savecore

 

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 Maintenance Commands                                 savecore(1M)
 
 
 


NAME
      savecore - save a crash dump of the operating system
 


SYNOPSIS
      /usr/bin/savecore [ -Lvd ]  [ -f dumpfile ]  directory
 


DESCRIPTION
      The savecore utility  saves  a  crash  dump  of  the  kernel
      (assuming  that one was made) and writes a reboot message in
      the shutdown log. It is invoked by the  /etc/init.d/savecore
      file  after  the system boots, if savecore is enabled by way
      of dumpadm(1M). savecore is enable on reboot by default.
 
      The savecore utility checks the crash dump to be certain  it
      corresponds   with  the  version  of  the  operating  system
      currently running. If it does, savecore saves the crash dump
      data  in the file directory/vmcore.n and the kernel's namel-
      ist in directory/unix.n. The trailing .n in the pathnames is
      replaced  by a number which grows every time savecore is run
      in that directory.
 
      Before writing out a crash dump,  savecore  reads  a  number
      from  the file directory/minfree. This is the minimum number
      of kilobytes that must remain free on the file  system  con-
      taining  directory.  If after saving the crash dump the file
      system containing directory would have less free  space  the
      number  of kilobytes specified in minfree, the crash dump is
      not saved. if the minfree  file  does  not  exist,  savecore
      assumes a minfree value of 1 megabyte.
 
      The savecore utility also logs a reboot message using facil-
      ity  LOG_AUTH  (see  syslog(3C)). If the system crashed as a
      result of a panic, savecore logs the panic string too.
 


OPTIONS
      The following options are supported:
 
           -L    Save a crash dump of  the  live  running  Solaris
                 system,  without  actually  rebooting or altering
                 the system in any way.   This      option  forces
                 savecore to save a live snapshot of the system to
                 the dump device, and then immediately to retrieve
                 the  data  and  to  write  it out to a new set of
                 crash dump files in the specified directory. Live
                 system  crash  dumps may only be performed if you
                 have configured your system to have  a  dedicated
                 dump device using dumpadm(1M).
 
           -v    Verbose.  Enables  verbose  error  messages  from
                 savecore.
 
           -d    Disregard dump header valid flag.  Force savecore
 
 
 
 SunOS 5.8           Last change: 11 Dec 1998                    1
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Maintenance Commands                                 savecore(1M)
 
 
 
                 to  attempt  to  save  a  crash  dump even if the
                 header information  stored  on  the  dump  device
                 indicates the dump has already been saved.
 
           -f dumpfile
                 Attempt to save a crash dump from  the  specified
                 file  instead  of  from the system's current dump
                 device. This  option     may  be  useful  if  the
                 information  stored  on  the dump device has been
                 copied to an on-disk file by means of the  dd(1M)
                 command.
 
           directory
                 Save the crash dump files to the specified direc-
                 tory.  If no directory argument is present on the
                 command line, savecore saves the crash dump files
                 to  the default savecore directory, configured by
                 the dumpadm(1M) command.
 
 


FILES
      directory/vmcore.n
 
      directory/unix.n
 
      directory/bounds
 
      directory/minfree
 
      /dev/ksyms
            the kernel namelist
 
      /etc/init.d/savecore
 
      /var/crash/'uname -n'
            default crash dump directory
 


ATTRIBUTES
      See attributes(5) for descriptions of the  following  attri-
      butes:
 
      ____________________________________________________________
     |       ATTRIBUTE TYPE        |       ATTRIBUTE VALUE       |
     |_____________________________|_____________________________|
     | Availability                | SUNWcsu (32-bit)            |
     |_____________________________|_____________________________|
     |                             | SUNWcsxu (64-bit)           |
     |_____________________________|_____________________________|
 
 


SEE ALSO
 
 
 
 
 SunOS 5.8           Last change: 11 Dec 1998                    2
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Maintenance Commands                                 savecore(1M)
 
 
 
      adb(1), crash(1M),dd(1M),  dumpadm(1M),  syslog(3C),  attri-
      butes(5)
 
 BUGS
      If the dump device is also being used as a swap device,  you
      must  run  savecore very soon after booting, before the swap
      space containing the crash dump is overwritten  by  programs
      currently running.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 SunOS 5.8           Last change: 11 Dec 1998                    3
 
 
 

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