xref: /freebsd/sbin/dmesg/dmesg.8 (revision 641a6cfb86023499caafe26a4d821a0b885cf00b)
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28.\"     @(#)dmesg.8	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/5/93
29.\" $FreeBSD$
30.\"
31.Dd June 5, 1993
32.Dt DMESG 8
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm dmesg
36.Nd "display the system message buffer"
37.Sh SYNOPSIS
38.Nm
39.Op Fl a
40.Op Fl M Ar core Op Fl N Ar system
41.Sh DESCRIPTION
42The
43.Nm
44utility displays the contents of the system message buffer.
45If the
46.Fl M
47option is not specified, the buffer is read from the currently running kernel
48via the
49.Xr sysctl 3
50interface.
51Otherwise, the buffer is read from the specified core file,
52using the name list from the specified kernel image (or from
53the default image).
54.Pp
55The options are as follows:
56.Bl -tag -width indent
57.It Fl a
58Show all data in the message buffer.
59This includes any syslog records and
60.Pa /dev/console
61output.
62.It Fl M
63Extract values associated with the name list from the specified core.
64.It Fl N
65If
66.Fl M
67is also specified,
68extract the name list from the specified system instead of the default,
69which is the kernel image the system has booted from.
70.El
71.Sh FILES
72.Bl -tag -width ".Pa /var/run/dmesg.boot" -compact
73.It Pa /var/run/dmesg.boot
74usually a snapshot of the buffer contents
75taken soon after file systems are mounted
76at startup time
77.El
78.Sh SEE ALSO
79.Xr sysctl 3 ,
80.Xr syslogd 8
81.Sh HISTORY
82The
83.Nm
84utility appeared in
85.Bx 4.0 .
86