Search this site

The goal of this project is to make Darwin more usable by providing an installation ISO, documentation, and add-on software. You are welcome to join #puredarwin on irc.freenode.net if you would like to join PureDarwin development and to add to this site.

Recent site activity

Visualize KEXTs dependencies

In the spirit of Vizualize dependencies in MacPorts, this page describes a way to track kernel extension dependencies and related satellite information (e.g: blockers).

Contents

  1. 1 Prerequisites
  2. 2 Using pd_kextviz to generate a graph
    1. 2.1 Preliminary
    2. 2.2 An example across IOBDStorageFamily.kext
    3. 2.3 Detecting blocker inside KEXTs
    4. 2.4 Massive generation
    5. 2.5 Miscellaneous
  3. 3 Ressources

Prerequisites

Graphviz is an opensource graph visualization software from AT&T Laboratories and Bell Laboratories (Lucent Technologies).

port install graphviz +the_variants_you_need

or grab and compile the source from graphviz.org.
Note: On Mac OS X, Pixelglow is a nice a front-end, you can even see the graph being built in real-time.

Using pd_kextviz to generate a graph

The pd_kextviz tool is available in the svn or hg trunks.

Preliminary

A rudimentary legend is generated in the DOT language:

A KEXT is simply linked to ia bundle identifier (which can be linked to one or many KEXTs).
For clarity purpose, the bundle identifiers are hidden by default.
For purity purpose, each KEXT is examined once in order to find and count potential "current blocker".
The number of symbols missing (returned by kextlibs) is also displayed on the respective KEXT.

An example across IOBDStorageFamily.kext

The hierarchical view:

This circular view:

The corresponding script output:

./pd_kextviz /System/Library/Extensions/IOBDStorageFamily.kext

Generate dependencies graphs of /System/Library/Extensions/IOBDStorageFamily.kext

 Legend:
 1 + foo ()
 2 |`- bar (bundle id)                                 No more dependency
 2 |`+ baz impure! /Blocker_1 -> file_involved_1       Impurity detected
 2 |`+ baz impure! /Blocker_. -> file_involved_.       Impurity detected
 2 |`+ baz impure! /Blocker_n -> file_involved_n       Impurity detected
 2 |`+ qux ()                                          Dependency found
 3 | |`. bar (cached: bundle id)                       Cached bundle identifier
 1 . qux                                               Cached kext (Already processed)

Now generating dependencies graphs of kexts, please wait...

 1 + /System/Library/Extensions/IOBDStorageFamily.kext ()
 2 |`- /System/Library/Extensions/System.kext/PlugIns/Mach.kext (com.apple.kpi.mach)
 2 |`- /System/Library/Extensions/System.kext/PlugIns/Libkern.kext (com.apple.kpi.libkern)
 2 |`- /System/Library/Extensions/System.kext/PlugIns/IOKit.kext (com.apple.kpi.iokit)
 2 |`- /System/Library/Extensions/System.kext/PlugIns/BSDKernel.kext (com.apple.kpi.bsd)
 2 |`+ /System/Library/Extensions/IOStorageFamily.kext (com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily)
 3 | |`- /System/Library/Extensions/System.kext/PlugIns/Unsupported.kext (com.apple.kpi.unsupported)
 2 | |`. </System/Library/Extensions/System.kext/PlugIns/Mach.kext> (cached: com.apple.kpi.mach)
 2 | |`. </System/Library/Extensions/System.kext/PlugIns/Libkern.kext> (cached: com.apple.kpi.libkern)
 2 | |`. </System/Library/Extensions/System.kext/PlugIns/IOKit.kext> (cached: com.apple.kpi.iokit)
 2 | |`. </System/Library/Extensions/System.kext/PlugIns/BSDKernel.kext> (cached: com.apple.kpi.bsd)
 2 |`+ /System/Library/Extensions/IODVDStorageFamily.kext (com.apple.iokit.IODVDStorageFamily)
 2 | |`. </System/Library/Extensions/System.kext/PlugIns/Mach.kext> (cached: com.apple.kpi.mach)
 2 | |`. </System/Library/Extensions/System.kext/PlugIns/Libkern.kext> (cached: com.apple.kpi.libkern)
 2 | |`. </System/Library/Extensions/System.kext/PlugIns/IOKit.kext> (cached: com.apple.kpi.iokit)
 2 | |`. </System/Library/Extensions/System.kext/PlugIns/BSDKernel.kext> (cached: com.apple.kpi.bsd)
 2 | |`. </System/Library/Extensions/IOStorageFamily.kext> (cached: com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily)
 3 | |`+ /System/Library/Extensions/IOCDStorageFamily.kext (com.apple.iokit.IOCDStorageFamily)
 3 | | |`. </System/Library/Extensions/System.kext/PlugIns/Mach.kext> (cached: com.apple.kpi.mach)
 3 | | |`. </System/Library/Extensions/System.kext/PlugIns/Libkern.kext> (cached: com.apple.kpi.libkern)
 3 | | |`. </System/Library/Extensions/System.kext/PlugIns/IOKit.kext> (cached: com.apple.kpi.iokit)
 3 | | |`. </System/Library/Extensions/System.kext/PlugIns/BSDKernel.kext> (cached: com.apple.kpi.bsd)
 3 | | |`. </System/Library/Extensions/IOStorageFamily.kext> (cached: com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily)
 1 |`. </System/Library/Extensions/IOCDStorageFamily.kext> (cached: com.apple.iokit.IOCDStorageFamily)

