splitmind

splitmind helps to setup a layout of splits to organize presented information.

Currently only gdb with pwndbg as information provider is supported and tmux for splitting. It relies on the ability to ouput section of information to different tty.

Example configuration

Note above example uses splitmind and following configuration:

Install

git clone https://github.com/Xiwin/splitmind
echo "source $PWD/splitmind/gdbinit.py" >> ~/.gdbinit

It is not showing anything yet. You have to configure your layout yourself. As as start, put this into your gdbinit

python
import splitmind
(splitmind.Mind()
  .below(display="backtrace")
  .right(display="stack")
  .right(display="regs")
  .right(of="main", display="disasm")
  .show("legend", on="disasm")
).build()
end

Documentation

Currently splitmind can only be used with Tmux and Pwndbg, but it is designed to be able to include furthe input and output.

Conceptually there are two abstractions working together:

• Splitter, which setup the actual splits and provide the neccesary output files (tty, files, sockets,...)
• Thinker that generate content to be handed to the output, which must be made aware of the splits (or rather the tty, files, sockets, ...)

A third is used as glue: the Mind, which works as an easy interface to connect a splitter and a thinker. It works as a builder, creating the splits using the splitter and when finished handing the generated splits to the thinker. The Mind is most likely the only interface you need.

Mind

Mind(self, splitter=<class 'splitmind.splitter.tmux.Tmux'>, thinker=<class 'splitmind.thinker.pwndbg.Pwndbg'>)

A builder to create a splitmind. It splits always on the last created split if no 'of' is given or an other split is selected. To split the original starting point use select(None) or use an 'of' which is not defined yet. Further kwargs are always passed as is the the underlying splitter to be able to have splitter specific additional functionality. Parameters not consumed by the splitter are passed as split settings to the thinker

left

Mind.left(self, *args, of=None, display=None, **kwargs)

Creates a split left of the current split. :param str|split of : use this split instead of current :param str display : the section to be displayed here :param various args : further args are passed to the splitting cmd :param dict kwargs : further keyword args are passed to the splitter method

right

Mind.right(self, *args, of=None, display=None, **kwargs)

Creates a split right of the current split. :param str|split of : use this split instead of current :param str display : the section to be displayed here :param various args : further args are passed to the splitting cmd :param dict kwargs : further keyword args are passed to the splitter method

above

Mind.above(self, *args, of=None, display=None, **kwargs)

Creates a split above of the current split. :param str|split of : use this split instead of current :param str display : the section to be displayed here :param various args : further args are passed to the splitting cmd :param dict kwargs : further keyword args are passed to the splitter method

below

Mind.below(self, *args, of=None, display=None, **kwargs)

Creates a split below of the current split. :param str|split of : use this split instead of current :param str display : the section to be displayed here :param various args : further args are passed to the splitting cmd :param dict kwargs : further keyword args are passed to the splitter method

show

Mind.show(self, display, on=None, **kwargs)

Does not create a split but tells to display given section on some already created split. :param str|split on : which split to be used :param str display : the section to be displayed here :param dict kwargs : further keyword args are passed to the splitter method

select

Mind.select(self, display)

Selects the given display to continue from there. Use None for the main split

tell_splitter

Mind.tell_splitter(self, **kwargs)

Tells the splitter to configure according to the passed keyword arguments. Which arguments are available and what happens entirely depends on the implementation of the splitter

build

Mind.build(self, **kwargs)

Builds the splitmind, by telling the thinker where to put his thoughts :param dict kwagrs : passed to thinker setup to applie thinker specific value

TMUX

Tmux does handle the splits using split-window. Further *args are directly passed to the tmux call. Tmux supports following additional and optional keywords:

• cmd : str: The command to run in the created split
• use_stdin : boolean: sets up the split to be able to receive content as stdin to the given cmd
• size : str: gives a size to the new split (as lines or as percentage)

Splits can be created without display to start running arbitrary commands aswell.

Example:

python
import splitmind
(splitmind.Mind()
  .below(display="backtrace")
  .right(display="stack", cmd="grep rax", use_stdin=True)
  .right(display="regs")
  .below(cmd='sleep 1; htop')
  .below(of="stack", cmd='sleep 1; watch ls')
  .right(of="main", display="disasm")
  .show("legend", on="disasm")
).build()
end

Pwndbg

Currently Pwndbg is the only thinker / content producer available. It uses the contextoutput function to bind context sections to splits with the matching display name.

All split.settings (keyword arguments not used by the splitter i.e. tmux) are passed as keyword arguments to contextoutput

With the build one can specify following options:

• nobanner boolean: Banners of all configured outputs will be hidden. Same effect as specifying banner=False on every split.

Creating new splitter

You like screen? Please go ahead and create a splitter for it (and please submit a pullrequest).

Writing a new splitter is easy, just take a look at splitmind.splitter.tmux. It just takes left/right/above/below(), as well as show(),get(), splits() and close() to be implemented. (ABC class will be comming soon)

Creating a new thinker

You don't use pwndbg, but have an other case where a splitted layout with automatic tty setup comes in handy? Yeah! Please look at splitmind.thnker.pwndbg, it is even simpler than splitters are, as they only require a setup(splits) method which will then do all the initialization of the content creation process/programm.

FAQ

• How do I create a split containing the input/output of the program debugged by gdb?

(splitmind.Mind()
 .above(cmd='tty; tail -f /dev/null', clearing=False)
).build()

Creating a pane which (important) does not clear, shows the used tty and then just reads /dev/null. Tailing /dev/null is important, so that the tty is not bothered at all by the running process.

Then in gdb issue tty /dev/pts/<ttynr> with the shown tty. This will use the newly created pane as input/output of the debugged process. Just ignore the warning.