xref: /freebsd/sbin/savecore/savecore.8 (revision a220d00e74dd245b4fca59c5eca0c53963686325)
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32.\"     From: @(#)savecore.8	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/5/93
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd September 23, 1994
36.Dt SAVECORE 8
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm savecore
40.Nd "save a core dump of the operating system"
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm
43.Fl c
44.Nm
45.Op Fl fkvz
46.Op Fl N Ar system
47.Ar directory
48.Sh DESCRIPTION
49.Nm Savecore
50copies the currently running kernel and its associated core dump into
51.Fa directory ,
52and enters a reboot message and information about the core dump into
53the system log.
54.Pp
55The options are as follows:
56.Bl -tag -width indent
57.It Fl c
58Clear the dump, so that future invocations of
59.Nm
60will ignore it.
61.It Fl f
62Force a dump to be taken even if the dump doesn't appear correct or there
63is insufficient disk space.
64.It Fl k
65Do not clear the dump after saving it.
66.It Fl N
67Use
68.Ar system
69as the kernel instead of the running kernel (as determined from
70.Xr getbootfile 3 ) .
71.It Fl v
72Print out some additional debugging information.
73.It Fl z
74Compress the core dump and kernel (see
75.Xr gzip 1 ) .
76.El
77.Pp
78.Nm Savecore
79checks the core dump in various ways to make sure that it is current and
80that it corresponds to the currently running system.
81If it passes these checks, it saves the core image in
82.Ar directory Ns Pa /vmcore.#
83and the system in
84.Ar directory Ns Pa /kernel.#
85The ``#'' is the number from the first line of the file
86.Ar directory Ns Pa /bounds ,
87and it is incremented and stored back into the file each time
88.Nm
89successfully runs.
90.Pp
91.Nm Savecore
92also checks the available disk space before attempting to make the copies.
93If there is insufficient disk space in the filesystem containing
94.Ar directory ,
95or if the file
96.Ar directory Ns Pa /minfree
97exists and the number of free kilobytes (for non-superusers) in the
98filesystem after the copies were made would be less than the number
99in the first line of this file, the copies are not attempted.
100.Pp
101If
102.Nm
103successfully copies the kernel and the core dump, the core dump is cleared
104so that future invocations of
105.Nm
106will ignore it.
107.Pp
108.Nm Savecore
109is meant to be called near the end of the initialization file
110.Pa /etc/rc
111(see
112.Xr rc 8 ) .
113.Sh BUGS
114The minfree code does not consider the effect of compression.
115.Sh SEE ALSO
116.Xr gzip 1 ,
117.Xr getbootfile 3 ,
118.Xr dumpon 8 ,
119.Xr syslogd 8
120.Sh HISTORY
121The
122.Nm
123command appeared in
124.Bx 4.1 .
125