2 .\" Copyright (c) 2004, Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
3 .\" Copyright (c) 1983 Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. The Berkeley software License Agreement specifies the terms and conditions for redistribution.
4 .\" Copyright 2013 Nexenta Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
5 .TH SAVECORE 1M "Jan 30, 2013"
7 savecore \- save a crash dump of the operating system
11 \fB/usr/bin/savecore\fR [\fB-Lvd\fR] [\fB-f\fR \fIdumpfile\fR] [\fIdirectory\fR]
17 The \fBsavecore\fR utility saves a crash dump of the kernel (assuming that one
18 was made) and writes a reboot message in the shutdown log. By default, it is
19 invoked by the \fBdumpadm\fR service each time the system boots.
22 Depending on the \fBdumpadm\fR(1M) configuration \fBsavecore\fR saves either
23 the compressed or uncompressed crash dump. The compressed crash dump is saved in
24 the file \fIdirectory\fR\fB/vmdump.\fR\fIn\fR.
25 \fBsavecore\fR saves the uncompressed crash dump data in the file
26 \fIdirectory\fR\fB/vmcore.\fR\fIn\fR and the kernel's namelist in
27 \fIdirectory\fR\fB/unix.\fR\fIn.\fR The trailing \fIn\fR in the
28 pathnames is replaced by a number which grows every time \fBsavecore\fR is run
32 Before writing out a crash dump, \fBsavecore\fR reads a number from the file
33 \fIdirectory\fR\fB/minfree\fR. This is the minimum number of kilobytes that
34 must remain free on the file system containing \fIdirectory\fR. If after saving
35 the crash dump the file system containing \fIdirectory\fR would have less free
36 space the number of kilobytes specified in \fBminfree\fR, the crash dump is not
37 saved. if the \fBminfree\fR file does not exist, \fBsavecore\fR assumes a
38 \fBminfree\fR value of 1 megabyte.
41 The \fBsavecore\fR utility also logs a reboot message using facility
42 \fBLOG_AUTH\fR (see \fBsyslog\fR(3C)). If the system crashed as a result of a
43 panic, \fBsavecore\fR logs the panic string too.
47 The following options are supported:
54 Disregard dump header valid flag. Force \fBsavecore\fR to attempt to save a
55 crash dump even if the header information stored on the dump device indicates
56 the dump has already been saved.
62 \fB\fB-f\fR \fIdumpfile\fR\fR
65 Attempt to save a crash dump from the specified file instead of from the
66 system's current dump device. This option may be useful if the information
67 stored on the dump device has been copied to an on-disk file by means of the
77 Save a crash dump of the live running Solaris system, without actually
78 rebooting or altering the system in any way. This option forces \fBsavecore\fR
79 to save a live snapshot of the system to the dump device, and then immediately
80 to retrieve the data and to write it out to a new set of crash dump files in
81 the specified directory. Live system crash dumps can only be performed if you
82 have configured your system to have a dedicated dump device using
85 \fBsavecore\fR \fB-L\fR does not suspend the system, so the contents of memory
86 continue to change while the dump is saved. This means that live crash dumps
87 are not fully self-consistent.
96 Verbose. Enables verbose error messages from \fBsavecore\fR.
102 The following operands are supported:
106 \fB\fIdirectory\fR\fR
109 Save the crash dump files to the specified directory. If \fIdirectory\fR is not
110 specified, \fBsavecore\fR saves the crash dump files to the default
111 \fBsavecore\fR \fIdirectory\fR, configured by \fBdumpadm\fR(1M).
118 \fB\fIdirectory\fR\fB/vmdump.\fR\fIn\fR\fR
127 \fB\fIdirectory\fR\fB/vmcore.\fR\fIn\fR\fR
136 \fB\fIdirectory\fR\fB/unix.\fR\fIn\fR\fR
145 \fB\fIdirectory\fR\fB/bounds\fR\fR
154 \fB\fIdirectory\fR\fB/minfree\fR\fR
163 \fB\fB/var/crash/\&`uname \fR\fB-n\fR\fB\&`\fR\fR
166 default crash dump directory
172 \fBadb\fR(1), \fBmdb\fR(1), \fBsvcs\fR(1), \fBdd\fR(1M), \fBdumpadm\fR(1M),
173 \fBsvcadm\fR(1M), \fBsyslog\fR(3C), \fBattributes\fR(5), \fBsmf\fR(5)
177 The system crash dump service is managed by the service management facility,
178 \fBsmf\fR(5), under the service identifier:
182 svc:/system/dumpadm:default
189 Administrative actions on this service, such as enabling, disabling, or
190 requesting restart, can be performed using \fBsvcadm\fR(1M). The service's
191 status can be queried using the \fBsvcs\fR(1) command.
194 If the dump device is also being used as a swap device, you must run
195 \fBsavecore\fR very soon after booting, before the swap space containing the
196 crash dump is overwritten by programs currently running.