1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
|
'\" t
.TH "SYSTEMD\-COREDUMP" "8" "" "systemd 255" "systemd-coredump"
.\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
.\" * Define some portability stuff
.\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
.\" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.\" http://bugs.debian.org/507673
.\" http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/groff/2009-02/msg00013.html
.\" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.ie \n(.g .ds Aq \(aq
.el .ds Aq '
.\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
.\" * set default formatting
.\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
.\" disable hyphenation
.nh
.\" disable justification (adjust text to left margin only)
.ad l
.\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
.\" * MAIN CONTENT STARTS HERE *
.\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
.SH "NAME"
systemd-coredump, systemd-coredump.socket, systemd-coredump@.service \- Acquire, save and process core dumps
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.PP
/usr/lib/systemd/systemd\-coredump
.PP
/usr/lib/systemd/systemd\-coredump
\fB\-\-backtrace\fR
.PP
systemd\-coredump@\&.service
.PP
systemd\-coredump\&.socket
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.PP
systemd\-coredump@\&.service
is a system service to process core dumps\&. It will log a summary of the event to
\fBsystemd-journald.service\fR(8), including information about the process identifier, owner, the signal that killed the process, and the stack trace if possible\&. It may also save the core dump for later processing\&. See the "Information about the crashed process" section below\&.
.PP
The behavior of a specific program upon reception of a signal is governed by a few factors which are described in detail in
\fBcore\fR(5)\&. In particular, the core dump will only be processed when the related resource limits are sufficient\&.
.PP
Core dumps can be written to the journal or saved as a file\&. In both cases, they can be retrieved for further processing, for example in
\fBgdb\fR(1)\&. See
\fBcoredumpctl\fR(1), in particular the
\fBlist\fR
and
\fBdebug\fR
verbs\&.
.PP
By default,
\fBsystemd\-coredump\fR
will log the core dump to the journal, including a backtrace if possible, and store the core dump (an image of the memory contents of the process) itself in an external file in
/var/lib/systemd/coredump\&. These core dumps are deleted after a few days by default; see
/usr/lib/tmpfiles\&.d/systemd\&.conf
for details\&. Note that the removal of core files from the file system and the purging of journal entries are independent, and the core file may be present without the journal entry, and journal entries may point to since\-removed core files\&. Some metadata is attached to core files in the form of extended attributes, so the core files are useful for some purposes even without the full metadata available in the journal entry\&.
.PP
For further details see
\m[blue]\fBsystemd Coredump Handling\fR\m[]\&\s-2\u[1]\d\s+2\&.
.SS "Invocation of systemd\-coredump"
.PP
The
\fBsystemd\-coredump\fR
executable does the actual work\&. It is invoked twice: once as the handler by the kernel, and the second time in the
systemd\-coredump@\&.service
to actually write the data to the journal and process and save the core file\&.
.PP
When the kernel invokes
\fBsystemd\-coredump\fR
to handle a core dump, it runs in privileged mode, and will connect to the socket created by the
systemd\-coredump\&.socket
unit, which in turn will spawn an unprivileged
systemd\-coredump@\&.service
instance to process the core dump\&. Hence
systemd\-coredump\&.socket
and
systemd\-coredump@\&.service
are helper units which do the actual processing of core dumps and are subject to normal service management\&.
.PP
It is also possible to invoke
\fBsystemd\-coredump\fR
with
\fB\-\-backtrace\fR
option\&. In this case,
\fBsystemd\-coredump\fR
expects a journal entry in the journal
\m[blue]\fBJournal Export Format\fR\m[]\&\s-2\u[2]\d\s+2
on standard input\&. The entry should contain a
\fIMESSAGE=\fR
field and any additional metadata fields the caller deems reasonable\&.
\fBsystemd\-coredump\fR
will append additional metadata fields in the same way it does for core dumps received from the kernel\&. In this mode, no core dump is stored in the journal\&.
