. Things change quickly and you will have to keep changing your
kernel patches to catch up. It would be easier to keep crash(1) up to
date, but even that is so horrendously complex that no one (to my
knowledge) ever attempted this so far. Be thou the first and fail, that
others following you, may succeed :)

> 2) Another way is to make a kernel module and link it by
> insmod.
also no good. For the same reason as above.

> Is there any other way to access kernel information.
Yes, using /dev/kmem and the system map to convert symbols to addresses -
this is how crash(1) works.

> I do not want to use the proc file system.
Ok.

Regards.
------
Tigran A. Aivazian | http://www.sco.com
Escalations Research Group | tel: +44-(0)1923-813796
Santa Cruz Operation Ltd | http://www.ocston.org/~tigran


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