[Crash-utility] [ANNOUNCE] crash version 5.0.0 is available

[Dave Anderson]

Changelog:

  - Updated embedded gdb version to FSF gdb-7.0.
    (anderson at redhat.com)

  - Fix for the ppc64 "irq" command where the "irq_desc_t" is no longer
    recognized as a typedef for "struct irq_desc".  Without the patch, 
    the command fails with the error message: "irq: invalid structure 
    size: irqdesc".
    (anderson at redhat.com)

  - Fix for 2.6.26 and later ppc64 CONFIG_SPARSEMEM_VMEMMAP kernels to
    recognize VMEMMAP_REGION virtual addresses.  The kernel's memmap page
    structure array(s) are mapped in that region, and without the fix, 
    the vmemmap virtual addresses were being erroneously translated using
    the kernel's page tables that map the VMALLOC_REGION.  This in turn
    led to bogus data being read for all page structure content requests,
    resulting in invalid error messages for commands such as "kmem -s",
    "kmem -p", "kmem -f", etc.  A secondary issue is that there is no
    current manner for the crash utility to be able to translate vmemmap
    addresses because there is no record of the the mapping stored in the
    kernel.  That being the case, any command that needs to read the
    contents of a page structure will fail.  During initialization, the
    message "WARNING: cannot translate vmemmap kernel virtual addresses:
    commands requiring page structure contents will fail" will alert the
    user of the problem.  During runtime, an attempt to read the contents 
    of a vmemmap'd page structure will fail with the error message
    "<command>: cannot translate vmemmap address: <vmemmap address>".
    (anderson at redhat.com)
  
  - Fix for segmentation violation when running the "ps -r" command 
    option on 2.6.25 or later kernels.
    (anderson at redhat.com)

  - Fix for the "mount" command on 2.6.32 and later kernels.  Without the 
    patch, the command would fail immediately with the error message 
    "mount: invalid structure member offset: super_block_s_dirty".  Also,
    the "mount -i" option will no longer be supported in 2.6.32 and later
    kernels because the super_block.s_dirty linked list no longer exists.
    (anderson at redhat.com)

  - Fix for the "bt" command on 2.6.29 and later x86_64 kernels to 
    always recognize and display BUG()-induced exception frames.  Without
    the patch, the backtrace would potentially not display the exception 
    frame.
    (anderson at redhat.com)

  - Fix for the "rd" and "kmem" commands to prevent the unnecessary 
    "WARNING: sparsemem: invalid section number: <number>" message
    when testing whether an address is represented by a page structure
    in CONFIG_SPARSEMEM_EXTREME kernels.        
    (anderson at redhat.com)

  - Fix for a 4.0-8.11 regression that introduced a bug in determining 
    the number of cpus in ppc64 kernels when the cpu_possible_[map/mask]
    has more cpus than the cpu_online_[map/mask].  In that case, the 
    kernel contains per-cpu runqueue data and "swapper" tasks for the 
    extra cpus.  Without the patch, on systems with a possible cpu count 
    that is larger than its online cpu count: 
     (1) the "sys" command will reflect the possible cpu count.
     (2) the "ps" command will show the existent-but-unused "swapper" 
         tasks as active on the extra cpus. 
     (3) the "set" command will allow the current context to be set to 
         any of the existent-but-unused "swapper" tasks. 
     (4) the "runq" command will display existent-but-unused runqueue 
         data for the extra cpus. 
     (5) the "bt" command on the existent-but-unused "swapper" tasks will 
         indicate: "bt: cannot determine NT_PRSTATUS ELF note for active 
         task: <task>" on dumpfiles, and "(active)" on live systems.
    (anderson at redhat.com)

Download from: http://people.redhat.com/anderson