.SH "CONFIGURATION"
.PP
For programs started by
\fBsystemd\fR, process resource limits can be set by directive
\fILimitCORE=\fR, see
\fBsystemd.exec\fR(5)\&.
.PP
In order to be used by the kernel to handle core dumps,
\fBsystemd\-coredump\fR
must be configured in
\fBsysctl\fR(8)
parameter
\fIkernel\&.core_pattern\fR\&. The syntax of this parameter is explained in
\fBcore\fR(5)\&. systemd installs the file
/usr/lib/sysctl\&.d/50\-coredump\&.conf
which configures
\fIkernel\&.core_pattern\fR
accordingly\&. This file may be masked or overridden to use a different setting following normal
\fBsysctl.d\fR(5)
rules\&. If the sysctl configuration is modified, it must be updated in the kernel before it takes effect, see
\fBsysctl\fR(8)
and
\fBsystemd-sysctl\fR(8)\&.
.PP
In order to be used in the
\fB\-\-backtrace\fR
mode, an appropriate backtrace handler must be installed on the sender side\&. For example, in case of
\fBpython\fR(1), this means a
\fIsys\&.excepthook\fR
must be installed, see
\m[blue]\fBsystemd\-coredump\-python\fR\m[]\&\s-2\u[3]\d\s+2\&.
.PP
The behavior of
\fBsystemd\-coredump\fR
itself is configured through the configuration file
/etc/systemd/coredump\&.conf
and corresponding snippets
/etc/systemd/coredump\&.conf\&.d/*\&.conf, see
\fBcoredump.conf\fR(5)\&. A new instance of
\fBsystemd\-coredump\fR
is invoked upon receiving every core dump\&. Therefore, changes in these files will take effect the next time a core dump is received\&.
.PP
Resources used by core dump files are restricted in two ways\&. Parameters like maximum size of acquired core dumps and files can be set in files
/etc/systemd/coredump\&.conf
and snippets mentioned above\&. In addition the storage time of core dump files is restricted by
\fBsystemd\-tmpfiles\fR, corresponding settings are by default in
/usr/lib/tmpfiles\&.d/systemd\&.conf\&. The default is to delete core dumps after a few days; see the above file for details\&.
.SS "Disabling coredump processing"
.PP
To disable potentially resource\-intensive processing by
\fBsystemd\-coredump\fR, set
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
Storage=none
ProcessSizeMax=0
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
in
\fBcoredump.conf\fR(5)\&.
.SH "INFORMATION ABOUT THE CRASHED PROCESS"
.PP
\fBcoredumpctl\fR(1)
can be used to retrieve saved core dumps independently of their location, to display information, and to process them e\&.g\&. by passing to the GNU debugger (gdb)\&.
.PP
Data stored in the journal can be also viewed with
\fBjournalctl\fR(1)
as usual (or from any other process, using the
\fBsd-journal\fR(3)
API)\&. The relevant messages have
\fBMESSAGE_ID=fc2e22bc6ee647b6b90729ab34a250b1\fR:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
$ journalctl MESSAGE_ID=fc2e22bc6ee647b6b90729ab34a250b1 \-o verbose
\&...
MESSAGE_ID=fc2e22bc6ee647b6b90729ab34a250b1
COREDUMP_PID=552351
COREDUMP_UID=1000
COREDUMP_GID=1000
COREDUMP_SIGNAL_NAME=SIGSEGV
COREDUMP_SIGNAL=11
COREDUMP_TIMESTAMP=1614342930000000
COREDUMP_COMM=Web Content
COREDUMP_EXE=/usr/lib64/firefox/firefox
COREDUMP_USER_UNIT=app\-gnome\-firefox\-552136\&.scope
COREDUMP_CMDLINE=/usr/lib64/firefox/firefox \-contentproc \-childID 5 \-isForBrowser \&...
