core from a running process

[nmeyers at javalinux.net (Nathan Meyers)]

On Tue, Sep 03, 2002 at 09:09:01AM -0400, FRamsay at castelhq.com wrote:
> Does anyone know of a way to get a core from a running process without
> crashing the process?  I have a process
> that occasionally stops responding but doesn't actually crash.  Worse this
> only happens at one client site and
> I can't reproduce it in the office, so I can't attach dbg to it.  To
> complicate matters the application spawns several
> other processes so I don't know which one is causing the problem :(     So
> does anyone know a very simple way I
> can get core file, and it has to be _very_ simple because I have to talk
> the client through it over the phone.

I don't *think* you can get there, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong.
If you're willing to bring the process down, sending it a SIGABRT (kill
-ABRT) will generate a corefile IF the process is running in a directory
to which it has write access.

When you say "stops responding", what sort of response stops working?
Does a GUI freeze? Does a server stop accepting network connections?
Something else? That info might generate some useful suggestions.

Nathan Meyers
nmeyers at javalinux.net


> 
>                          -fjr
> 
> 
> Frank Ramsay
> Systems Programmer
> Castel, Inc
> 14 Summer St, 3rd Floor
> Malden, MA 02148
> (781) 324-0140 (voice)
> (781) 324-0277 (fax)
> Emal: framsay at castel.com
> 
> 
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