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| <refentry id="systemd-coredump" conditional='ENABLE_COREDUMP' |
| xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"> |
| |
| <refentryinfo> |
| <title>systemd-coredump</title> |
| <productname>systemd</productname> |
| </refentryinfo> |
| |
| <refmeta> |
| <refentrytitle>systemd-coredump</refentrytitle> |
| <manvolnum>8</manvolnum> |
| </refmeta> |
| |
| <refnamediv> |
| <refname>systemd-coredump</refname> |
| <refname>systemd-coredump.socket</refname> |
| <refname>systemd-coredump@.service</refname> |
| <refpurpose>Acquire, save and process core dumps</refpurpose> |
| </refnamediv> |
| |
| <refsynopsisdiv> |
| <para><filename>/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-coredump</filename></para> |
| <para><filename>/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-coredump</filename> <option>--backtrace</option></para> |
| <para><filename>systemd-coredump@.service</filename></para> |
| <para><filename>systemd-coredump.socket</filename></para> |
| </refsynopsisdiv> |
| |
| <refsect1> |
| <title>Description</title> |
| <para><filename>systemd-coredump@.service</filename> is a system service that can acquire core |
| dumps from the kernel and handle them in various ways. The <command>systemd-coredump</command> |
| executable does the actual work. It is invoked twice: once as the handler by the kernel, and the |
| second time in the <filename>systemd-coredump@.service</filename> to actually write the data to |
| the journal.</para> |
| |
| <para>When the kernel invokes <command>systemd-coredump</command> to handle a core dump, it runs |
| in privileged mode, and will connect to the socket created by the |
| <filename>systemd-coredump.socket</filename> unit, which in turn will spawn an unprivileged |
| <filename>systemd-coredump@.service</filename> instance to process the core dump. Hence |
| <filename>systemd-coredump.socket</filename> and <filename>systemd-coredump@.service</filename> |
| are helper units which do the actual processing of core dumps and are subject to normal service |
| management.</para> |
| |
| <para>Core dumps can be written to the journal or saved as a file. Once saved they can be retrieved |
| for further processing, for example in |
| <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>gdb</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>. |
| </para> |
| |
| <para>By default, <command>systemd-coredump</command> will log the core dump including a backtrace |
| if possible to the journal and store the core dump itself in an external file in |
| <filename>/var/lib/systemd/coredump</filename>.</para> |
| |
| <para>The behavior of a specific program upon reception of a signal is governed by a few |
| factors which are described in detail in |
| <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>core</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>. |
| In particular, the core dump will only be processed when the related resource limits are sufficient. |
| </para> |
| |
| <para>It is also possible to invoke <command>systemd-coredump</command> with |
| <option>--backtrace</option> option. In this case, <command>systemd-coredump</command> expects |
| a journal entry in the journal |
| <ulink url="https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/export">Journal Export Format</ulink> |
| on standard input. The entry should contain a <varname>MESSAGE=</varname> field and any additional |
| metadata fields the caller deems reasonable. <command>systemd-coredump</command> will append |
| additional metadata fields in the same way it does for core dumps received from the kernel. In |
| this mode, no core dump is stored in the journal.</para> |
| </refsect1> |
| |
| <refsect1> |
| <title>Configuration</title> |
| <para>For programs started by <command>systemd</command> process resource limits can be set by directive |
| <varname>LimitCore=</varname>, see |
| <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>. |
| </para> |
| |
| <para>In order to be used by the kernel to handle core dumps, |
| <command>systemd-coredump</command> must be configured in |
| <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>sysctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry> |
| parameter <varname>kernel.core_pattern</varname>. The syntax of this parameter is explained in |
| <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>core</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>. |
| systemd installs the file <filename>/usr/lib/sysctl.d/50-coredump.conf</filename> which configures |
| <varname>kernel.core_pattern</varname> accordingly. This file may be masked or overridden to use a different |
| setting following normal |
| <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sysctl.d</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> |
| rules. If the sysctl configuration is modified, it must be updated in the kernel before it |
| takes effect, see |
| <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>sysctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry> |
| and |
| <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-sysctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>. |
| </para> |
| |
| <para>In order to by used in the <option>--backtrace</option> mode, an appropriate backtrace |
| handler must be installed on the sender side. For example, in case of |
| <citerefentry project='die-net'><refentrytitle>python</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>, this |
| means a <varname>sys.excepthook</varname> must installed, see |
| <ulink url="https://github.com/keszybz/systemd-coredump-python">systemd-coredump-python</ulink>. |
| </para> |
| |
| <para>The behavior of <command>systemd-coredump</command> itself is configured through the configuration file |
| <filename>/etc/systemd/coredump.conf</filename> and corresponding snippets |
| <filename>/etc/systemd/coredump.conf.d/*.conf</filename>, see |
| <citerefentry><refentrytitle>coredump.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>. A new |
| instance of <command>systemd-coredump</command> is invoked upon receiving every core dump. Therefore, changes |
| in these files will take effect the next time a core dump is received.</para> |
| |
| <para>Resources used by core dump files are restricted in two ways. Parameters like maximum size of acquired |
| core dumps and files can be set in files <filename>/etc/systemd/coredump.conf</filename> and snippets mentioned |
| above. In addition the storage time of core dump files is restricted by <command>systemd-tmpfiles</command>, |
| corresponding settings are by default in <filename>/usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/systemd.conf</filename>.</para> |
| |
| <refsect2> |
| <title>Disabling coredump processing</title> |
| |
| <para>To disable potentially resource-intensive processing by <command>systemd-coredump</command>, |
| set <programlisting>Storage=none |
| ProcessSizeMax=0</programlisting> in |
| <citerefentry><refentrytitle>coredump.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>. |
| </para> |
| </refsect2> |
| </refsect1> |
| |
| <refsect1> |
| <title>Usage</title> |
| <para>Data stored in the journal can be viewed with |
| <citerefentry><refentrytitle>journalctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> |
| as usual. |
| <citerefentry><refentrytitle>coredumpctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> |
| can be used to retrieve saved core dumps independent of their location, to display information and to process |
| them e.g. by passing to the GNU debugger (gdb).</para> |
| </refsect1> |
| |
| <refsect1> |
| <title>See Also</title> |
| <para> |
| <citerefentry><refentrytitle>coredump.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>, |
| <citerefentry><refentrytitle>coredumpctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>, |
| <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-journald.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>, |
| <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-tmpfiles</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>, |
| <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>core</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>, |
| <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sysctl.d</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>, |
| <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-sysctl.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>. |
| </para> |
| </refsect1> |
| </refentry> |