COREDUMPER(1)

NAME
coredumper - crash detector and core dumper

SYNOPSIS
coredumper [-c CORENAME] [-i] [-p | command [arg ...]]

DESCRIPTION
coredumper traces specified process and dumps core for crashes. Certain programs handle program crashes with signal handlers, preventing core(5) files from being generated. coredumper bypasses their signal handlers and for each crash dumps core, without changing capturing mechanism in traced processes.

The options are as follows:

-c CORENAME
    Specifies core file name. If not set, the default value is selected. The syntax is specified in core(5).

-i  Inherit; pass the trace flags to all future children of the designated processes.

-p PID
    Enable (disable) tracing on the indicated process id (only one -p flag is permitted).

command [args ...]
    Execute command with the specified trace flags.

The -p and command options are mutually exclusive.

IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
The tracer uses the ptrace(2) system call to perform the tracing process.

Similar functionality can be achieved with a debugger like gdb(1), however coredumper is quicker and easier to setup for this specific task as tracess all children of the main process.

EXAMPLES
# detect crashes and generate core dumps for an X session
    $ coredumper -i startx

# detect crashes and generate core dumps for a running browser
    $ coredumper -i -p firefox

SEE ALSO
gdb(1), picotrace(1), ptrace(2)

HISTORY
Tn coredumper command was designed for NetBSD 9.

AUTHORS
Kamil Rytarowski <kamil@NetBSD.org>