Generation of IOBDStorageFamily.kext.dot complete.

Now drawing graphs from IOBDStorageFamily.kext.dot, please wait...
Generation of IOBDStorageFamily.kext_directed.png complete.
Generation of IOBDStorageFamily.kext_circular. png complete.
Generation of IOBDStorageFamily.kext_radial. png complete.
Generation of IOBDStorageFamily.kext_undirected. png complete.
Generation of IOBDStorageFamily.kext_undirectedBIS.png complete.

Detecting blocker inside KEXTs

The example below has been generated on Mac OS X with IOSerialFamily.kext, since we don't have any blocker on PureDarwin.


The corresponding output:

[...]
 1 + /System/Library/Extensions/IOSerialFamily.kext impure! /CoreServices.framework -> /System/Library/Extensions/IOSerialFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleVerizonSupport.kext/Contents/Resources/FixNetworkConfig 
 1 + /System/Library/Extensions/IOSerialFamily.kext impure! /AppKit.framework -> /System/Library/Extensions/IOSerialFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/InternalModemSupport.kext/Contents/Resources/AppleModemOnHold.app/Contents/MacOS/AppleModemOnHold 
 1 + /System/Library/Extensions/IOSerialFamily.kext impure! /ApplicationServices.framework -> /System/Library/Extensions/IOSerialFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/InternalModemSupport.kext/Contents/Resources/AppleModemOnHold.app/Contents/MacOS/AppleModemOnHold 
 1 + /System/Library/Extensions/IOSerialFamily.kext impure! /Cocoa.framework -> /System/Library/Extensions/IOSerialFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/InternalModemSupport.kext/Contents/Resources/AppleModemOnHold.app/Contents/MacOS/AppleModemOnHold 
 1 + /System/Library/Extensions/IOSerialFamily.kext impure! /CoreServices.framework -> /System/Library/Extensions/IOSerialFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/InternalModemSupport.kext/Contents/Resources/AppleModemOnHold.app/Contents/MacOS/AppleModemOnHold 
 1 + /System/Library/Extensions/IOSerialFamily.kext impure! /Foundation.framework -> /System/Library/Extensions/IOSerialFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/InternalModemSupport.kext/Contents/Resources/AppleModemOnHold.app/Contents/MacOS/AppleModemOnHold 
 1 + /System/Library/Extensions/IOSerialFamily.kext impure! /CoreServices.framework -> /System/Library/Extensions/IOSerialFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/InternalUSBModem.kext/Contents/Resources/modemd 
 1 + /System/Library/Extensions/IOSerialFamily.kext impure! /CoreServices.framework -> /System/Library/Extensions/IOSerialFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/MotorolaSM56K.kext/Contents/Resources/MDCPd 
 1 + /System/Library/Extensions/IOSerialFamily.kext impure! /CoreServices.framework -> /System/Library/Extensions/IOSerialFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/MotorolaSM56KUSB.kext/Contents/Resources/MDCPdUSB
 1 + /System/Library/Extensions/IOSerialFamily.kext ()
[...]

Generation of IOSerialFamily.kext.dot complete.

Massive generation

We generate the whole dependencies tree with:

./pd_kextviz `find /System/Library/Extensions/ -name '*.kext'`

At this time, it looks like:

The circular overview is usefull (but often too big) to isolate node with a number of links lower than 2:

Miscellaneous

The Mac OS X whole graph:

Ressources

Sign in  |  Recent Site Activity  |  Terms  |  Report Abuse  |  Print page  |  Powered by Google Sites