What happened to ktrace and kdump

Michael Conniff wrote:

nerowolfe wrote:
I am wondering if installing Onyx did it? Prevented them from running on their own?

That's an interesting idea, although I can't see why offhand. Keep us posted 😉

I take it back - the .out files on the other macbookpro are all dated from 2006, the Tiger days.
So the cleanup scripts are not being run on that one either and there is no Onyx on it. Curiouser and curiouser.
And to make things stranger, on the other MBP there is only a daily and weekly but no monthly .out file.

One final consideration - my G5 which had a "clean" install of Leopard on a second internal HD, with the usual migration of files and users, etc.
I will post back.

The G5 has no .out files in /var/log ????

Message was edited by: nerowolfe

The daily script has the time 3:15 to run.
There are rumors that the script will run at the next available time if the computer is off at that time.
My computers are usually off at that time and I am quite suspicious that there is no "follow-up" that runs the scripts when I turn on the box.
My G5, on which the scripts have never run most likely has never been on at 3:15, like this MBP.
My other MBP which has run them in 2006 was probably when I first got it and left it on all the time - like any new toy 🙂

I will edit the daily script on the 15"MBP, for some time later today and reboot and see what happens.

Another annoying thing is that after seeing the scripts in front of my eyes, when I tried to less them, I got a "not found" error rather than a "you are not allowed to do this" error.
One must sudo even to do a simple less on those three scripts.

Anyway I have a handle on the situation and I believe that the rumor is wrong - these scripts either run at the designated time if the computer is on, or they do not run.

Problem (bug) solved.
I edited the daily plist on my other MBP, changing the time from 3 to 16, leaving the 15 minutes alone.
At 16:15, for the first time in several years, the script ran via launchd.

I strongly suspect that this is a bug in the aspect that unless the machine is running overnight, the maintenance scripts will never run. It's clear that on my machines there is no auto-reminder to run them ASAP after booting. It seems that they only if the computer is alive and kicking at the set times.

It's interesting that in this thread which began with a reference to ktrace missing and wound up with me fixing something that has been broke (sort-of) since I got these boxes.

I could look into a script to fix this by running the processes ASAP after boot if they were supposed to have been invoked that night, but I think I will simply change the times for now. At least I know nothing is really broken with launchd and such.
I can always use the Maintidget to run them anytime I choose.

I will notify Apple of this pseudo bug, since most users, esp. those with NoteBooks do not usually have them on a 3:15 and 5:15 in the wee small hours of the morning. At least I don't, or even if I do, they are usually sleeping at the scheduled time so it's moot.

Message was edited by: nerowolfe

nerowolfe wrote:
Problem (bug) solved.

Well, I'm not so sure …

I will notify Apple of this pseudo bug

Now hold on a minute! 😉 It doesn't appear on my machine, so it's not a "universal" bug. My machine is asleep in the wee small hours, but, as I pointed out above, launchd takes care of things pretty quickly once I wake the machine up.

There are rumors that the script will run at the next available time if the computer is off at that time.

In my case, they are more than rumours. However, if, as I have done over holiday periods, I actually turn it off for several days, it will only run the daily task once (likewise the others if it is off for sufficiently long).

… when I tried to less them, I got a "not found" error rather than a "you are not allowed to do this" error.
One must sudo even to do a simple less on those three scripts.

That is not only wrong, it's weird! 😟 Do your scripts have the same permissions (and ownership) as shown for mine in the various posts above?

I believe that the rumor is wrong - these scripts either run at the designated time if the computer is on, or they do not run.

No, the "rumor" is right (except in the eyes of my spell-checker, who wants me to correct it to "rumour" 🙂 )

this thread which began with a reference to ktrace missing …

Yes, we got a bit off-topic there 😉 Maybe you should start a new topic if you want to pursue this. Are all your machines running Leopard?

Tony - Hi!

We haven't forgotten you 🙂

Make sure you have two instances of launchd running: one owned by root and one by yourself:

macbook:~ michaelc$ ps -axw -o pid,ppid,user,command | egrep "/[s]bin/launchd"
 1 0 root /sbin/launchd
 70 1 michaelc /sbin/launchd

If you really wanted, you could also check the start time, which should correspond to your last boot.

Michael Conniff wrote:
Make sure you have two instances of launchd running: one owned by root and one by yourself:

macbook:~ michaelc$ ps -axw -o pid,ppid,user,command | egrep "/[s]bin/launchd"
 1 0 root /sbin/launchd
 70 1 michaelc /sbin/launchd

If you really wanted, you could also check the start time, which should correspond to your last boot.

Yes I do have both running.
And, I will start a new thread about this.
I am running Leopard on all three boxes, all fully updated and presumably well maintained.

See my post in this thread about dtrace. Ktrace and kdump have been replaced.

Antonio Rocco wrote:
… and apropos is working again after I ran periodic daily weekly monthly.

Why would this be?

Basically the weekly task needs to be run to update the whatis database.

I can't mark the post solved as ktrace and kdump are still not working. The manuals are still there but when issuing any command it simply returns "commands not found".

Any further suggestions?

Well, LittleSaint answered that in this post.

As well as man dtrace, you can find (a lot) more information on the Web. Here is just a start:
Exploring Leopard with DTrace: How to use DTrace for debugging and exploration
Solaris Operating System: DTrace How To Guide
Solaris Dynamic Tracing Guide

Michael Conniff wrote:

Antonio Rocco wrote:
… and apropos is working again after I ran periodic daily weekly monthly.

Why would this be?

Basically the weekly task needs to be run to update the whatis database.

I can't mark the post solved as ktrace and kdump are still not working. The manuals are still there but when issuing any command it simply returns "commands not found".

Any further suggestions?

Well, LittleSaint answered that in this post.

As well as man dtrace, you can find (a lot) more information on the Web. Here is just a start:
Exploring Leopard with DTrace: How to use DTrace for debugging and exploration
Solaris Operating System: DTrace How To Guide
Solaris Dynamic Tracing Guide

We can say that ktrace and kdump have transcended deprecation. They now reside with kaput.
(Can't help myself, sometimes 🙂 )

Dtrace is actually pretty cool. I've used it before under Solaris. Besides ZFS, it's one of Sun's better contributions. If you download the Dev Tools from Apple, they include an app called Instruments that is sort of a GUI interface to dtrace.

nerowolfe wrote:
We can say that ktrace and kdump have transcended deprecation. They now reside with kaput.
(Can't help myself, sometimes 🙂 )

I don't think that is something I can help you with either 😟