How to generate core dump file in Ubuntu [duplicate]

Question

This question already has an answer here:

• How to generate a core dump in Linux on a segmentation fault? 11 answers

I would like to know how to generate a core dump file in Ubuntu. I am using Ubuntu 8.04.1 and gcc compiler 4.2.3. I have written a simple C program to generate a core dump. I have compiled the program as in -- gcc -g badpointer.c . When I run the program its gives segmentation fault but no core dump is generated. What additional things do i have to do to generate a core dump file ?

Answer 1

Linux

Activate your coredumps by:

ulimit -c unlimited

Also, check:

$ sysctl kernel.core_pattern

to see where your dumps are created (%e will be the process name, and %t will be the system time).

You can change it in /etc/sysctl.conf and then reload by sysctl -p.

You can test it by:

sleep 10 &
killall -SIGSEGV sleep

If core dumping is successful, you will see “(core dumped)” after the segmentation fault indication.

See also:

• How to generate a core dump in Linux when a process gets a segmentation fault?
• How to automatically generate a stacktrace when my program crashes

---

Ubuntu

If you've Ubuntu, your dumps are created by Apport in /var/crash, however it's disabled by default.

For more details, check: Where do I find the core dump in Ubuntu?

---

macOS/OS X

In macOS, crash dumps are automatically created by Crash Reporter in form of backtraces. You can find these crash files by executing Console and going to 'User Diagnostic Reports' section (under 'Diagnostic and Usage Information' group) or you can locate them in ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports.

The actual core files are generated in /cores.

Read more: How to generate core dumps in Mac OS X?

Answer 2

Check the ouput of ulimit -c, if it output 0, this is why you don't have core dumped.

Use

ulimit -c unlimited

to allow core creation (maybe replace unlimited by a real size limit to be more secure) .

Answer 3

Set a max core dump size with ulimit -cSIZE.