What do frame pointers do?

[Bradley Chapman]

What exactly is the purpose of a frame pointer? As far back as I can remember, 2.4
and 2.6 kernels have supported something called a frame pointer, which slows down
the kernel slightly but supposedly outputs 'very useful debugging information.'
Unfortunately, it doesn't really explain what they are, and for the past few months,
I haven't seen any hacker gods asking for CONFIG_FRAME_POINTER=y, except for Russell
King, who wants them compiled for ARM processors for some reason (I grepped the
kernel source looking for answers and found a comment which implied this).

Does anyone know where I can find a good explanation of what they are and what they
do?

TIA

Brad Chapman

=====
Brad Chapman

Permanent e-mail: kakadu_croc@xxxxxxxxx

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