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Client Tools for UNIX

What You'll Need

  • A Backtrace account (log in or sign up for a free trial license).
  • Your subdomain name (used to connect to your Backtrace instance). For example, https://example-subdomain.sp.backtrace.io.
  • A Backtrace project and a submission token.

Client Tools Installation

These steps require a license number from Backtrace to install the necessary packages. Contact us to receive a license number before proceeding.

All tools are installed in /opt/backtrace/bin/ by default. We recommend you add this to your path:

$ export PATH=$PATH:/opt/backtrace/bin

Coroner

coroner is the Backtrace object store client. It is used to submit and query the object store. Check out the coroner client usage for more information.

RHEL/CentOS

$ yum install backtrace-coroner

Ubuntu/Debian

$ apt-get install backtrace-coroner

After installed, you need to generate and install coroner.cf.

ptrace

ptrace is the Backtrace snapshot generator. It is used to generate application snapshots.

RHEL/CentOS

$ yum install backtrace-ptrace

Ubuntu/Debian

$ apt-get install backtrace-ptrace
For Ubuntu 10.10 or later:

Starting from Ubuntu 10.10, a change prevents users who are not root from ptrace processes that are not children. With this restriction in place, running ptrace as root is necessary, resulting in the snapshot files being permissioned for root as well.

This restriction can be disabled by issuing the command:

$ echo 0 | sudo tee /proc/sys/kernel/yama/ptrace_scope

For additional information, refer to the following comprehensive guide: After Upgrade, GDB Won't Attach to Process on the Ask Ubuntu website.

Hydra

hydra is the Backtrace terminal snapshot viewer. It is used to dig into application snapshots generated by backtrace-ptrace. You must install hydra on any machine you wish to dig into snapshots (for example, dev box, laptop).

RHEL/CentOS

$ yum install backtrace-hydra

Ubuntu/Debian

$ apt-get install backtrace-hydra

Once installed, you may want to configure Hydra.