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CORE(5)                    Linux Programmer's Manual                   CORE(5)

NAME
       core - core dump file

DESCRIPTION
       The  default  action of certain signals is to cause a process to termi-
       nate and produce a core dump file, a disk file containing an  image  of
       the  process's  memory  at  the time of termination.  This image can be
       used in a debugger (e.g., gdb(1)) to inspect the state of  the  program
       at  the  time  that it terminated.  A list of the signals which cause a
       process to dump core can be found in signal(7).

       A process can set its soft RLIMIT_CORE resource limit to place an upper
       limit on the size of the core dump file that will be produced if it re-
       ceives a "core dump" signal; see getrlimit(2) for details.

       There are various circumstances in which a core dump file is  not  pro-
       duced:

       *  The  process  does  not have permission to write the core file.  (By
          default, the core file is called core or core.pid, where pid is  the
          ID  of  the  process that dumped core, and is created in the current
          working directory.  See below for details on naming.)   Writing  the
          core  file  fails  if  the directory in which it is to be created is
          nonwritable, or if a file with the  same  name  exists  and  is  not
          writable or is not a regular file (e.g., it is a directory or a sym-
          bolic link).

       *  A (writable, regular) file with the same name as would be  used  for
          the  core  dump already exists, but there is more than one hard link
          to that file.

       *  The filesystem where the core dump file would be created is full; or
          has  run  out  of  inodes;  or is mounted read-only; or the user has
          reached their quota for the filesystem.

       *  The directory in which the core dump file is to be created does  not
          exist.

       *  The  RLIMIT_CORE  (core  file  size) or RLIMIT_FSIZE (file size) re-
          source limits for the process are set to zero; see getrlimit(2)  and
          the documentation of the shell's ulimit command (limit in csh(1)).

       *  The  binary being executed by the process does not have read permis-
          sion enabled.

       *  The process is executing a set-user-ID (set-group-ID)  program  that
          is  owned  by  a user (group) other than the real user (group) ID of
          the process, or the process is executing a program that has file ca-
          pabilities  (see capabilities(7)).  (However, see the description of
          the prctl(2) PR_SET_DUMPABLE operation, and the description  of  the
          /proc/sys/fs/suid_dumpable file in proc(5).)

       *  /proc/sys/kernel/core_pattern    is    empty    and   /proc/sys/ker-
          nel/core_uses_pid contains the value 0.  (These files are  described
          below.)   Note  that  if  /proc/sys/kernel/core_pattern is empty and
          /proc/sys/kernel/core_uses_pid contains the value 1, core dump files
          will  have  names of the form .pid, and such files are hidden unless
          one uses the ls(1) -a option.

       *  (Since Linux 3.7) The kernel was configured without the CONFIG_CORE-
          DUMP option.

       In  addition,  a core dump may exclude part of the address space of the
       process if the madvise(2) MADV_DONTDUMP flag was employed.

       On systems that employ systemd(1) as the init framework, core dumps may
       instead  be  placed  in a location determined by systemd(1).  See below
       for further details.

   Naming of core dump files
       By default, a core dump file is  named  core,  but  the  /proc/sys/ker-
       nel/core_pattern file (since Linux 2.6 and 2.4.21) can be set to define
       a template that is used to name core dump files.  The template can con-
       tain  % specifiers which are substituted by the following values when a
       core file is created:

           %%  a single % character
           %c  core file size soft resource limit of crashing  process  (since
               Linux 2.6.24)
           %d  dump  mode--same  as value returned by prctl(2) PR_GET_DUMPABLE
               (since Linux 3.7)
           %e  executable filename (without path prefix)
           %E  pathname of executable, with slashes ('/') replaced by exclama-
               tion marks ('!') (since Linux 3.0).
           %g  (numeric) real GID of dumped process
           %h  hostname (same as nodename returned by uname(2))
           %i  TID  of  thread  that  triggered  core dump, as seen in the PID
               namespace in which the thread resides (since Linux 3.18)
           %I  TID of thread that triggered core dump, as seen in the  initial
               PID namespace (since Linux 3.18)
           %p  PID  of  dumped  process, as seen in the PID namespace in which
               the process resides
           %P  PID of dumped process, as seen in  the  initial  PID  namespace
               (since Linux 3.12)
           %s  number of signal causing dump
           %t  time  of dump, expressed as seconds since the Epoch, 1970-01-01
               00:00:00 +0000 (UTC)
           %u  (numeric) real UID of dumped process

