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SAVECORE(8)		     System Manager's Manual		     SAVECORE(8)

NAME
     savecore -- save a core dump of the operating system

SYNOPSIS
     savecore -c
     savecore -C [-v] [directory device]
     savecore [-fkvz] [directory [device ...]]

DESCRIPTION
     The  savecore  utility  copies  a	core dump into directory, or the current
     working directory if no directory argument is given, and  enters  a  reboot
     message and information about the core dump into the system log.

     The options are as follows:

     -C      Check to see if a dump exists, and display a brief message to indi-
	     cate  the	status.   An  exit  status of 0 indicates that a dump is
	     there, 1 indicates that none exists.   This  option  is  compatible
	     only with the [-v] option.

     -c      Clear  the dump, so that future invocations of savecore will ignore
	     it.

     -f      Force a dump to be taken even if the dump was cleared.

     -k      Do not clear the dump after saving it.

     -v      Print out some additional debugging information.

     -z      Compress the core dump and kernel (see gzip(1)).

     The savecore utility looks for dumps on each device specified by the device
     argument(s), or on each device in /etc/fstab marked as  "dump"  or  "swap".
     The savecore utility checks the core dump in various ways to make sure that
     it  is  complete.	 If  it  passes these checks, it saves the core image in
     directory/vmcore.# and information about the core in  directory/info.#  The
     ``#''  is	the number from the first line of the file directory/bounds, and
     it is incremented and stored back into the file each time savecore success-
     fully runs.

     The savecore utility also checks the available disk space before attempting
     to make the copies.  If there is insufficient disk space in the file system
     containing directory, or if the file directory/minfree exists and the  num-
     ber  of  free  kilobytes  (for non-superusers) in the file system after the
     copies were made would be less than the number in the first  line	of  this
     file, the copies are not attempted.

     If savecore successfully copies the kernel and the core dump, the core dump
     is cleared so that future invocations of savecore will ignore it.

     The  savecore utility is meant to be called near the end of the initializa-
     tion file /etc/rc (see rc(8)).

BUGS
     The minfree code does not consider the  effect  of  compression  or  sparse
     files.

SEE ALSO
     gzip(1), getbootfile(3), dumpon(8), syslogd(8)

HISTORY
     The savecore utility appeared in 4.1BSD.

FreeBSD 5.2.1		       September 23, 1994		     SAVECORE(8)

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