COREDUMP_CGROUP=/user\&.slice/user\-1000\&.slice/user@1000\&.service/app\&.slice/app\-\&...\&.scope
COREDUMP_FILENAME=/var/lib/systemd/coredump/core\&.Web\&...\&.552351\&.\&...\&.zst
\&...
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.PP
The following fields are saved (if known) with the journal entry
.PP
\fICOREDUMP_UID=\fR, \fICOREDUMP_PID=\fR, \fICOREDUMP_GID=\fR
.RS 4
The process number (PID), owner user number (UID), and group number (GID) of the crashed process\&.
.sp
When the crashed process was part of a container (or in a process or user namespace in general), those are the values as seen
\fIoutside\fR, in the namespace where
systemd\-coredump
is running\&.
.sp
Added in version 248\&.
.RE
.PP
\fICOREDUMP_TIMESTAMP=\fR
.RS 4
The time of the crash as reported by the kernel (in μs since the epoch)\&.
.sp
Added in version 248\&.
.RE
.PP
\fICOREDUMP_RLIMIT=\fR
.RS 4
The core file size soft resource limit, see
\fBgetrlimit\fR(2)\&.
.sp
Added in version 248\&.
.RE
.PP
\fICOREDUMP_UNIT=\fR, \fICOREDUMP_SLICE=\fR
.RS 4
The system unit and slice names\&.
.sp
When the crashed process was in container, those are the units names
\fIoutside\fR, in the main system manager\&.
.sp
Added in version 248\&.
.RE
.PP
\fICOREDUMP_CGROUP=\fR
.RS 4
The primary cgroup of the unit of the crashed process\&.
.sp
When the crashed process was in a container, this is the full path, as seen outside of the container\&.
.sp
Added in version 248\&.
.RE
.PP
\fICOREDUMP_PROC_CGROUP=\fR
.RS 4
Control group information in the format used in
/proc/self/cgroup\&. On systems with the unified cgroup hierarchy, this is a single path prefixed with
"0::", and multiple paths prefixed with controller numbers on legacy systems\&.
.sp
When the crashed process was in a container, this is the full path, as seen outside of the container\&.
.sp
Added in version 248\&.
.RE
.PP
\fICOREDUMP_OWNER_UID=\fR, \fICOREDUMP_USER_UNIT=\fR, \fICOREDUMP_SESSION=\fR
.RS 4
The numerical UID of the user owning the login session or systemd user unit of the crashed process, the user manager unit, and the session identifier\&. All three fields are only present for user processes\&.
.sp
When the crashed process was in container, those are the values
\fIoutside\fR, in the main system\&.
.sp
Added in version 248\&.
.RE
.PP
\fICOREDUMP_SIGNAL_NAME=\fR, \fICOREDUMP_SIGNAL=\fR
.RS 4
The terminating signal name (with the
"SIG"
prefix
\&\s-2\u[4]\d\s+2) and numerical value\&. (Both are included because signal numbers vary by architecture\&.)
.sp
Added in version 248\&.
.RE
.PP
\fICOREDUMP_CWD=\fR, \fICOREDUMP_ROOT=\fR
.RS 4
The current working directory and root directory of the crashed process\&.
.sp
When the crashed process is in a container, those paths are relative to the root of the container\*(Aqs mount namespace\&.
.sp
Added in version 248\&.
.RE
.PP
\fICOREDUMP_OPEN_FDS=\fR
.RS 4
Information about open file descriptors, in the following format:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
\fIfd\fR:\fI/path/to/file\fR
pos: \&.\&.\&.
flags: \&.\&.\&.
\&.\&.\&.
\fIfd\fR:\fI/path/to/file\fR
pos: \&.\&.\&.
flags: \&.\&.\&.
\&.\&.\&.
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
The first line contains the file descriptor number
\fIfd\fR
and the path, while subsequent lines show the contents of
/proc/\fIpid\fR/fdinfo/\fIfd\fR\&.
