xref: /freebsd/sbin/dumpon/dumpon.8 (revision 05c7a37afb48ddd5ee1bd921a5d46fe59cc70b15)
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32.\"     From: @(#)swapon.8	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/5/93
33.\"	$Id: dumpon.8,v 1.1 1995/05/12 19:10:08 wollman Exp $
34.\"
35.Dd May 12, 1995
36.Dt DUMPON 8
37.Os FreeBSD 2.1
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm dumpon
40.Nd "specify a device for crash dumps"
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm dumpon
43.Op Fl v
44.Ar special_file
45.Sh DESCRIPTION
46.Nm Dumpon
47is used to specify a device where the kernel can save a crash dump in
48the case of a panic.
49The system begins with no dump area configured for safety, unless a
50.Dq dumps on
51clause was specified in the input to
52.Xr config 8 .
53The dump device must be one of the swap areas
54specified in the configuration file, and it must be at least the size
55of physical memory.
56Calls to
57.Nm dumpon
58normally occur in the system multi-user initialization file
59.Pa /etc/rc ,
60before the
61.Xr savecore 8
62program is run.
63The
64.Fl v
65flag can be specified to cause the
66.Nm
67program to be verbose about its activity.
68.Pp
69The
70.Nm
71program operates by setting the
72.Xr sysctl 3
73MIB variable
74.Dq kern.dumpdev
75to the device number of the designated
76.Ar special_file
77or to
78.Dv NODEV
79(meaning that no dumps are to be taken) if
80.Ar special_file
81is the text string
82.Dq Li off .
83.Sh SEE ALSO
84.Xr sysctl 3 ,
85.Xr init 8 ,
86.Xr rc 8 ,
87.Xr savecore 8
88.Sh FILES
89.Bl -tag -width /dev/[ws]d?b -compact
90.It Pa /dev/[ws]d?b
91standard paging devices
92.El
93.Sh BUGS
94Because the filesystem layer is already dead by the time a crash dump
95is taken, it is not possible to send crash dumps directly to a file.
96.Sh HISTORY
97The
98.Nm
99command appeared in
100.Tn FreeBSD
1012.1.
102