% Developing The Global Dataplane

This file describes things that someone working on developing the GDP should know. It is (extremely) incomplete.

See the files README-compiling.md and README-admin.md before you read this file.

If you are working with the Berkeley GDP group, it is essential that you get a login on https://gdp.cs.berkeley.edu so you have access to the news, forums, and wiki. We welcome account requests from bona fide researchers. If you are a spammer, well, find someplace else to spread your poison.

Setting Debug Flags

You can turn on debugging output using a command line flag, conventionally "-Dpattern=level". The pattern specifies which flags should be set and level specifies how much should be printed; zero indicates no output, and more output is added as the values increase.

By convention level is no greater than 127, and values 100 and above may modify the base behavior of the program (i.e., do more than just printing information).

Each debug flag has a hierarchical name with (by convention) "." as the separator, for example, "gdp.proto" to indicate the protocol processing of the GDP. The "what(1)" program on a binary will show you which debug flags are available including a short description. (The what program isn't available on Linux; it can be simulated using strings | grep '@(#)').

To enable debugging for all patterns, use "*=level" or just "level", for example "*=18" or "18".