a write-only file which supports a variety of control operations. Control commands are written as strings to the ctl file. The control commands are:
attach
stops the target process and arranges for the sending process to become the debug control process.
detach
continue execution of the target process and remove it from control by the debug process (which need not be the sending process).
run
continue running the target process until a signal is delivered, a breakpoint is hit, or the target process exits.
step
single step the target process, with no signal delivery.
wait
wait for the target process to come to a steady state ready for debugging. The target process must be in this state before any of the other commands are allowed.
The string can also be the name of a signal, lower case and without the SIG prefix, in which case that signal is delivered to the process (see sigaction(2)).
The procctl(8) utility can be used to clear tracepoints in a stuck process.
dbregs
The debug registers as defined by "struct dbregs" in .In machine/reg.h . dbregs is currently only implemented on the i386 architecture.
etype
The type of the executable referenced by the file entry.
file
A symbolic link to the file from which the process text was read. This can be used to gain access to the process’ symbol table, or to start another copy of the process. If the file cannot be found, the link target is ‘unknown’.
fpregs
The floating point registers as defined by "struct fpregs" in .In machine/reg.h . fpregs is only implemented on machines which have distinct general purpose and floating point register sets.
map
A map of the process’ virtual memory.
mem
The complete virtual memory image of the process. Only those address which exist in the process can be accessed. Reads and writes to this file modify the process. Writes to the text segment remain private to the process.
note
Used for sending signals to the process. Not implemented.
notepg
Used for sending signal to the process group. Not implemented.
regs
Allows read and write access to the process’ register set. This file contains a binary data structure "struct regs" defined in .In machine/reg.h . regs can only be written when the process is stopped.
rlimit
This is a read-only file containing the process current and maximum limits. Each line is of the format rlimit current max, with -1 indicating infinity.
status
The process status. This file is read-only and returns a single line containing multiple space-separated fields as follows:
command name
process id
parent process id
process group id
session id
major, minor of the controlling terminal, or -1,-1 if there is no controlling terminal.
a list of process flags: ctty if there is a controlling terminal, sldr if the process is a session leader, noflags if neither of the other two flags are set.
the process start time in seconds and microseconds, comma separated.
the user time in seconds and microseconds, comma separated.
the system time in seconds and microseconds, comma separated.
the wait channel message
the process credentials consisting of the effective user id and the list of groups (whose first member is the effective group id) all comma separated.
the hostname of the jail in which the process runs, or ‘-’ to indicate that the process is not running within a jail.
In a normal debugging environment, where the target is fork/exec’d by the debugger, the debugger should fork and the child should stop itself (with a self-inflicted SIGSTOP for example). The parent should issue a wait and then an attach command via the appropriate ctl file. The child process will receive a SIGTRAP immediately after the call to exec (see execve(2)).
Each node is owned by the process’s user, and belongs to that user’s primary group, except for the mem node, which belongs to the kmem group.
