How can a C program produce a core dump of itself without terminating?

Question

I want a C program to produce a core dump under certain circumstances. This is a program that runs in a production environment and isn\'t easily stopped and restarted to adj

Answer 1

void create_dump(void)
{
    if(!fork()) {
        // Crash the app in your favorite way here
        abort() || (*((void*)0) = 42);
    }
}

Fork the process then crash the child - it'll give you a snapshot whenever you want