IEEE80211_DDB(9)

💖 IEEE80211_DDB(9) — the kernel dev's manual, section 9, bestie 💖

okay so you found the page for ieee80211_ddb — "802.11 ddb support" — and honestly? it's giving debugger-baddie energy and I'm obsessed. this is the Kernel Developer's Manual, section 9, so pull up a chair and let's get into it 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

ieee80211_ddb — 802.11 ddb support 💅

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

options DDB

then, at the ddb prompt:

show vap [addr]
show all vaps
show com [addr]
show sta [addr]
show statab [addr]
show mesh [addr]

that's the whole menu, bestie. six shows and a kernel option. no cap. ✨

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so the net80211 layer ships with ddb(4) support for displaying important data structures 👑

and like… this is not a nice-to-have, okay? wireless applications are often built for embedded environments, and in those environments cross-machine or post-mortem debugging facilities like kgdb(1) are infeasible. not "annoying", not "inconvenient" — straight up not an option. so the debugger has to carry the vibes itself. periodt. 😭

the most commonly used command is this iconic little number:

show all vaps/a

and what does it do? it dumps the contents of all ieee80211vap, ieee80211com, and ieee80211_node data structures in the system. all of them. every last one. it's the main character of this manpage fr fr 🔥

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• ddb(4)
• ieee80211(9)

and that's the whole page, bestie 💜 this one came out of Debian's corner of the world, dated August 4, 2009 — so like, yes, she's an elder but she is still serving, and yes, the footer is technically IEEE80211_DDB(9) twice because that's just how manpages are built. iconic behaviour honestly 🎀✨