2.11BSD/src/man/man5/core.5

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.\"	@(#)core.5	2.3 (Berkeley) 1/26/87
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.TH CORE 5 "January 26, 1987"
.UC 2
.SH NAME
core \- format of memory image file
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B #include <sys/param.h>
.SH DESCRIPTION
The UNIX System writes out a memory image of a terminated
process when any of various errors occur.  See
.IR sigvec (2)
for the list of reasons; the most common are memory violations, illegal
instructions, bus errors, and user-generated quit signals.
The memory image is called `core' and is written in the process's
working directory (provided it can be; normal access controls apply).
.PP
The core file consists of the
.I u.
area, whose size (in 64 byte `clicks') is
defined by the USIZE manifest in the
.RI < sys/param.h >
file.  The 
.I u.
area starts with a 
.I user
structure as given in
.RI < sys/user.h >.
The rest of the
.I u.
area consists of the kernel stack for the terminated process which includes
(among other things) the processor registers at the time of the fault;
see the system listings for the format of this area.
The remainder of the core file consists first of the data pages and then
the stack pages of the process image.
The amount of data space image in the core file is given (in clicks) by the
variable
.I u_dsize
in the
.I u.
area.
If the text segment was not write-only and and shared it is included
as the first
.I etext
bytes of the data image where
.I etext
is taken from the symbol table of the object file which generated the
memory image.
The amount of stack image in the core file is given (in clicks) by the
variable 
.I u_ssize
in the 
.I u.
area.
.PP
In general the debugger
.IR adb (1)
is sufficient to deal with core images.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
adb(1), sigvec(2), stack(5)