2.2 Configuring Solaris OS to Generate Core Files

Core files are generated when a process or application terminates abnormally. Core files are managed with the coreadm command. This section describes how to use the coreadm command to configure a system so that all process core files are placed in a single system directory. This enables you to track problems by examining the core files in a specific directory whenever a Solaris OS process or daemon terminates abnormally.

Before configuring your system for core files, make sure the /var file system has sufficient space. Once you configure Solaris OS to generate core files, a core file is written to the /var/cores directory every time a process crashes.

To Configure Solaris OS to Generate Core Files

1. Run the following commands as root.

   mkdir -p /var/cores
   coreadm -g /var/cores/%f.%n.%p.core -e global -e process -e \
   global-setid -e proc-setid -e log

2. View the core configuration.

   # coreadm global core file pattern: init core file pattern: %f.%n.%p.core global core dumps: enabled per-process core dumps: enabled global setid core dumps: enabled per-process setid core dumps: enabled global core dump logging: enabled

   See the coreadm man page for further information.

3. Set the size of the core dumps to unlimited.

   # ulimit -c unlimited # ulimit -a coredump(blocks) unlimited

   See the ulimit man page for further information.

4. Verify core file creation.

   # cd /var/cores # sleep 100000 & [1] PID # kill -8 PID # ls