The LLDB API is contained in a python module named lldb. A useful resource when

writing Python extensions is the lldb Python classes reference guide.

The documentation is also accessible in an interactive debugger session with

the following command:

(lldb) script help(lldb)

Help on package lldb:

NAME

lldb - The lldb module contains the public APIs for Python binding.

FILE

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/LLDB.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Python/lldb/__init__.py

DESCRIPTION

You can also get help using a module class name. The full API that is exposed

for that class will be displayed in a man page style window. Below we want to

get help on the lldb.SBFrame class:

(lldb) script help(lldb.SBFrame)

Help on class SBFrame in module lldb:

class SBFrame(builtins.object)

| SBFrame(*args)

|

| Represents one of the stack frames associated with a thread.

|

| SBThread contains SBFrame(s). For example (from test/lldbutil.py), ::

|

| def print_stacktrace(thread, string_buffer = False):

| '''Prints a simple stack trace of this thread.'''

Or you can get help using any python object, here we use the lldb.process

object which is a global variable in the lldb module which represents the

currently selected process:

(lldb) script help(lldb.process)

Help on SBProcess in module lldb object:

class SBProcess(builtins.object)

| SBProcess(*args)

|

| Represents the process associated with the target program.

|

| SBProcess supports thread iteration. For example (from test/lldbutil.py), ::

|

| # ==================================================

| # Utility functions related to Threads and Processes

| # ==================================================

One very powerful use of the lldb Python API is to have a python script run

when a breakpoint gets hit. Adding python scripts to breakpoints provides a way

to create complex breakpoint conditions and also allows for smart logging and

data gathering.

When your process hits a breakpoint to which you have attached some python

code, the code is executed as the body of a function which takes three

arguments:

def breakpoint_function_wrapper(frame, bp_loc, internal_dict):

# Your code goes here

or:

def breakpoint_function_wrapper(frame, bp_loc, extra_args, internal_dict):

# Your code goes here

| Argument | Type | Description |

|----------|------|-------------|

| `frame` | `lldb.SBFrame` | The current stack frame where the breakpoint got hit. The object will always be valid. This `frame` argument might *not* match the currently selected stack frame found in the `lldb` module global variable `lldb.frame`. |

| `bp_loc` | `lldb.SBBreakpointLocation` | The breakpoint location that just got hit. Breakpoints are represented by `lldb.SBBreakpoint` objects. These breakpoint objects can have one or more locations. These locations are represented by `lldb.SBBreakpointLocation` objects. |

| `extra_args` | `lldb.SBStructuredData` | **Optional** If your breakpoint callback function takes this extra parameter, then when the callback gets added to a breakpoint, its contents can parametrize this use of the callback. For instance, instead of writing a callback that stops when the caller is "Foo", you could take the function name from a field in the `extra_args`, making the callback more general. The `-k` and `-v` options to `breakpoint command add` will be passed as a Dictionary in the `extra_args` parameter, or you can provide it with the SB API's. |

| `internal_dict` | `dict` | The python session dictionary as a standard python dictionary object. |

Optionally, a Python breakpoint command can return a value. Returning `False`

tells LLDB that you do not want to stop at the breakpoint. Any other return

value (including None or leaving out the return statement altogether) is akin

to telling LLDB to actually stop at the breakpoint. This can be useful in

situations where a breakpoint only needs to stop the process when certain

conditions are met, and you do not want to inspect the program state manually

at every stop and then continue.

An example will show how simple it is to write some python code and attach it

to a breakpoint. The following example will allow you to track the order in

which the functions in a given shared library are first executed during one run

of your program. This is a simple method to gather an order file which can be

used to optimize function placement within a binary for execution locality.

We do this by setting a regular expression breakpoint that will match every

function in the shared library. The regular expression '.' will match any

string that has at least one character in it, so we will use that. This will

result in one lldb.SBBreakpoint object that contains an

lldb.SBBreakpointLocation object for each function. As the breakpoint gets hit,

we use a counter to track the order in which the function at this particular

breakpoint location got hit. Since our code is passed the location that was

hit, we can get the name of the function from the location, disable the

location so we won't count this function again; then log some info and continue

the process.

Note we also have to initialize our counter, which we do with the simple

one-line version of the script command.

