lcrash(1)
NAME
lcrash - linux crash dump analyzer
SYNOPSIS
lcrash [ -n bounds ] [ -M path ] [ -I path ] map dump kerntypes lcrash [ -s dumpdev dumpdir <0 | 1> ]
DESCRIPTION
lcrash is a hands-on utility that generates detailed ker
nel information in an easy-to-read format. lcrash also
provides the ability to generate reports about system
crash dumps. Depending on the type of system crash dump,
lcrash can create a unique report that contains informa
tion about what happened when the system crashed. lcrash
can be run on live systems or with any map and dump speci
fied on the command line.
map contains symbol table information needed for symbolic
access to the system memory image being examined. The
default map is /boot/System.map, which is used when ana
lyzing a live system. If the memory image being analyzed
is from a system core dump (dump.N), then map must be a
copy of the map file that was valid at the time of the
crash.
dump is a file containing the system memory image. The
default dump is /dev/mem, which provides access to system
memory when analyzing a live system. dump can also be a
pathname to a file (dump.N) produced by lcrash run with
the -s option.
kerntypes is a file containing kernel type information
that lcrash needs in order to properly access kernel data
in the system memory image. The default kerntypes is
/boot/Kerntypes, which provides access to kernel type
information when analyzing a live system. kerntypes can
also be a pathname to a file (Kerntypes.N) produced by
lcrash run with the -s option.
OPTIONS
- -s Allows a crash report to be created. The memory
- image is read from dumpdev, which is the dump
device where the system dump memory image is
placed. The default dumpdev is /dev/vmdump, although it will traditionally be specified out of
/etc/sysconfig/dump, which is where /sbin/lkcd reads its configuration variables from. The report
will be created and saved into dumpdir. The 0 or 1 variable declaration determines whether the memory
image is also saved to disk along with the crash
report. For example, some system administrators
may only wish to create a crash report, so they
would specify 0. Other users may want to perform
more detailed analysis of the system failure, and
would specify 1. The default value is 1. - -n Runs using /var/log/dump as the default dump direc
- tory, and tries to start lcrash using the files
/var/log/dump/<bounds>/map.<bounds> and
/var/log/dump/<bounds>/dump.<bounds>. The <bounds>
variable is the number of the crash. There is a
file in /var/log/dump called 'bounds' that has a number in it. When a crash dump is saved or
reported, the 'bounds' index number is incremented
so that the next index number is used for the next
failure. - -M path
- Specifies the PATH to search for loading macros
either on startup or when the 'load' command is
issued at the lcrash prompt. On startup all files
in these directories are loaded automatically. The
default macro path is
~/.lcrash:/usr/share/sial/lcrash. The environment variable LC_MPATH can be used for that perpose also. - -I path
- Specifies the PATH to search for #include direc
tives in macro files. The default value for this
path is
~/.lcrash/include:/usr/share/sial/lcrash/include. The environment variable LC_IPATH can be used for that perpose also.
MACROS
C syntax macros can be used to create new commands and
expand lcrash's functionality. They can be useful for com
mands that are specific to a site or engineering group and
make it easy for everyone to chip in and expand the base
lcrash distribution. Please refer to lkcdu
tils/README.sial and lkcdutils/libsial/README at
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/?cvs
root=lkcd for more details on how to write new commands or
on the sial interpreter itself (e.g. list of builtin
functions, exceptions to the C syntax etc...).
For a quick start, refer to the sample macro ps.sial in
/usr/share/sial/lcrash.
NOTES
- 1) lcrash is in a continually evolving state; it is
- important to get the latest lkcd and lcrash
RPM/patch files to keep on top of the latest
changes. - 2) There are likely a number of bugs, as this is the
- first release. Please report any and all bugs
after reviewing project details located at
http://oss.sgi.com/projects/lkcd/.