xref: /freebsd/sbin/dmesg/dmesg.8 (revision ef36b3f75658d201edb495068db5e1be49593de5)
1.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1991, 1993
2.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
3.\"
4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
6.\" are met:
7.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
8.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
9.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
10.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
11.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
12.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
13.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
14.\"    without specific prior written permission.
15.\"
16.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
17.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
18.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
19.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
20.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
21.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
22.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
23.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
24.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
25.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
26.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
27.\"
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