Here is the code:

(lldb) breakpoint set --func-regex=. --shlib=libfoo.dylib

Breakpoint created: 1: regex = '.', module = libfoo.dylib, locations = 223

(lldb) script counter = 0

(lldb) breakpoint command add --script-type python 1

Enter your Python command(s). Type 'DONE' to end.

> # Increment our counter. Since we are in a function, this must be a global python variable

> global counter

> counter += 1

> # Get the name of the function

> name = frame.GetFunctionName()

> # Print the order and the function name

> print('[%i] %s' % (counter, name))

> # Disable the current breakpoint location so it doesn't get hit again

> bp_loc.SetEnabled(False)

> # No need to stop here

> return False

> DONE

The breakpoint command add command above attaches a python script to breakpoint 1. To remove the breakpoint command:

(lldb) breakpoint command delete 1

Another use of the Python API's in lldb is to create a custom breakpoint

resolver.

It allows you to provide the algorithm which will be used in the breakpoint's

search of the space of the code in a given Target to determine where to set the

breakpoint locations - the actual places where the breakpoint will trigger. To

understand how this works you need to know a little about how lldb handles

breakpoints.

In lldb, a breakpoint is composed of three parts:

1. the Searcher

2. the Resolver,

3. the Stop Options.

The Searcher and Resolver cooperate to determine how breakpoint locations are

set and differ between each breakpoint type. Stop options determine what

happens when a location triggers and includes the commands, conditions, ignore

counts, etc. Stop options are common between all breakpoint types, so for our

purposes only the Searcher and Resolver are relevant.

The Searcher's job is to traverse in a structured way the code in the current

target. It proceeds from the Target, to search all the Modules in the Target,

in each Module it can recurse into the Compile Units in that module, and within

each Compile Unit it can recurse over the Functions it contains.

The Searcher can be provided with a SearchFilter that it will use to restrict

this search. For instance, if the SearchFilter specifies a list of Modules, the

Searcher will not recurse into Modules that aren't on the list. When you pass

the -s modulename flag to break set you are creating a Module-based search

filter. When you pass -f filename.c to break set -n you are creating a file

based search filter. If neither of these is specified, the breakpoint will have

a no-op search filter, so all parts of the program are searched and all

locations accepted.

The Resolver has two functions:

The most important one is the callback it provides. This will get called at the

appropriate time in the course of the search. The callback is where the job of

adding locations to the breakpoint gets done.

The other function is specifying to the Searcher at what depth in the above

described recursion it wants to be called. Setting a search depth also provides

a stop for the recursion. For instance, if you request a Module depth search,

then the callback will be called for each Module as it gets added to the

Target, but the searcher will not recurse into the Compile Units in the module.

One other slight subtlety is that the depth at which you get called back is not

necessarily the depth at which the SearchFilter is specified. For instance,

if you are doing symbol searches, it is convenient to use the Module depth for

the search, since symbols are stored in the module. But the SearchFilter might

specify some subset of CompileUnits, so not all the symbols you might find in

each module will pass the search. You don't need to handle this situation

yourself, since SBBreakpoint::AddLocation will only add locations that pass the

Search Filter. This API returns an SBError to inform you whether your location

was added.

When the breakpoint is originally created, its Searcher will process all the

currently loaded modules. The Searcher will also visit any new modules as they

are added to the target. This happens, for instance, when a new shared library

gets added to the target in the course of running, or on rerunning if any of

the currently loaded modules have been changed. Note, in the latter case, all

the locations set in the old module will get deleted and you will be asked to

recreate them in the new version of the module when your callback gets called

with that module. For this reason, you shouldn't try to manage the locations

you add to the breakpoint yourself. Note that the Breakpoint takes care of

deduplicating equal addresses in AddLocation, so you shouldn't need to worry

about that anyway.

At present, when adding a ScriptedBreakpoint type, you can only provide a

custom Resolver, not a custom SearchFilter.

