Printing backtrace from coredump (source http://emntech.blogspot.de/2012/08/printing-backtracestack-trace-using.html)

README.md

Coredump contains stack information as well. If you can use this stack information along with the EBP and EIP register values in the coredump file, you can print the stack trace. I had written a program to do this. You can find the program in the following link.

https://gist.github.com/root42/c979b037f85dc4b2be1f3735afedeb1d

Usage: Compile the above program and give the corefile when you execute it.

   $corestrace core

If you want symbols also to be printed, you do like this: Let's assume the program that generated the core is 'test'.

   $ nm -n test > symbols
   $ corestrace core symbols

Sample output looks like this:

   $ ./coretrace core symbols 

    0x80483cd foo+0x9
    0x8048401 func+0x1f
    0x8048430 main+0x2d

corestrace.c

/* 
 * Copyright (c) 2012 eMN Technologies ([email protected]) 
 * 
 * 
 * This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or 
 * modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public 
 * License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either 
 * version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. 
 * 
 * This is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, 
 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of 
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU 
 * Lesser General Public License for more details. 
 * 
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public 
 * License along with FFmpeg; if not, write to the Free Software 
 * Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA 
 */ 

#include <stdio.h> 
#include <elf.h> 
#include <sys/types.h> 
#include <unistd.h> 
#include <fcntl.h> 
#include <stdlib.h> 
#include <sys/procfs.h> 

struct layout { 
        void *next; 
        void *return_addr; 
}; 

int get_ebp(char *corefile, unsigned int *ebp, unsigned int *eip) 
{ 
    Elf32_Ehdr *elfh; 
    Elf32_Shdr *elfsh; 
    Elf32_Phdr *elfphdr; 
    char *p = NULL; 
    char buf[1000], sbuf[1000]; 
    int ret, fd, i = 0, size; 

     
    fd = open(corefile, O_RDONLY); 
    if (fd < 0) { 
        perror("open"); 
        return 0; 
    } 
     
    /* Read ELF header*/ 
    ret = read(fd, buf, sizeof(*elfh)); 
    if (!ret) { 
        perror("Error Reading the ELF Header"); 
        close(fd); 
        return -1; 
    } 
    elfh = (Elf32_Ehdr *) buf; 
    /* Is it ELF*/ 
    if ((elfh->e_ident[0] != 0x7f) || (elfh->e_ident[1] != 'E') || 
        (elfh->e_ident[2] != 'L') || (elfh->e_ident[3] != 'F')) { 
        printf("\nUnrecongised File Format"); 
        close(fd); 
        return -1; 
    } 

    /* 
     * read program headers and print 
     */ 
    size = elfh->e_phnum * elfh->e_phentsize; 
    p =  malloc(size); 
     
    lseek(fd, elfh->e_phoff, SEEK_SET); 
    ret = read(fd, p, size); 
    if (ret != size) { 
        printf("\nCannot read Program Header"); 
        close(fd); 
        return -1; 
    } 
    elfphdr = (Elf32_Phdr *)p; 
    for (i = 0; i < elfh->e_phnum; i++) { 
        if (elfphdr->p_type == PT_NOTE) { 
            unsigned char *pdata; 
            struct note { 
                unsigned int namesz; 
                unsigned int descsz; 
                unsigned int type; 
            }; 
            struct note *not; 
            int pad = 0; 

            pdata = malloc(elfphdr->p_filesz); 
            lseek(fd, elfphdr->p_offset, SEEK_SET); 
            ret = read(fd, pdata, elfphdr->p_filesz); 
            not = (struct note *) pdata; 
            if (not->namesz % 4) 
                pad  = 4 - (not->namesz % 4); 
            if (not->type == NT_PRSTATUS) { 
                struct elf_prstatus *prs; 
                 
                prs = (struct elf_prstatus *)(pdata + sizeof(*not) + not->namesz + pad); 
                *ebp =  prs->pr_reg[5]; 
                *eip = prs->pr_reg[12]; 
            } 
        } 
        elfphdr++; 
    } 
    free(p);         
    close(fd); 
    return 0; 
} 

int print_syms(unsigned int symaddr, char *symbolfile) 
{ 
    FILE *fp; 
    int fd, ret, i; 
    char buf[300] = { 0 }; 
    unsigned int addr = 0, nextaddr; 

    char symbol[40], nxtsymbol[40], type; 

    fp = fopen(symbolfile, "r"); 
    if (!fp) { 
        printf("Error"); 
        return 0; 
    } 
     
    while (fgets(buf, 300, fp)) { 
        sscanf(buf, "%x %c %s", &addr, &type, symbol); 
        if (!addr) 
            continue; 

