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 various 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 AT&T UNIX.