NAME

savecore − save a core dump of the operating system

SYNOPSIS

/usr/etc/savecore [ −v ] directory [ system-name ]

DESCRIPTION

savecore saves a core dump of the kernel (assuming that one was made) and writes a reboot message in the shutdown log.  It is normally called near the end of the /etc/rc.local file after the system boots.  The first time you boot the system after installing the OS, you are asked which directory to use for savecore files.  By default, this is /var/crash/hostname, where hostname is the name of the current host system (see hostname(1)).  By changing the default, or by editing rc.local, you can choose to put savecore files in some other directory, or not to do savecore at all. 

savecore checks the core dump to be certain it corresponds with the version of the operating system currently running.  If it does, savecore saves the core image in the file directory/vmcore.n and the kernel’s namelist in directory/vmunix.n.  The trailing .n in the pathnames is replaced by a number which grows every time savecore is run in that directory. 

Before savecore writes out a core image, it reads a number from the file directory/minfree. This is the minimum number of kilobytes that must remain free on the filesystem containing directory. If there is less free space on the filesystem containing directory than the number of kilobytes specified in minfree, the core dump is not saved.  If the minfree file does not exist, savecore always attempts to write out the core file (assuming that a core dump was taken).  If there is not enough space in directory to accommodate the core file, the resulting core file may be incomplete. 

savecore also logs a reboot message using facility LOG_AUTH (see syslog(3)).  If the system crashed as a result of a panic, savecore logs the panic string too. 

If the core dump was from a system other than /vmunix, the name of that system must be supplied as system-name.

OPTIONS

−v Verbose.  Enable verbose error messages from savecore. 

FILES

directory/vmcore.n

directory/vmunix.n

directory/minfree

/vmunix the kernel

/etc/rc.local

SEE ALSO

hostname(1), syslog(3), panic(8S), sa(8)

BUGS

savecore can be fooled into thinking a core dump is the wrong size. 

You must run savecore very soon after booting — before the swap space containing the crash dump is overwritten by programs currently running. 

Solbourne Computer, Inc.  —  28 Dec 1993