        if (symaddr >= addr) { 
            /* 
             * find next symbol 
             */ 
            int foff = ftell(fp); 
            if (fgets(buf, 300, fp)) { 
                sscanf(buf, "%x %c %s", &nextaddr, &type, 
                       nxtsymbol); 
                if (symaddr <= nextaddr) { 
                    /* 
                     * We found the range, print the symbol 
                     */ 
                    printf("\n0x%x %s+0x%x", symaddr, 
                           symbol, symaddr - addr); 
                    break; 
                } 
            } 
            fseek(fp, foff, SEEK_SET); 
        } 
    } 
    fclose(fp); 
} 


void btrace(char *symfile, int depth, int withsyms, unsigned eip, unsigned int ebp, void *data) 
{ 
        struct layout *lay; 
        int i; 
    unsigned int nextebp = ebp; 

        lay = (struct layout *) data; 
     
    if (eip) {  // print current instruction 
        if (withsyms) 
            print_syms((unsigned int)eip, symfile); 
        else 
            printf("%x\n", eip); 
    } 

        for (i = 0; i < depth; i++) { 
        ebp = nextebp; 

        if (withsyms) 
            print_syms((unsigned int)lay->return_addr, symfile); 
        else 
            printf("%p\n", lay->return_addr); 

        nextebp = (unsigned int) lay->next; 
        lay = (struct layout *) (data + (nextebp - ebp)); 
        } 
        printf("\n"); 
} 


int main (int argc, char **arg) 
{ 
    Elf32_Ehdr *elfh; 
    Elf32_Shdr *elfsh; 
    Elf32_Phdr *elfphdr; 
    unsigned int ebp, eip; 
    char *p = NULL; 
    char buf[1000], sbuf[1000]; 
    int ret, fd, i = 0, size; 
    char *symfile = NULL; 
    int depth = 2; //default depth 

    if (argc < 2) { 
        printf("\nUsage: coretrace <core> [symbolfile]\n"); 
        return 0; 
    } 

    ret = get_ebp(arg[1], &ebp, &eip);     
    if (ret < 0) { 
        printf("\nCannot read EBP value\n"); 
        return 0; 
    } 
    fd = open(arg[1], O_RDONLY); 
    if (fd < 0) { 
        perror("open"); 
        return 0; 
    } 
     
    /* Read ELF header*/ 
    ret = read(fd, buf, sizeof(*elfh)); 
    if (!ret) { 
        perror("Error Reading the ELF Header"); 
        goto cl; 
    } 
    elfh = (Elf32_Ehdr *) buf; 
    /* Is it ELF*/ 
    if ((elfh->e_ident[0] != 0x7f) || (elfh->e_ident[1] != 'E') || 
        (elfh->e_ident[2] != 'L') || (elfh->e_ident[3] != 'F')) { 
        printf("\nUnrecongised File Format"); 
        goto cl; 
    } 

    /* 
     * read program headers and print 
     */ 
    size = elfh->e_phnum * elfh->e_phentsize; 
    p =  malloc(size); 
     
    lseek(fd, elfh->e_phoff, SEEK_SET); 
    ret = read(fd, p, size); 
    if (ret != size) { 
        printf("\nCannot read Program Header"); 
        goto cl; 
    } 
    elfphdr = (Elf32_Phdr *)p; 
    for (i = 0; i < elfh->e_phnum; i++) { 
        if (elfphdr->p_type == PT_LOAD) { 
            unsigned char *pdata, *temp; 
            unsigned int addr, endaddr; 
            int j; 

            pdata = malloc(elfphdr->p_filesz); 
            lseek(fd, elfphdr->p_offset, SEEK_SET); 
            ret = read(fd, pdata, elfphdr->p_filesz); 
            addr = elfphdr->p_vaddr; 
            endaddr = elfphdr->p_vaddr + elfphdr->p_filesz; 
            if ((ebp > addr) && (ebp < endaddr)) { // we have got stack segment 
                temp = pdata + (ebp - addr); 
                if (arg[2])  // we have symbol file given*/ 
                    btrace(arg[2], depth, 1, eip, ebp, temp); 
                else             
                    btrace(NULL, depth, 0, eip, ebp, temp); 
                free(pdata); 
                break; // we are done 
            } 
            free(pdata); 
        } 
        elfphdr++; 
    } 
    free(p);         

cl:     
    close(fd); 
     
    return 0; 
}

It is indeed usefull to get stack trace easily,
When tried to increase depth, backtrace is not working until main function, with same core file it is working in GDB.
how can I achieve this?