1savecore(1M) System Administration Commands savecore(1M)
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6 savecore - save a crash dump of the operating system
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9 /usr/bin/savecore [-Lvd] [-f dumpfile] [directory]
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13 The savecore utility saves a crash dump of the kernel (assuming that
14 one was made) and writes a reboot message in the shutdown log. It is
15 invoked by the dumpadm service each time the system boots.
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18 savecore saves the crash dump data in the file directory/vmcore.n and
19 the kernel's namelist in directory/unix.n. The trailing .n in the path‐
20 names is replaced by a number which grows every time savecore is run in
21 that directory.
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24 Before writing out a crash dump, savecore reads a number from the file
25 directory/minfree. This is the minimum number of kilobytes that must
26 remain free on the file system containing directory. If after saving
27 the crash dump the file system containing directory would have less
28 free space the number of kilobytes specified in minfree, the crash dump
29 is not saved. if the minfree file does not exist, savecore assumes a
30 minfree value of 1 megabyte.
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33 The savecore utility also logs a reboot message using facility LOG_AUTH
34 (see syslog(3C)). If the system crashed as a result of a panic,
35 savecore logs the panic string too.
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38 The following options are supported:
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40 -d Disregard dump header valid flag. Force savecore to
41 attempt to save a crash dump even if the header informa‐
42 tion stored on the dump device indicates the dump has
43 already been saved.
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46 -f dumpfile Attempt to save a crash dump from the specified file
47 instead of from the system's current dump device. This
48 option may be useful if the information stored on the
49 dump device has been copied to an on-disk file by means
50 of the dd(1M) command.
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53 -L Save a crash dump of the live running Solaris system,
54 without actually rebooting or altering the system in any
55 way. This option forces savecore to save a live snapshot
56 of the system to the dump device, and then immediately
57 to retrieve the data and to write it out to a new set of
58 crash dump files in the specified directory. Live system
59 crash dumps can only be performed if you have configured
60 your system to have a dedicated dump device using
61 dumpadm(1M).
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63 savecore -L does not suspend the system, so the contents
64 of memory continue to change while the dump is saved.
65 This means that live crash dumps are not fully self-con‐
66 sistent.
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69 -v Verbose. Enables verbose error messages from savecore.
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73 The following operands are supported:
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75 directory Save the crash dump files to the specified directory. If
76 directory is not specified, savecore saves the crash dump
77 files to the default savecore directory, configured by
78 dumpadm(1M).
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82 directory/vmcore.n
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85 directory/unix.n
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88 directory/bounds
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91 directory/minfree
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94 /var/crash/'uname -n' default crash dump directory
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98 See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
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103 ┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
104 │ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
105 ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
106 │Availability │SUNWcsu │
107 └─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
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110 adb(1), mdb(1), svcs(1), dd(1M), dumpadm(1M), svcadm(1M), syslog(3C),
111 attributes(5), smf(5)
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114 The system crash dump service is managed by the service management
115 facility, smf(5), under the service identifier:
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117 svc:/system/dumpadm:default
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122 Administrative actions on this service, such as enabling, disabling, or
123 requesting restart, can be performed using svcadm(1M). The service's
124 status can be queried using the svcs(1) command.
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127 If the dump device is also being used as a swap device, you must run
128 savecore very soon after booting, before the swap space containing the
129 crash dump is overwritten by programs currently running.
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133SunOS 5.11 25 Sep 2004 savecore(1M)