Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!decwrl!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!sgi!reuel@khaki.asd.sgi.com
From: reuel@khaki.asd.sgi.com (Reuel Nash)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Re: lack of symbol tables in sgi distributions
Summary: purpose of symbol table in /unix.
Message-ID: <69595@sgi.sgi.com>
Date: 18 Sep 90 16:06:29 GMT
References: <9009181645.AA18649@mcirps2.med.nyu.edu>
Sender: guest@sgi.sgi.com
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA
Lines: 16

In article <9009181645.AA18649@mcirps2.med.nyu.edu>, karron@MCIRPS2.MED.NYU.EDU writes:
> Just to confuse the symbol table issue more, I note that most unix vendors
> leave the symbol table in /unix, and use it to debug a crashed kernel panic.
> 
I think a more important purpose for having the symbol table left in /unix
is so programs like ps, who, and sar can know the addresses of various
kernel data structures so they can be read or modified through /dev/kmem.
SGI's kernel provides a call (sysmp) that gives these addresses, but
some programs and most other vendor's systems still depend on the namelist in 
/unix.


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