       A single % at the end of the template is dropped from  the  core  file-
       name, as is the combination of a % followed by any character other than
       those listed above.  All other characters in the template become a lit-
       eral  part  of the core filename.  The template may include '/' charac-
       ters, which are interpreted as delimiters  for  directory  names.   The
       maximum  size  of the resulting core filename is 128 bytes (64 bytes in
       kernels before 2.6.19).  The default value in this file is "core".  For
       backward  compatibility,  if /proc/sys/kernel/core_pattern does not in-
       clude %p and /proc/sys/kernel/core_uses_pid  (see  below)  is  nonzero,
       then .PID will be appended to the core filename.

       Paths are interpreted according to the settings that are active for the
       crashing process.  That means the crashing  process's  mount  namespace
       (see  mount_namespaces(7)),  its  current  working directory (found via
       getcwd(2)), and its root directory (see chroot(2)).

       Since version 2.4, Linux has also provided a more primitive  method  of
       controlling  the  name  of  the  core dump file.  If the /proc/sys/ker-
       nel/core_uses_pid file contains the value 0, then a core dump  file  is
       simply  named  core.   If  this file contains a nonzero value, then the
       core dump file includes the process ID in a name of the form core.PID.

       Since Linux 3.6, if /proc/sys/fs/suid_dumpable  is  set  to  2  ("suid-
       safe"),  the pattern must be either an absolute pathname (starting with
       a leading '/' character) or a pipe, as defined below.

   Piping core dumps to a program
       Since kernel  2.6.19,  Linux  supports  an  alternate  syntax  for  the
       /proc/sys/kernel/core_pattern  file.   If  the  first character of this
       file is a pipe symbol (|), then the remainder of  the  line  is  inter-
       preted as the command-line for a user-space program (or script) that is
       to be executed.

       Since kernel 5.3.0, the pipe template is split on spaces into an  argu-
       ment list before the template parameters are expanded.  In earlier ker-
       nels, the template parameters are  expanded  first  and  the  resulting
       string  is  split  on spaces into an argument list.  This means that in
       earlier kernels executable names added by the %e and %E template param-
       eters  could  get split into multiple arguments.  So the core dump han-
       dler needs to put the executable names as the last argument and  ensure
       it  joins  all  parts  of the executable name using spaces.  Executable
       names with multiple spaces in them are  not  correctly  represented  in
       earlier kernels, meaning that the core dump handler needs to use mecha-
       nisms to find the executable name.

       Instead of being written to a disk file, the  core  dump  is  given  as
       standard input to the program.  Note the following points:

       *  The program must be specified using an absolute pathname (or a path-
          name relative to the root directory, /), and must immediately follow
          the '|' character.

       *  The  command-line  arguments  can  include  any  of the % specifiers
          listed above.  For example, to pass the PID of the process  that  is
          being dumped, specify %p in an argument.

       *  The process created to run the program runs as user and group root.

       *  Running  as  root does not confer any exceptional security bypasses.
          Namely, LSMs (e.g., SELinux) are still active and  may  prevent  the
          handler  from  accessing  details  about  the  crashed  process  via
          /proc/[pid].

       *  The program pathname is interpreted  with  respect  to  the  initial
          mount  namespace as it is always executed there.  It is not affected
          by the settings (e.g.,  root  directory,  mount  namespace,  current
          working directory) of the crashing process.

       *  The process runs in the initial namespaces (PID, mount, user, and so
          on) and not in the namespaces of the crashing process.  One can uti-
          lize  specifiers  such as %P to find the right /proc/[pid] directory
          and probe/enter the crashing process's namespaces if needed.

       *  The process starts with its current working directory  as  the  root
          directory.   If desired, it is possible change to the working direc-
          tory of the dumping process by employing the value provided  by  the
          %P  specifier  to  change to the location of the dumping process via
          /proc/[pid]/cwd.

       *  Command-line arguments can be supplied to the program  (since  Linux
          2.6.24),  delimited by white space (up to a total line length of 128
          bytes).

       *  The RLIMIT_CORE limit is not enforced for core dumps that are  piped
          to a program via this mechanism.

