xref: /freebsd/sbin/savecore/savecore.8 (revision daf1cffce2e07931f27c6c6998652e90df6ba87e)
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. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
13.\"    must display the following acknowledgement:
14.\"	This product includes software developed by the University of
15.\"	California, Berkeley and its contributors.
16.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
17.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
18.\"    without specific prior written permission.
19.\"
20.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
21.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
22.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
23.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
24.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
25.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
26.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
27.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
28.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
29.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
30.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
31.\"
32.\"     From: @(#)savecore.8	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/5/93
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd September 23, 1994
36.Dt SAVECORE 8
37.Os BSD 4
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm savecore
40.Nd "save a core dump of the operating system"
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm savecore
43.Fl c
44.Nm savecore
45.Op Fl fvz
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 N
65Use
66.Ar system
67as the kernel instead of the running kernel (as determined from
68.Xr getbootfile 3 ).
69.It Fl v
70Print out some additional debugging information.
71.It Fl z
72Compress the core dump and kernel (see
73.Xr compress 1 ).
74.El
75.Pp
76.Nm Savecore
77checks the core dump in various ways to make sure that it is current and
78that it corresponds to the currently running system.
79If it passes these checks, it saves the core image in
80.Ar directory Ns Pa /vmcore.#
81and the system in
82.Ar directory Ns Pa /kernel.#
83The ``#'' is the number from the first line of the file
84.Ar directory Ns Pa /bounds ,
85and it is incremented and stored back into the file each time
86.Nm
87successfully runs.
88.Pp
89.Nm Savecore
90also checks the available disk space before attempting to make the copies.
91If there is insufficient disk space in the filesystem containing
92.Ar directory ,
93or if the file
94.Ar directory Ns Pa /minfree
95exists and the number of free kilobytes (for non-superusers) in the
96filesystem after the copies were made would be less than the number
97in the first line of this file, the copies are not attempted.
98.Pp
99If
100.Nm
101successfully copies the kernel and the core dump, the core dump is cleared
102so that future invocations of
103.Nm
104will ignore it.
105.Pp
106.Nm Savecore
107is meant to be called near the end of the initialization file
108.Pa /etc/rc
109(see
110.Xr rc 8 ) .
111.Sh BUGS
112The minfree code does not consider the effect of compression.
113.Sh SEE ALSO
114.Xr compress 1 ,
115.Xr getbootfile 3 ,
116.Xr syslogd 8
117.Sh HISTORY
118The
119.Nm
120command appeared in
121.Bx 4.1 .
122