COREDUMPCTL(1) coredumpctl COREDUMPCTL(1)
NAME
coredumpctl - Retrieve and process saved core dumps and metadata
SYNOPSIS
coredumpctl [OPTIONS...] {COMMAND} [PID|COMM|EXE|MATCH...]
DESCRIPTION
coredumpctl is a tool that can be used to retrieve and process core
dumps and metadata which were saved by systemd-coredump(8).
COMMANDS
The following commands are understood:
list
List core dumps captured in the journal matching specified
characteristics. If no command is specified, this is the implied
default.
The output is designed to be human readable and contains a table
with the following columns:
TIME
The timestamp of the crash, as reported by the kernel.
Added in version 233.
PID
The identifier of the process that crashed.
Added in version 233.
UID, GID
The user and group identifiers of the process that crashed.
Added in version 233.
SIGNAL
The signal that caused the process to crash, when applicable.
Added in version 233.
COREFILE
Information whether the coredump was stored, and whether it is
still accessible: "none" means the core was not stored, "-"
means that it was not available (for example because the process
was not terminated by a signal), "present" means that the core
file is accessible by the current user, "journal" means that the
core was stored in the "journal", "truncated" is the same as one
of the previous two, but the core was too large and was not
stored in its entirety, "error" means that the core file cannot
be accessed, most likely because of insufficient permissions,
and "missing" means that the core was stored in a file, but this
file has since been removed.
Added in version 233.
EXE
The full path to the executable. For backtraces of scripts this
is the name of the interpreter.
Added in version 233.
It's worth noting that different restrictions apply to data saved in
the journal and core dump files saved in /var/lib/systemd/coredump,
see overview in systemd-coredump(8). Thus it may very well happen
that a particular core dump is still listed in the journal while its
corresponding core dump file has already been removed.
Added in version 215.
info
Show detailed information about the last core dump or core dumps
matching specified characteristics captured in the journal.
Added in version 215.
dump
Extract the last core dump matching specified characteristics. The
core dump will be written on standard output, unless an output file
is specified with --output=.
Added in version 215.
debug
Invoke a debugger on the last core dump matching specified
characteristics. By default, gdb(1) will be used. This may be
changed using the --debugger= option or the $SYSTEMD_DEBUGGER
environment variable. Use the --debugger-arguments= option to pass
extra command line arguments to the debugger.
Added in version 239.
OPTIONS
The following options are understood:
-h, --help
Print a short help text and exit.
--version
Print a short version string and exit.
--no-pager
Do not pipe output into a pager.
--no-legend
Do not print the legend, i.e. column headers and the footer with
hints.
--json=MODE
Shows output formatted as JSON. Expects one of "short" (for the
shortest possible output without any redundant whitespace or line
breaks), "pretty" (for a pretty version of the same, with
indentation and line breaks) or "off" (to turn off JSON output, the
default).
-1
Show information of the most recent core dump only, instead of
listing all known core dumps. Equivalent to --reverse -n 1.
Added in version 215.
-n INT
Show at most the specified number of entries. The specified
parameter must be an integer greater or equal to 1.
Added in version 248.
-S, --since
Only print entries which are since the specified date.
Added in version 233.
-U, --until
Only print entries which are until the specified date.
Added in version 233.
-r, --reverse
Reverse output so that the newest entries are displayed first.
Added in version 233.
-F FIELD, --field=FIELD
Print all possible data values the specified field takes in matching
core dump entries of the journal.
Added in version 215.
-o FILE, --output=FILE
Write the core to FILE.
Added in version 215.
--debugger=DEBUGGER
Use the given debugger for the debug command. If not given and
$SYSTEMD_DEBUGGER is unset, then gdb(1) will be used.
Added in version 239.
-A ARGS, --debugger-arguments=ARGS
Pass the given ARGS as extra command line arguments to the debugger.
Quote as appropriate when ARGS contain whitespace. (See Examples.)
Added in version 248.
--file=GLOB
Takes a file glob as an argument. If specified, coredumpctl will
operate on the specified journal files matching GLOB instead of the
default runtime and system journal paths. May be specified multiple
times, in which case files will be suitably interleaved.
Added in version 246.
-D DIR, --directory=DIR
Use the journal files in the specified DIR.
Added in version 225.
--root=ROOT
Use root directory ROOT when searching for coredumps.
Added in version 252.
--image=image
Takes a path to a disk image file or block device node. If
specified, all operations are applied to file system in the
indicated disk image. This option is similar to --root=, but
operates on file systems stored in disk images or block devices. The
disk image should either contain just a file system or a set of file
systems within a GPT partition table, following the Discoverable
Partitions Specification[1]. For further information on supported
disk images, see systemd-nspawn(1)'s switch of the same name.
