.. index:: signaturegeneration
The :ref:`processor-chapter` creates an overall signature for a crash based on the signatures of the stack frame of the crashing thread. It walks the stack from the frame with the lowest number (the top of the stack) applying rules and accumulating a list of signatures found to be relevant. Once the rules are done, the list of signatures is concatenated into a single string. That single string become the crash's overall signature.
Before any frame signatures are considered, they are normalized. This is just a string formating change. Runs of spaces are compressed to just one space. Commas are insured to always be followed by a space, integer values are replaced by 'int'. Signatures that match the signaturesWithLineNumbersRegEx regular expression are combined with their source code line. Frames that have no function information are written as sourcecode/line number pairs. If no source code is available, it tries to find a module/address pair. Failing that, it falls back to just an address.
The signature is generated by walking through each stack frame considering its 'name' (as normalized above). Frames / names are skipped or added to the signature list according to the rules. When a signature list is complete, it is converted to string by concatenating the frame names with spaces and a vertical bar between each name, for example: objc_msgSend | IdleTimerVector is the signature for a stack that contained (irrelevant frames), "objc_msgSend", "IdleTimerVector" which matched neither prefix nor irrelevant regular expressions and possibly other frames which did not become part of the signature.
Each SkipList rule is a regular expression. Typically, it takes the form of an alternation of frame names, but any legal regular expression can be used. Regular expression alternation syntax is a|b|c: Match on 'a' or 'b' or 'c'. This work is done in Python, so use Python Regular Expression Syntax
A typical rule might be: "_purecall".
This is the first rule to be applied. The code iterates through the stack frame, throwing away everything it finds until it encounters a match to this regular expression or the end of the stack. If it finds a match, it passes all the frames after the match to the next step. If it finds no match, it passes the whole list of frames to the next step.
A typical rule might be: "@0x0-9a-fA-F{2,}|@0x1-9a-fA-F|RaiseException|CxxThrowException".
A frame which matches this regular expression will be appended to the signature only if a prefix frame has already been seen (see next rule).
A typical rule might be "@0x0|strchr|strstr|strlen|PL_strlen|strcmp|wcslen|memcpy|memmove|memcmp|malloc|realloc|objc_msgSend", though at Mozilla it has grown much longer.
This is the rule that generates compound signatures. A frame that matches this regular expression changes the state of the machine to 'seen prefix'. In 'seen prefix' state, irrelevant or prefix frames are appended. As soon as a frame is neither, it is appended and the signature list is complete.
Once the signature list is complete, the signature is generated as mentioned above