README

DRProbe
=======

This software is a library for accessing the debug registers (watchpoints and
breakpoints) on intel x86-64 computers, without the need to use ptrace.  

This is free software, and is licensed under the GPL, version 3.  A version of
this license was included with this software in a file named LICENSE.  If this
file was not included with this software, it is available on the [GNU
Website][gnu].

[gnu]: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.txt

Overview
--------
There are two parts to this software:

 1. The `debug_mod` kernel module, providing an interface to the debug
    registers via the `/proc` filesystem; and
 2. The `drprobe` userspace library, which provides a C-level interface to the
    registers, abstracting the underlying accesses to `/proc`.

Building
--------
There are two steps to building this software: building the kernel module, and
building the user-space library.  

First, be sure you've installed the kernel headers for your kernel.  Next, run
"make" in the debug_mod directory.  This will build the kernel module.
Finally, run "make" in the top level directory.  This will build the user-space
library.  


Using DRProbe
-------------
* To load the kernel module, run "insmod debug_mod.ko" in the debug_mod
  subdirectory.  You need root privilege to load a kernel module.
* To use the library, include drprobe.h in your project.  drprobe.h lists the
  api functions available.   Link your project with libdrprobe.so, and you
  should be all set.


API Description
---------------
This will be here eventually