   /proc/sys/kernel/core_pipe_limit
       When  collecting  core dumps via a pipe to a user-space program, it can
       be useful for the collecting program to gather data about the  crashing
       process from that process's /proc/[pid] directory.  In order to do this
       safely, the kernel must wait for the program collecting the  core  dump
       to  exit,  so as not to remove the crashing process's /proc/[pid] files
       prematurely.  This in turn creates the possibility that  a  misbehaving
       collecting program can block the reaping of a crashed process by simply
       never exiting.

       Since Linux 2.6.32, the /proc/sys/kernel/core_pipe_limit can be used to
       defend  against  this  possibility.  The value in this file defines how
       many concurrent crashing processes may be piped to user-space  programs
       in  parallel.  If this value is exceeded, then those crashing processes
       above this value are noted in the kernel log and their core  dumps  are
       skipped.

       A value of 0 in this file is special.  It indicates that unlimited pro-
       cesses may be captured in parallel, but that no waiting will take place
       (i.e., the collecting program is not guaranteed access to /proc/_crash-
       ing-PID_).  The default value for this file is 0.

   Controlling which mappings are written to the core dump
       Since kernel  2.6.23,  the  Linux-specific  /proc/[pid]/coredump_filter
       file  can  be  used to control which memory segments are written to the
       core dump file in the event that a  core  dump  is  performed  for  the
       process with the corresponding process ID.

       The  value  in  the  file  is  a  bit mask of memory mapping types (see
       mmap(2)).  If a bit is set in the mask, then  memory  mappings  of  the
       corresponding type are dumped; otherwise they are not dumped.  The bits
       in this file have the following meanings:

           bit 0  Dump anonymous private mappings.
           bit 1  Dump anonymous shared mappings.
           bit 2  Dump file-backed private mappings.
           bit 3  Dump file-backed shared mappings.
           bit 4 (since Linux 2.6.24)
                  Dump ELF headers.
           bit 5 (since Linux 2.6.28)
                  Dump private huge pages.
           bit 6 (since Linux 2.6.28)
                  Dump shared huge pages.
           bit 7 (since Linux 4.4)
                  Dump private DAX pages.
           bit 8 (since Linux 4.4)
                  Dump shared DAX pages.

       By default,  the  following  bits  are  set:  0,  1,  4  (if  the  CON-
       FIG_CORE_DUMP_DEFAULT_ELF_HEADERS  kernel  configuration  option is en-
       abled), and 5.  This default can be modified at  boot  time  using  the
       coredump_filter boot option.

       The value of this file is displayed in hexadecimal.  (The default value
       is thus displayed as 33.)

       Memory-mapped I/O pages such as frame buffer are never dumped, and vir-
       tual  DSO  (vdso(7))  pages  are always dumped, regardless of the core-
       dump_filter value.

       A child process created via fork(2) inherits its parent's coredump_fil-
       ter value; the coredump_filter value is preserved across an execve(2).

       It can be useful to set coredump_filter in the parent shell before run-
       ning a program, for example:

           $ echo 0x7 > /proc/self/coredump_filter
           $ ./some_program

       This file is provided only if  the  kernel  was  built  with  the  CON-
       FIG_ELF_CORE configuration option.

   Core dumps and systemd
       On  systems  using  the  systemd(1)  init  framework, core dumps may be
       placed in a location determined by systemd(1).  To do this,  systemd(1)
       employs  the  core_pattern  feature  that allows piping core dumps to a
       program.  One can verify this by checking whether core dumps are  being
       piped to the systemd-coredump(8) program:

           $ cat /proc/sys/kernel/core_pattern
           |/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-coredump %P %u %g %s %t %c %e

       In  this case, core dumps will be placed in the location configured for
       systemd-coredump(8), typically as lz4(1) compressed files in the direc-
       tory /var/lib/systemd/coredump/.  One can list the core dumps that have
       been recorded by systemd-coredump(8) using coredumpctl(1):

         $ coredumpctl list | tail -5
         Wed 2017-10-11 22:25:30 CEST  2748 1000 1000 3 present  /usr/bin/sleep
         Thu 2017-10-12 06:29:10 CEST  2716 1000 1000 3 present  /usr/bin/sleep
         Thu 2017-10-12 06:30:50 CEST  2767 1000 1000 3 present  /usr/bin/sleep
         Thu 2017-10-12 06:37:40 CEST  2918 1000 1000 3 present  /usr/bin/cat
         Thu 2017-10-12 08:13:07 CEST  2955 1000 1000 3 present  /usr/bin/cat

       The information shown for each core dump includes the date and time  of
       the  dump,  the  PID,  UID, and GID  of the dumping process, the signal
       number that caused the core dump, and the pathname  of  the  executable
       that  was  being  run  by the dumped process.  Various options to core-
       dumpctl(1) allow a specified coredump file to be pulled from  the  sys-
       temd(1)  location  into  a specified file.  For example, to extract the
       core dump for PID 2955 shown above to a file named core in the  current
       directory, one could use:

           $ coredumpctl dump 2955 -o core

       For more extensive details, see the coredumpctl(1) manual page.

