xref: /freebsd/sbin/dmesg/dmesg.8 (revision 732a02b4e77866604a120a275c082bb6221bd2ff)
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28.\"     @(#)dmesg.8	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/5/93
29.\" $FreeBSD$
30.\"
31.Dd October 3, 2016
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 ac
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 c
63Clear the kernel buffer after printing.
64.It Fl M
65Extract values associated with the name list from the specified core.
66.It Fl N
67If
68.Fl M
69is also specified,
70extract the name list from the specified system instead of the default,
71which is the kernel image the system has booted from.
72.El
73.Sh FILES
74.Bl -tag -width ".Pa /var/run/dmesg.boot" -compact
75.It Pa /var/run/dmesg.boot
76usually a snapshot of the buffer contents
77taken soon after file systems are mounted
78at startup time
79.El
80.Sh SEE ALSO
81.Xr sysctl 3 ,
82.Xr syslogd 8
83.Sh HISTORY
84The
85.Nm
86utility appeared in
87.Bx 3 .
88