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# macho-unwind-info
A zero-copy parser for the contents of the `__unwind_info` section of a
mach-O binary.
Quickly look up the unwinding opcode for an address. Then parse the opcode to find
out how to recover the return address and the caller frame's register values.
This crate is intended to be fast enough to be used in a sampling profiler.
Re-parsing from scratch is cheap and can be done on every sample.
For the full unwinding experience, both `__unwind_info` and `__eh_frame` may need
to be consulted. The two sections are complementary: `__unwind_info` handles the
easy cases, and refers to an `__eh_frame` FDE for the hard cases. Conversely,
`__eh_frame` only includes FDEs for functions whose unwinding info cannot be
represented in `__unwind_info`.
On x86 and x86_64, `__unwind_info` can represent most functions regardless of
whether they were compiled with framepointers or without.
On arm64, compiling without framepointers is strongly discouraged, and
`__unwind_info` can only represent functions which have framepointers or
which don't need to restore any registers. As a result, if you have an arm64
binary without framepointers (rare!), then the `__unwind_info` basically just
acts as an index for `__eh_frame`, similarly to `.eh_frame_hdr` for ELF.
In clang's default configuration for arm64, non-leaf functions have framepointers
and leaf functions without stored registers on the stack don't have framepointers.
For leaf functions, the return address is kept in the `lr` register for the entire
duration of the function. And the unwind info lets you discern between these two
types of functions ("frame-based" and "frameless").
## Example
```rust
use macho_unwind_info::UnwindInfo;
use macho_unwind_info::opcodes::OpcodeX86_64;
let unwind_info = UnwindInfo::parse(data)?;
if let Some(function) = unwind_info.lookup(0x1234)? {
println!("Found function entry covering the address 0x1234:");
let opcode = OpcodeX86_64::parse(function.opcode);
println!("0x{:08x}..0x{:08x}: {}", function.start_address, function.end_address, opcode);
}
```
## Command-line usage
This repository also contains two CLI executables. You can install them like so:
```
% cargo install --examples macho-unwind-info
```
## Acknowledgements
Thanks a ton to [**@Gankra**](https://github.com/Gankra/) for documenting this format at https://gankra.github.io/blah/compact-unwinding/.
## License
Licensed under either of
* Apache License, Version 2.0 ([`LICENSE-APACHE`](./LICENSE-APACHE) or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
at your option.
Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted
for inclusion in the work by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be
dual licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.