Learn Linux debugging and optimization—at kernel and application levels—hands-on!

This is the definitive guide to Linux software debugging and performance optimization at both the kernel and application levels. Using extensive Linux code examples, Steve Best systematically introduces open source tools and best-practice techniques for delivering bug-free, well-tuned code.

Drawing on his exceptional experience optimizing Linux systems for IBM, Best covers issues ranging from memory management and I/O to system processes and kernel bug messages. You'll walk through real debugging sessions, discovering the strategies experts use to debug even the most complex application- and kernel-related problems. You'll master sophisticated profiling techniques for identifying and resolving bottlenecks more quickly and learn how to capture the right data in the event of trouble. Coverage includes

• Bottleneck identification

• Code coverage

• Debuggers: gdb, kgdb, and KDB

• Memory management

• /proc kernel data analysis

• System process monitoring

• Network performance

• Oops bug messages

• Syslog and event logging

• Execution traces

• Profiling kernel behavior

• Cache misses

• User-Mode Linux

• Dynamic probes

• Crash dump analysis

• And more...

Linux® Debugging and Performance Tuning will be indispensable for every developer who needs to supercharge the Linux kernel and applications, and for every administrator and support specialist who must resolve Linux reliability or performance issues.

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 10 Ratings

Moderately useful, doesn't go in-depth - 2006-12-25
Reviewer Rating:
The book does give a broad overview of linux debugging and profiling. The coverage is useful for a newbie but doesn't really add much value for the experienced linux programmer. It doesn't really cover any "performance tuning" except for a chapter on profiling. The real negative of this book for me is the screen shots of untarring a tool or applying a patch. These are just page wasting tactics and I hate it when authors resort to such tricks to fill pages.

Great for SAGE level 3 system administrators - 2006-12-30
Reviewer Rating:
Linux Debugging and Performance Tuning is not a book to sit down and read from cover to cover. It makes for a great reference book, and a handy guide to educating oneself on various Linux debugging and performance tuning tricks and tips.

The stated audience is "people developing or supporting Linux applications/kernels". As a system administrator, this is where my interest (and biases) show.

The book jumps in head first without a true intro to the subject of the first chapter (profiling). This style is consistent throughout the book which prevents this book from being a helpful tutorial, step by step guide, or classroom ready book towards learning debugging/performance tuning (sadly, as this subject could benefit from developers/administrators being firmly educated in these processes). Additionally a lot of space seems wasted on screen shots and sample code that doesn't contribute to the learning process. That said, the book does cover many useful and less well known tools. If you are looking for a reference book to assist in learning more about the arcane (and senior) skills of debugging and performance tuning, this would be a good choice. It doesn't go into great depths, so can be perceived as an introductory guide. It's less of a guide and more of an introduction that will assist a medium experienced administrator to obtaining useful search terms.

Quick guide to good tools - 2006-10-30
Reviewer Rating:
Easily readable. Excellent for beginners(Oops, ltt, valgrind, /proc). Some boring sections(ps, network debugging tools).

In the next version, it would be nice to have Xenmon, SystemTap, Perfmon2 & section on general hw counters (TLB miss, memory latency). Two pages(277-278) for cache misses is weak.

Mediocore to fair - 2007-03-19
Reviewer Rating:
I have read most of this book. I have kind of lost interest. I was under whelmed by the book. It is a bit out of date but 99% of the information is still good. This is not a bad book. I did not find errors. However, the author did not go into any real depth on methodologies for attacking problems. He never discussed when to use which tools. He just stitched together a bunch of getting started documents. The book should have had fewer subtopic (i.e. you don't really need to talk about a bunch of memory checkers 1 or 2 would have been fine) and then go into detail with some real world examples not "hello-world".

I recommend that a potential reader borrow this book from someone and skim it. Don't buy it

Good book to learn debugging Linux from - 2006-09-14
Reviewer Rating:
The previous commentator is misleading. Although the book doesn't really give very elaborate examples, it's at least good enough to introduce the reader to the subjects and tools as a starting point to dig around himself. The materials are certainly not all for beginners.
I gave it 4 stars, relative to 5 given to its sister book, "Linux Programming by Example: The Fundamentals" in the same series, which is much more refined.

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