Chapter 2:  Introduction and Installation

• System Requirements
• Installing ZeroFault
• Installing the License Key
• ZeroFault Documentation

ZeroFault is a tool that finds memory errors and leaks in software programs. ZeroFault accomplishes this by examining every instruction as the program executes to ensure that it is valid within the context of the current memory environment. This run-time approach automatically covers shared libraries and dynamically loaded modules, including ones that come with the operating system or from third parties. You don't need to have source code for the program being tested, and ZeroFault will even work with stripped executables.

Before using ZeroFault, you should have a working knowledge of the AIX operating system and the Motif window system. You should know how to issue commands to AIX and use a mouse and standard Motif menus and commands. You should also know how to open, save, and close files using the standard Motif file dialogs. If you need to review these techniques, see the documentation that came with your AIX system.

In debugging programs with ZeroFault, it helps to have a good understanding of the concepts behind the analysis of memory errors and leaks. They are covered in detail in the chapters About Memory Analysis and Finding Memory Leaks. These chapters provide important information about the art of resolving memory problems, and you should consult them if you ever have trouble understanding ZeroFault's output.

System Requirements

• AIX version 3.2.5, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, or 5.1

• at least 32MB of RAM

  If you do not know how much RAM your AIX system has, use the command

  lsattr -H -E -l sys0

  The line starting with the word "realmem" indicates the amount of RAM in kilobytes. Also, the data area ulimit should be unset or set to a very large value, because ZeroFault uses a large data area.

• at least 10MB of available hard disk space

  If you do not know how much available disk space you have, use the df command to find out.

• at least 100MB of paging space

  If you do not know how much paging space you have, use the command lsps -a to find out. The total amount of paging space required will depend on the size of the process being examined by ZeroFault.

When working with large applications you may want to refer to the performance tips.

Installing ZeroFault

After downloading, place the distribution file in a working directory. You will need approximately 10Mb of disk space to hold the download and extract it. To extract the installation image, enter one of the following commands as the root user:

  tar xf zf-aix325.tar


  tar xf zf-aix41.tar


  tar xf zf-aix43.tar

export target_dir="/usr/lpp/ZeroFault"
mkdir ${target_dir}
./install zf.images ${target_dir}
		

        mkdir /usr/lib/elm
        chmod 755 /usr/lib/elm
        installp -acXd tkg_lm.obj all
        mkitab "tkg_lmd:2:respawn:/usr/lpp/tkg_lm/bin/tkg_lmd -l /tmp/tkg_lmd.log -m1"
        init Q
       /usr/lpp/tkg_lm/bin/tkg_lmadmin -c -r1/"license_key"