       To disable the systemd(1) mechanism that archives core dumps, restoring
       to something more like traditional Linux behavior, one can set an over-
       ride for the systemd(1) mechanism, using something like:

         # echo "kernel.core_pattern=core.%p" > /etc/sysctl.d/50-coredump.conf
         # /lib/systemd/systemd-sysctl

NOTES
       The gdb(1) gcore command can be used to obtain a core dump of a running
       process.

       In Linux versions up  to  and  including  2.6.27,  if  a  multithreaded
       process  (or, more precisely, a process that shares its memory with an-
       other process by being created with  the  CLONE_VM  flag  of  clone(2))
       dumps  core,  then  the process ID is always appended to the core file-
       name, unless the process ID was already included elsewhere in the file-
       name via a %p specification in /proc/sys/kernel/core_pattern.  (This is
       primarily useful when employing the obsolete  LinuxThreads  implementa-
       tion, where each thread of a process has a different PID.)

EXAMPLE
       The program below can be used to demonstrate the use of the pipe syntax
       in the /proc/sys/kernel/core_pattern file.  The following shell session
       demonstrates  the use of this program (compiled to create an executable
       named core_pattern_pipe_test):

           $ cc -o core_pattern_pipe_test core_pattern_pipe_test.c
           $ su
           Password:
           # echo "|$PWD/core_pattern_pipe_test %p UID=%u GID=%g sig=%s" > \
               /proc/sys/kernel/core_pattern
           # exit
           $ sleep 100
           ^\                     # type control-backslash
           Quit (core dumped)
           $ cat core.info
           argc=5
           argc[0]=</home/mtk/core_pattern_pipe_test>
           argc[1]=<20575>
           argc[2]=<UID=1000>
           argc[3]=<GID=100>
           argc[4]=<sig=3>
           Total bytes in core dump: 282624

   Program source

       /* core_pattern_pipe_test.c */

       #define _GNU_SOURCE
       #include <sys/stat.h>
       #include <fcntl.h>
       #include <limits.h>
       #include <stdio.h>
       #include <stdlib.h>
       #include <unistd.h>

       #define BUF_SIZE 1024

       int
       main(int argc, char *argv[])
       {
           int tot, j;
           ssize_t nread;
           char buf[BUF_SIZE];
           FILE *fp;
           char cwd[PATH_MAX];

           /* Change our current working directory to that of the
              crashing process */

           snprintf(cwd, PATH_MAX, "/proc/%s/cwd", argv[1]);
           chdir(cwd);

           /* Write output to file "core.info" in that directory */

           fp = fopen("core.info", "w+");
           if (fp == NULL)
               exit(EXIT_FAILURE);

           /* Display command-line arguments given to core_pattern
              pipe program */

           fprintf(fp, "argc=%d\n", argc);
           for (j = 0; j < argc; j++)
               fprintf(fp, "argc[%d]=<%s>\n", j, argv[j]);

           /* Count bytes in standard input (the core dump) */

           tot = 0;
           while ((nread = read(STDIN_FILENO, buf, BUF_SIZE)) > 0)
               tot += nread;
           fprintf(fp, "Total bytes in core dump: %d\n", tot);

           fclose(fp);
           exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
       }

SEE ALSO
       bash(1),  coredumpctl(1),  gdb(1),  getrlimit(2),  mmap(2),   prctl(2),
       sigaction(2),  elf(5),  proc(5),  pthreads(7), signal(7), systemd-core-
       dump(8)

COLOPHON
       This page is part of release 5.05 of the Linux  man-pages  project.   A
       description  of  the project, information about reporting bugs, and the
       latest    version    of    this    page,    can     be     found     at
       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

Linux                             2019-10-10                           CORE(5)

NAME | DESCRIPTION | NOTES | EXAMPLE | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON