xref: /openbsd/sbin/savecore/savecore.8 (revision f6aab3d8)
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31.\"     @(#)savecore.8	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/5/93
32.\"
33.Dd $Mdocdate: August 14 2013 $
34.Dt SAVECORE 8
35.Os
36.Sh NAME
37.Nm savecore
38.Nd save a core dump of the operating system
39.Sh SYNOPSIS
40.Nm savecore
41.Op Fl cfvz
42.Op Fl N Ar system
43.Ar directory
44.Sh DESCRIPTION
45.Nm
46copies the currently running kernel and its associated core dump into
47.Fa directory ,
48and enters a reboot message and information about the core dump into
49the system log.
50.Pp
51The options are as follows:
52.Bl -tag -width Ds
53.It Fl c
54Clears the dump, so that future invocations of
55.Nm
56will ignore it.
57.It Fl f
58Forces a dump to be taken even if the dump doesn't appear correct or there
59is insufficient disk space.
60.It Fl N Ar system
61Use
62.Ar system
63as the kernel instead of the default
64.Pa /bsd .
65.It Fl v
66Prints out some additional debugging information.
67.It Fl z
68Compresses the core dump and kernel (see
69.Xr compress 1 ) .
70.El
71.Pp
72.Nm
73checks the core dump in various ways to make sure that it is current and
74that it corresponds to the currently running system.
75If it passes these checks, it saves the core image in
76.Ar directory Ns Pa /bsd.#.core
77and the system in
78.Ar directory Ns Pa /bsd.#
79(or in
80.Ar directory Ns Pa /bsd.#.core.Z
81and
82.Ar directory Ns Pa /bsd.#.Z ,
83respectively, if the
84.Fl z
85option is used).
86The
87.Dq #
88is the number from the first line of the file
89.Ar directory Ns Pa /bounds ,
90and it is incremented and stored back into the file each time
91.Nm
92successfully runs.
93.Pp
94.Nm
95also checks the available disk space before attempting to make the copies.
96If there is insufficient disk space in the filesystem containing
97.Ar directory ,
98or if the file
99.Ar directory Ns Pa /minfree
100exists and the number of free kilobytes (for non-superusers) in the
101filesystem after the copies were made would be less than the number
102in the first line of this file, the copies are not attempted.
103.Pp
104If
105.Nm
106successfully copies the kernel and the core dump, the core dump is cleared
107so that future invocations of
108.Nm
109will ignore it.
110.Pp
111.Nm
112is meant to be called near the end of the initialization file
113.Pa /etc/rc
114(see
115.Xr rc 8 ) .
116.Sh FILES
117.Bl -tag -width /bsdxx -compact
118.It Pa /bsd
119current kernel
120.El
121.Sh SEE ALSO
122.Xr compress 1 ,
123.Xr crash 8 ,
124.Xr syslogd 8
125.Sh HISTORY
126The
127.Nm
128command appeared in
129.Bx 4.1 .
130.Sh BUGS
131The minfree code does not consider the effect of compression.
132