SAVECORE(8)             OpenBSD System Manager's Manual            SAVECORE(8)

NAME
     savecore - save a core dump of the operating system

SYNOPSIS
     savecore -c
     savecore [-fvz] [-N system] directory

DESCRIPTION
     savecore copies the currently running kernel and its associated core dump
     into directory, and enters a reboot message and information about the
     core dump into the system log.

     The options are as follows:

     -c      Clears the dump, so that future invocations of savecore will ig-
             nore it.

     -f      Forces a dump to be taken even if the dump doesn't appear correct
             or there is insufficient disk space.

     -N system
             Use system as the kernel instead of the default /bsd.

     -v      Prints out some additional debugging information.

     -z      Compresses the core dump and kernel (see compress(1)).

     savecore checks the core dump in various ways to make sure that it is
     current and that it corresponds to the currently running system.  If it
     passes these checks, it saves the core image in directory/bsd.#.core and
     the system in directory/bsd.# (or in directory/bsd.#.core.Z and
     directory/bsd.#.Z, respectively, if the -z option is used).  The ``#'' is
     the number from the first line of the file directory/bounds, and it is
     incremented and stored back into the file each time savecore successfully
     runs.

     savecore also checks the available disk space before attempting to make
     the copies.  If there is insufficient disk space in the filesystem con-
     taining directory, or if the file directory/minfree exists and the number
     of free kilobytes (for non-superusers) in the filesystem after the copies
     were made would be less than the number in the first line of this file,
     the copies are not attempted.

     If savecore successfully copies the kernel and the core dump, the core
     dump is cleared so that future invocations of savecore will ignore it.

     savecore is meant to be called near the end of the initialization file
     /etc/rc (see rc(8)).

FILES
     /bsd    current kernel

BUGS
     The minfree code does not consider the effect of compression.

SEE ALSO
     compress(1), syslogd(8)

HISTORY
     The savecore command appeared in 4.1BSD.

OpenBSD 2.9                      June 5, 1993                                1
