CORE(5)                     BSD Programmer's Manual                    CORE(5)

NAME
     core - memory image file format

SYNOPSIS
     #include <sys/param.h>

DESCRIPTION
     A small number of signals which cause abnormal termination of a process
     also cause a record of the process's in-core state to be written to disk
     for later examination by one of the aviailable debuggers.  (See
     sigaction(2).)  This memory image is written to a file named core in the
     working directory; provided the terminated process had write permission
     in the directory, and provided the abnormality did not caused a system
     crash.  (In this event, the decision to save the core file is arbitrary,
     see savecore(8).)

     The maximum size of a core file is limited by setrlimit(2).  Files which
     would be larger than the limit are not created.

     The core file consists of the u. area, whose size (in pages) is defined
     by the UPAGES manifest in the <sys/param.h> file.  The u. area starts
     with a user structure as given in <sys/user.h>. The remainder of the core
     file consists of the data pages followed by the stack pages of the pro-
     cess image.  The amount of data space image in the core file is given (in
     pages) by the variable udsize in the u. area.  The amount of stack image
     in the core file is given (in pages) by the variable ussize in the u.
     area.  The size of a ``page'' is given by the constant NBPG (also from
     <sys/param.h>).

SEE ALSO
     adb(1),  dbx(1),  gdb(1),  kgdb(1),  sigaction(2),  setrlimit(2)

HISTORY
     A core file format appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.

4th Berkeley Distribution       March 27, 1993                               1