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Operating System Final Project

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56 views6 pages

Operating System Final Project

Uploaded by

sonawaleruchita0
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Introduction to Operating

Systems

Final Project (strace)

Fall 2024

1. Introduction
When a program runs into issues such as a sudden crash or unexpected output, a
developer can detect the problem by debugging the source code. Ideally a developer should
always have access to the source code to detect the problem, however in practice this is not
always the case. Softwares, services or libraries developed by other teams can be delivered
as an executable binary file and access to source code is not always provided. Linux
provides developers a powerful tool called “strace” with the ability to show system calls
or library calls, which a program made at a low level. When running into problems, we can
use strace to roughly guess what the program does and what system calls it fails. It helps
in detecting the issues without digging into the details of source code. Please refer to the
manual page: https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/strace.1.html

2. Goal
Unfortunately, strace is not built into the xv6 operating system. Our goal of the project is
to make a version of strace for xv6.

3. Before you start


All implementation requires some small explanations (2-3 sentences) of your approach.
You can explain more if you would like but it should be less than or equal to the
introduction of the project prompt. Please check the rubric alongside each task. The
project is worth 100 points (10 points for written report)

Screenshots showing the result of each task should be provided in your report. Some
requirements can be tricky to test. Your points will be deducted if screenshots of
results are not provided.
4. Tasks

4.1: Get familiar with Linux strace [5 points]


• 4.1.1: Use strace in Linux to learn about echo command or any other command
of your choice. Show a list of system calls being made, total number of calls, time
for running strace on a particular command. (screenshots of your run should be
enough for this task)

• 4.1.2: Pick 4 random system calls (ex: nmap, write, open, etc) of your choice and
explain their functionality for the command that you run (ex: echo, ls, cd, etc) in
2-3 sentences

4.2: Building strace in xv6


• 4.2.1: Implement “strace on” [10 points]

When typing “strace on” in the terminal, the mode of strace is on and
therefore the next typed in command will be traced. The system call list will be
printed on screen in format pid (process id), command name, system call name,
return value.

Figure 1: “strace on” sample

• 4.2.2: Implement “strace off” [10 points]


When typing “strace off” in the terminal, the mode of strace is off and
therefore the next typed in command won’t be traced and nothing is printed on
screen besides the routine result of the commands.
• 4.2.3: Implementing “strace run <command>” [10 points]
Instead of turning on and off strace, we create “strace run” to directly start
tracing to the current process that executes the command. For example: when
typing “strace run echo hello” in the terminal, we get the output tracing of
echo hello.

Figure 2: strace run sample

• 4.2.4: Implementing strace dump[10 points]


Implement a kernel memory that will save N number of latest events. This N
number can be configurable by using define in XV6. In order words, it can be hard
coded but the way to implement it is to use #define to declare a variable called N
with a certain value. When the “strace dump” command is called, print all
events that are saved in kernel memory.

• 4.2.5: Trace child process[10 points]


Write a program that uses fork to spawn child processes. Utilize kernel memory
that you have previously implemented to store trace output of all processes.
Perform strace on this program and print all trace of processes that you have
spawn.

• 4.2.6: Extra credits: Formatting more readable output


Depending on your implementation, you might notice your command result is
printed along with your strace result which causes tracing to be difficult to read
when characters keep mixing up between lines (ex: ”ls” has a very long list result).
Choose one of the follow approaches to solve this issue:

– Find a way to format your output such that the result of the command is
printed first and strace result is printed after.
– Find a way to suppress the command output and leave only strace output
when strace is on.

– A creative approach of your choice.

4.3: Building options for strace


• 4.3.1: Option: -e <system call name> [5 points]

When option flag -e is provided followed by a system call name (ex: write), we will
print only that system call. If no such system call is made in the command, print
nothing.

Figure 3: strace with option -e sample

Notes: Notice the first strace run is similar to regular ”echo hello” run in the
above figure 1. Next command is ”strace -e write” which activates tracking of
the write system call. We run ”echo hello” again, observe that only the write system
call is printed. One more run of ”echo hello”, and everything is back to normal
without tracing only the write system call. Similar idea should be done in option -s
and -f.
• 4.3.2: Option: -s [5 points]
When option flag -s is provided, print only successful system call.

• 4.3.3: Option: -f [5 points]


When option flag -f is provided, print only failed system call.

NOTE: Option runs only once


When option is called (ex: ”strace -e write” follow by ”echo hello” ), the
result of strace with only write system call is printed only once for the following
command ”echo hello”. If typing the next follow command for example ”ls”, the
option -e is turn off and all system call will be printed. In other word, options is
used once per command.

• 4.3.4: Extra credits: Combine options


Implement these 2 commands:

– “strace -s -e <system call name>”: print only successful system call


name.
– “strace -f -e <system call name>”: print only failed system call name.

• 4.3.5: Extra credits: Implement -c options


Option -c in strace will generate a statistical report of system calls regarding the
input command such as duration, total call, failed call. Create a similar report
table with using option -c.

Figure 4: strace with option -c sample in Linux

Notes: Even though the sample is in Linux, a similar report table is expected in
XV6 for extra credits. The columns required are: calls, errors, syscall and seconds
(measure the total time it takes to execute system call). You should try to test with
a command that will take time to execute system call and display result of that
command.

4.4: Write output of strace to file [5 points]

Find an implementation of choice to write strace output to file.


For example: by providing option: -o <filename> or editing content of README.

4.5: Application of strace [15 points]

Write a small program that produce an unexpected behavior such as race condition,
delay output, crash on condition, memory leak or your choice of implementation. Run
strace on this program.

• Explain your program and its unexpected behavior.

• (xv6) Does your strace implementation provide anything useful that can tell
you something about this unexpected behavior?

• (Linux) Implement same program on Linux (there is slight various of C language


between Linux and XV6 ), does Linux strace provide more information and is it
better to help you debug this issue?

5: What to hand in
• On Brightspace, submit a zip file containing

• Your xv6 code (complete directory)-> zipped


• A written report that includes all explanations and screenshots (Report
contains 10 points on rubric).
• A README on how to run your program.
• It should tell how your xv6 zipped folder is different from the original
one i-e which files you have changed/modified
• Please ensure your instructions are clear on how to run what behavior
is to be expected
• A text that states your partner or working alone.

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