Added in version 252.
--image-policy=policy
Takes an image policy string as argument, as per systemd.image-
policy(7). The policy is enforced when operating on the disk image
specified via --image=, see above. If not specified, defaults to the
"*" policy, i.e. all recognized file systems in the image are used.
-q, --quiet
Suppresses informational messages about lack of access to journal
files and possible in-flight coredumps.
Added in version 233.
--all
Look at all available journal files in /var/log/journal/ (excluding
journal namespaces) instead of only local ones.
Added in version 250.
MATCHING
A match can be:
PID
Process ID of the process that dumped core. An integer.
Added in version 215.
COMM
Name of the executable (matches COREDUMP_COMM=). Must not contain
slashes.
Added in version 215.
EXE
Path to the executable (matches COREDUMP_EXE=). Must contain at
least one slash.
Added in version 215.
MATCH
General journalctl match filter, must contain an equals sign ("=").
See journalctl(1).
Added in version 215.
EXIT STATUS
On success, 0 is returned; otherwise, a non-zero failure code is
returned. Not finding any matching core dumps is treated as failure.
ENVIRONMENT
$SYSTEMD_DEBUGGER
Use the given debugger for the debug command. See the --debugger=
option.
Added in version 239.
EXAMPLES
Example 1. List all the core dumps of a program
$ coredumpctl list /usr/lib64/firefox/firefox
TIME PID UID GID SIG COREFILE EXE SIZE
Tue ... 8018 1000 1000 SIGSEGV missing /usr/lib64/firefox/firefox -
Wed ... 251609 1000 1000 SIGTRAP missing /usr/lib64/firefox/firefox -
Fri ... 552351 1000 1000 SIGSEGV present /usr/lib64/firefox/firefox 28.7M
The journal has three entries pertaining to /usr/lib64/firefox/firefox,
and only the last entry still has an available core file (in external
storage on disk).
Note that coredumpctl needs access to the journal files to retrieve the
relevant entries from the journal. Thus, an unprivileged user will
normally only see information about crashing programs of this user.
Example 2. Invoke gdb on the last core dump
$ coredumpctl debug
Example 3. Use gdb to display full register info from the last core dump
$ coredumpctl debug --debugger-arguments="-batch -ex 'info all-registers'"
Example 4. Show information about a core dump matched by PID
$ coredumpctl info 6654
PID: 6654 (bash)
UID: 1000 (user)
GID: 1000 (user)
Signal: 11 (SEGV)
Timestamp: Mon 2021-01-01 00:00:01 CET (20s ago)
Command Line: bash -c $'kill -SEGV $$'
Executable: /usr/bin/bash
Control Group: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/...
Unit: user@1000.service
User Unit: vte-spawn-....scope
Slice: user-1000.slice
Owner UID: 1000 (user)
Boot ID: ...
Machine ID: ...
Hostname: ...
Storage: /var/lib/systemd/coredump/core.bash.1000.....zst (present)
Size on Disk: 51.7K
Message: Process 130414 (bash) of user 1000 dumped core.
Stack trace of thread 130414:
#0 0x00007f398142358b kill (libc.so.6 + 0x3d58b)
#1 0x0000558c2c7fda09 kill_builtin (bash + 0xb1a09)
#2 0x0000558c2c79dc59 execute_builtin.lto_priv.0 (bash + 0x51c59)
#3 0x0000558c2c79709c execute_simple_command (bash + 0x4b09c)
#4 0x0000558c2c798408 execute_command_internal (bash + 0x4c408)
#5 0x0000558c2c7f6bdc parse_and_execute (bash + 0xaabdc)
#6 0x0000558c2c85415c run_one_command.isra.0 (bash + 0x10815c)
#7 0x0000558c2c77d040 main (bash + 0x31040)
#8 0x00007f398140db75 __libc_start_main (libc.so.6 + 0x27b75)
#9 0x0000558c2c77dd1e _start (bash + 0x31d1e)
Example 5. Extract the last core dump of /usr/bin/bar to a file named
bar.coredump
$ coredumpctl -o bar.coredump dump /usr/bin/bar
SEE ALSO
systemd-coredump(8), coredump.conf(5), systemd-journald.service(8),
gdb(1)
NOTES
1. Discoverable Partitions Specification
https://uapi-group.org/specifications/specs/discoverable_partitions_specification
systemd 257.9 COREDUMPCTL(1)
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