NAME

        btraceback - wrapper script around gdb and bsmtp

SYNOPSIS

       btraceback /path/to/binary pid

DESCRIPTION

       btraceback  is  a wrapper shell script around the gdb debugger (or dbx on Solaris systems)
       and bsmtp, provided for debugging purposes.

USAGE

       btraceback is called by the exception handlers of the Bacula daemons during a  crash.   It
       can  also  be called interactively to view the current state of the threads belonging to a
       process, but this is not recommended unless you are trying to debug a problem (see below).

NOTES

       In order to work properly, debugging symbols must be available  to  the  debugger  on  the
       system, and gdb, or dbx (on Solaris systems) must be available in the $PATH.

       If  the Director or Storage daemon runs under a non-root uid, you will probably need to be
       modify the btraceback script to elevate privileges for the call to gdb/dbx, to  ensure  it
       has the proper permissions to debug when called by the daemon.

       Although  Bacula's  use of btraceback within its exception handlers is always safe, manual
       or interactive use of btraceback is subject to the same risks than live debugging  of  any
       program, which means it could cause Bacula to crash under rare and abnormal circumstances.
       Consequently we do not recommend manual  use  of  btraceback  in  production  environments
       unless it is required for debugging a problem.

ENVIRONMENT

       btracback relies on $PATH to find the debugger.

FILES

       /usr/lib/bacula/btraceback
              The script itself.

       /usr/sbin/btraceback
              symbolic link to /usr/lib/bacula/btraceback

       /etc/bacula/scripts/btraceback.gdb
              the GDB command batch used to output a stack trace

AUTHOR

       This manual page was written by Lucas B. Cohen <lbc@members.fsf.org>

SEE ALSO

       bsmtp(1)