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Mastering Embedded Linux Programming

Mastering Embedded Linux Programming

By : Frank Vasquez, Chris Simmonds
4.6 (23)
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Mastering Embedded Linux Programming

Mastering Embedded Linux Programming

4.6 (23)
By: Frank Vasquez, Chris Simmonds

Overview of this book

If you’re looking for a book that will demystify embedded Linux, then you’ve come to the right place. Mastering Embedded Linux Programming is a fully comprehensive guide that can serve both as means to learn new things or as a handy reference. The first few chapters of this book will break down the fundamental elements that underpin all embedded Linux projects: the toolchain, the bootloader, the kernel, and the root filesystem. After that, you will learn how to create each of these elements from scratch and automate the process using Buildroot and the Yocto Project. As you progress, the book will show you how to implement an effective storage strategy for flash memory chips and install updates to a device remotely once it’s deployed. You’ll also learn about the key aspects of writing code for embedded Linux, such as how to access hardware from apps, the implications of writing multi-threaded code, and techniques to manage memory in an efficient way. The final chapters demonstrate how to debug your code, whether it resides in apps or in the Linux kernel itself. You’ll also cover the different tracers and profilers that are available for Linux so that you can quickly pinpoint any performance bottlenecks in your system. By the end of this Linux book, you’ll be able to create efficient and secure embedded devices using Linux.
Table of Contents (27 chapters)
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1
Section 1: Elements of Embedded Linux
10
Section 2: System Architecture and Design Decisions
18
Section 3: Writing Embedded Applications
22
Section 4: Debugging and Optimizing Performance

Using strace

I started the chapter with a simple and ubiquitous tool, top, and I will finish with another: strace. It is a very simple tracer that captures system calls made by a program and, optionally, its children. You can use it to do the following:

  • Learn which system calls a program makes.
  • Find those system calls that fail, together with the error code. I find this useful
    if a program fails to start but doesn't print an error message or if the message is
    too general.
  • Find which files a program opens.
  • Find out which syscalls a running program is making, for example, to see whether it is stuck in a loop.

There are many more examples online; just search for strace tips and tricks. Everybody
has their own favorite story, for example, https://alexbilson.dev/posts/strace-debug/.

strace uses the ptrace(2) function to hook calls as they are made from user space to the kernel. If you want to know more about how ptrace works, the manual page is detailed...

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