HP-UX HB v13.00 Ch-08 - Crash Dumps

HP-UX Handbook – Rev 13.00 Page 14 (of 38)
Chapter 08 Crash Dumps
October 29, 2013
COREDIR (Version 1)
This format, used in HP-UX 10.10, 10.20, and 10.30, consists of a core.n directory
containing an INDEX file, the kernel (vmunix) file, and numerous core.n.m files, which
contain portions of the physical memory image.
CRASHDIR (Version 2)
This format, used in HP-UX 11.00, consists of a crash.n directory containing an INDEX file,
the kernel and all dynamically loaded kernel module files, and numerous image.X.Y files,
each of which contain portions of the physical memory image and metadata describing which
memory pages were dumped and which were not.
PARDIR (Version 5)
This format is used in UX 11.11 and later. It is very similar in structure to the CRASHDIR
format in that it consists of a crash.n directory containing an INDEX file, the kernel and all
dynamically loaded kernel module files, and numerous image.X.Y files, each of which
contain portions of the physical memory image and metadata describing which memory pages
were dumped and which were not. In addition to the primary INDEX file, there are auxiliary
index files (indexX.Y), that contain metadata describing the image files containing the
memory pages. This format will be used when the dump is compressed. See crashconf(1M).
Other formats, for example tape archival formats, may be added in the future.
Selective dumps
The most significant change compared to UX 10.X is the possibility of configuring selective
dumps. Dumps no longer contain the entire contents of physical memory. With memory sizes
growing in leaps and bounds, it become critical that HP-UX dump only those parts of physical
memory which are considered useful in debugging a problem. By default you get a core of
approx. 5-40% of physical memory, variing with the state of the system at dumptime.
Configuration can be checked and modified with the crashconf utility:
# crashconf
CLASS PAGES INCLUDED IN DUMP DESCRIPTION
-------- ---------- ---------------- -----------------------------
UNUSED 14253 no, by default unused pages
USERPG 23876 no, by default user process pages
BCACHE 129981 no, by default buffer cache pages
KCODE 2044 no, by default kernel code pages
USTACK 451 yes, by default user process stacks
FSDATA 753 yes, by default file system metadata
KDDATA 72447 yes, by default kernel dynamic data
KSDATA 17699 yes, by default kernel static data
Total pages on system: 261504
Total pages included in dump: 91350
DEVICE OFFSET(kB) SIZE (kB) LOGICAL VOL. NAME