Core dump

A core dump file is the saved image of a program's memory state from a Unix-style OS, usually made when it crashes, so that a developer can debug it. The name refers to the days when computers used magnetic core memory for their RAM.

File names are usually just  or start with a prefix of , depending on system configuration.

Format
Core files are often in a version or extension of the OS executable file format, such as ELF.

Specifications

 * FreeBSD man pages: core(5)
 * Linux man pages: core(5)
 * Mac OS X man pages: core(5)
 * Oracle Solaris 11.2 man pages: core(4)

Software
Core files are usually generated by the OS itself, and can be read by debugging tools for the system they were created on.


 * GDB

Resources

 * Core_dump