Category Archives: Linux

Reflections on My Tech Career – Part 2

Posted on November 10, 2025 by brucedawson

This is second and final part of the story of how my career as a software developer unfolded (part 1 is here). In this half I work at four different companies in the Seattle area, make my mark, and then … Continue reading →

Posted in Bugs, Chromium, Floating Point, Investigative Reporting, Linux, Performance, Programming, Quadratic, Symbols, uiforetw, Unicycling, Xbox 360, xperf | Tagged , , , , , | 18 Comments

The Easy Ones – Three Bugs Hiding in the Open

Posted on August 30, 2020 by brucedawson

I write a lot about investigations into tricky bugs – CPU defects, kernel bugs, transient 4-GB memory allocations – but most bugs are not that esoteric. Sometimes tracking down a bug is as simple as paying attention to server dashboards, … Continue reading →

Posted in Bugs, Code analysis, Code Reliability, Debugging, Floating Point, Linux, Performance | Tagged | 17 Comments

Counting to Ten on Linux

Posted on March 18, 2013 by brucedawson

I recently discovered a Linux shell script that was running slowly due to an inefficiently implemented loop. This innocent investigation ended up uncovering misleading information from time and a bad interaction between the Linux thread scheduler and its CPU power … Continue reading →

Posted in Investigative Reporting, Linux, Performance | Tagged , , , , | 38 Comments

Symbols on Linux update: Fedora Fixes

Posted on March 5, 2013 by brucedawson

I wrote last month about the challenges of obtaining Linux symbols based on a build ID. I’m now pleased to say that getting Linux symbols based on a build ID is trivial on both Ubuntu and Fedora – things are … Continue reading →

Posted in Linux, Symbols | Tagged , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Symbols on Linux Part Three: Linux versus Windows

Posted on February 20, 2013 by brucedawson

After many years programming solely on Windows I have recently started working on Linux. This is the third post in a series of tutorials that will share what I have learned about handling Linux symbols. This third post explains how … Continue reading →

Posted in Linux, Symbols | Tagged , , , | 35 Comments

Symbols on Linux Part Two: Symbols for Other Versions

Posted on January 19, 2013 by brucedawson

After many years programming solely on Windows I have recently started working on Linux – Ubuntu to be precise. This is the second post in a series of tutorials that will share what I have learned about handling Linux symbols. … Continue reading →

Posted in Linux, Symbols | Tagged , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Symbols on Linux Part One: g++ Library Symbols

Posted on January 8, 2013 by brucedawson

After many years programming solely on Windows I have recently started working on Linux – Ubuntu to be precise. One of the things that I have had to learn is the very different ways in which Linux developers deal with … Continue reading →

Posted in Linux, Programming, Symbols | Tagged , , , , , | 18 Comments