The custom Resolver is provided as a Python class with the following methods:

| Name | Arguments | Description |

|------|-----------|-------------|

| `__init__` | `bkpt`: `lldb.SBBreakpoint` `extra_args`: `lldb.SBStructuredData` | This is the constructor for the new Resolver. `bkpt` is the breakpoint owning this Resolver. `extra_args` is an `SBStructuredData` object that the user can pass in when creating instances of this breakpoint. It is not required, but is quite handy. For instance if you were implementing a breakpoint on some symbol name, you could write a generic symbol name based Resolver, and then allow the user to pass in the particular symbol in the extra_args |

| `__callback__` | `sym_ctx`: `lldb.SBSymbolContext` | This is the Resolver callback. The `sym_ctx` argument will be filled with the current stage of the search. For instance, if you asked for a search depth of lldb.eSearchDepthCompUnit, then the target, module and compile_unit fields of the sym_ctx will be filled. The callback should look just in the context passed in `sym_ctx` for new locations. If the callback finds an address of interest, it can add it to the breakpoint with the `SBBreakpoint.AddLocation` method, using the breakpoint passed in to the `__init__` method. |

| `__get_depth__` | `None` | Specify the depth at which you wish your callback to get called. The currently supported options are: `lldb.eSearchDepthModule` `lldb.eSearchDepthCompUnit` `lldb.eSearchDepthFunction` For instance, if you are looking up symbols, which are stored at the Module level, you will want to get called back module by module. So you would want to return `lldb.eSearchDepthModule`. This method is optional. If not provided the search will be done at Module depth. |

| `get_short_help` | `None` | This is an optional method. If provided, the returned string will be printed at the beginning of the description for this breakpoint. |

To define a new breakpoint command defined by this class from the lldb command

line, use the command:

You can also populate the extra_args SBStructuredData with a dictionary of

key/value pairs with:

Although you can't write a scripted SearchFilter, both the command line and the

SB API's for adding a scripted resolver allow you to specify a SearchFilter

restricted to certain modules or certain compile units. When using the command

line to create the resolver, you can specify a Module specific SearchFilter by

passing the -s ModuleName option - which can be specified multiple times. You

can also specify a SearchFilter restricted to certain compile units by passing

in the -f CompUnitName option. This can also be specified more than once. And

you can mix the two to specify "this comp unit in this module". So, for

instance,

will use your resolver, but will only recurse into or accept new locations in

the module a.out.

Another option for creating scripted breakpoints is to use the

SBTarget.BreakpointCreateFromScript API. This one has the advantage that you

can pass in an arbitrary SBStructuredData object, so you can create more

complex parametrizations. SBStructuredData has a handy SetFromJSON method which

you can use for this purpose. Your __init__ function gets passed this

SBStructuredData object. This API also allows you to directly provide the list

of Modules and the list of CompileUnits that will make up the SearchFilter. If

you pass in empty lists, the breakpoint will use the default "search

everywhere,accept everything" filter.

Frame recognizers allow for retrieving information about special frames based

on ABI, arguments or other special properties of that frame, even without

source code or debug info. Currently, one use case is to extract function

arguments that would otherwise be inaccessible, or augment existing arguments.

Adding a custom frame recognizer is done by implementing a Python class and

using the `frame recognizer add` command. The Python class should implement the

`get_recognized_arguments` method and it will receive an argument of type

`lldb.SBFrame` representing the current frame that we are trying to recognize.

The method should return a (possibly empty) list of `lldb.SBValue` objects that

represent the recognized arguments.

An example of a recognizer that retrieves the file descriptor values from libc

functions 'read', 'write' and 'close' follows:

class LibcFdRecognizer:

def get_recognized_arguments(self, frame: lldb.SBFrame):

if frame.name in ["read", "write", "close"]:

fd = frame.EvaluateExpression("$arg1").unsigned

target = frame.thread.process.target

value = target.CreateValueFromExpression("fd", "(int)%d" % fd)

return [value]

return []

The file containing this implementation can be imported via `command script import`

and then we can register this recognizer with `frame recognizer add`.

It's important to restrict the recognizer to the libc library (which is

`libsystem_kernel.dylib` on macOS) to avoid matching functions with the same name

in other modules:

(lldb) command script import .../fd_recognizer.py

(lldb) frame recognizer add -l fd_recognizer.LibcFdRecognizer -n read -s libsystem_kernel.dylib

When the program is stopped at the beginning of the 'read' function in libc, we can view the recognizer arguments in 'frame variable':

(lldb) b read

(lldb) r

Process 1234 stopped

* thread #1, queue = 'com.apple.main-thread', stop reason = breakpoint 1.3

frame #0: 0x00007fff06013ca0 libsystem_kernel.dylib`read

(lldb) frame variable

(int) fd = 3