core(5) [mojave man page]
CORE(5) BSD File Formats Manual CORE(5) NAME
core -- memory image file format SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/param.h> DESCRIPTION
A small number of signals which cause abnormal termination of a process also cause a record of the process's in-core state to be written to disk for later examination by one of the available debuggers. (See sigaction(2).) This memory image is written to a file named by default core.pid, where pid is the process ID of the process, in the /cores directory, provided the terminated process had write permission in the directory, and the directory existed. The maximum size of a core file is limited by setrlimit(2). Files which would be larger than the limit are not created. The core file consists of the Mach-O(5) header as described in the <mach-o/loader.h> file. The remainder of the core file consists of vari- ous sections described in the Mach-O(5) header. NOTE
Core dumps are disabled by default under Darwin/Mac OS X. To re-enable core dumps, a privileged user must do one of the following * Edit /etc/launchd.conf or $HOME/.launchd.conf and add a line specifying the limit limit core unlimited * A privileged user can also enable cores with launchctl limit core unlimited * A privileged user can also enable core files by using ulimit(1) or limit(1) depending upon the shell. SEE ALSO
gdb(1), setrlimit(2), sigaction(2), Mach-O(5), launchd.conf(5), launchd.plist(5), sysctl(8) HISTORY
A core file format appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX. BSD
June 26, 2008 BSD
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gcore(1) User Commands gcore(1) NAME
gcore - get core images of running processes SYNOPSIS
gcore [-pgF] [-o filename] [-c content] process-id... DESCRIPTION
The gcore utility creates a core image of each specified process. By default, the name of the core image file for the process whose process ID is process-id will be core.process-id. OPTIONS
The following options are supported: -c content Produces core image files with the specified content. The content description uses the same tokens as in coreadm(1M). The -c option does not apply to cores produced due to the -p or -g flags. -F Force. Grabs the target process even if another process has control. -g Produces core image files in the global core file repository with the global content as configured by coreadm(1M). The com- mand will fail if the user does not have permissions to the global core file repository. -o filename Substitutes filename in place of core as the first part of the name of the core image files. filename can contain the same tokens to be expanded as the paths in coreadm(1M). -p Produces a core image file in the process-specific location with the process-specific content for each process as config- ured by coreadm(1M). The command will fail if the user does not have permissions to the per-process core file repository. OPERANDS
The following operand is supported: process-id process ID EXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned: 0 On success. non-zero On failure, such as non-existent process ID. FILES
core.process-id core images ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes: +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |Availability |SUNWtoo | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |Interface Stability |See below. | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ Command Syntax is Evolving. Output Format(s) are Unstable. SEE ALSO
kill(1), coreadm(1M), setrlimit(2), core(4), proc(4), attributes(5) NOTES
gcore is unaffected by the setrlimit(2) system call using the RLIMIT_CORE value. SunOS 5.10 11 Feb 2004 gcore(1)