.sp
Added in version 248\&.
.RE
.PP
\fICOREDUMP_EXE=\fR
.RS 4
The destination of the
/proc/\fIpid\fR/exe
symlink\&.
.sp
When the crashed process is in a container, that path is relative to the root of the container\*(Aqs mount namespace\&.
.sp
Added in version 248\&.
.RE
.PP
\fICOREDUMP_CMDLINE=\fR, \fICOREDUMP_COMM=\fR, \fICOREDUMP_ENVIRON=\fR, \fICOREDUMP_PROC_AUXV=\fR, \fICOREDUMP_PROC_LIMITS=\fR, \fICOREDUMP_PROC_MAPS=\fR, \fICOREDUMP_PROC_MOUNTINFO=\fR, \fICOREDUMP_PROC_STATUS=\fR
.RS 4
Fields that map the per\-process entries in the
/proc/
filesystem:
/proc/\fIpid\fR/cmdline
(the command line of the crashed process),
/proc/\fIpid\fR/comm
(the command name associated with the process),
/proc/\fIpid\fR/environ
(the environment block of the crashed process),
/proc/\fIpid\fR/auxv
(the auxiliary vector of the crashed process, see
\fBgetauxval\fR(3)),
/proc/\fIpid\fR/limits
(the soft and hard resource limits),
/proc/\fIpid\fR/maps
(memory regions visible to the process and their access permissions),
/proc/\fIpid\fR/mountinfo
(mount points in the process\*(Aqs mount namespace),
/proc/\fIpid\fR/status
(various metadata about the process)\&.
.sp
See
\fBproc\fR(5)
for more information\&.
.sp
Added in version 248\&.
.RE
.PP
\fICOREDUMP_HOSTNAME=\fR
.RS 4
The system hostname\&.
.sp
When the crashed process was in container, this is the container hostname\&.
.sp
Added in version 248\&.
.RE
.PP
\fICOREDUMP_CONTAINER_CMDLINE=\fR
.RS 4
For processes running in a container, the command line of the process spawning the container (the first parent process with a different mount namespace)\&.
.sp
Added in version 248\&.
.RE
.PP
\fICOREDUMP=\fR
.RS 4
When the core is stored in the journal, the core image itself\&.
.sp
Added in version 248\&.
.RE
.PP
\fICOREDUMP_FILENAME=\fR
.RS 4
When the core is stored externally, the path to the core file\&.
.sp
Added in version 248\&.
.RE
.PP
\fICOREDUMP_TRUNCATED=\fR
.RS 4
Set to
"1"
when the saved coredump was truncated\&. (A partial core image may still be processed by some tools, though obviously not all information is available\&.)
.sp
Added in version 248\&.
.RE
.PP
\fICOREDUMP_PACKAGE_NAME=\fR, \fICOREDUMP_PACKAGE_VERSION=\fR, \fICOREDUMP_PACKAGE_JSON=\fR
.RS 4
If the executable contained \&.package metadata ELF notes, they will be parsed and attached\&. The
\fIpackage\fR
and
\fIpackageVersion\fR
of the \*(Aqmain\*(Aq ELF module (ie: the executable) will be appended individually\&. The JSON\-formatted content of all modules will be appended as a single JSON object, each with the module name as the key\&. For more information about this metadata format and content, see
\m[blue]\fBthe coredump metadata spec\fR\m[]\&\s-2\u[5]\d\s+2\&.
.sp
Added in version 249\&.
.RE
.PP
\fIMESSAGE=\fR
.RS 4
The message generated by
\fBsystemd\-coredump\fR
that includes the backtrace if it was successfully generated\&. When
\fBsystemd\-coredump\fR
is invoked with
\fB\-\-backtrace\fR, this field is provided by the caller\&.
.sp
Added in version 248\&.
.RE
.PP
Various other fields exist in the journal entry, but pertain to the logging process, i\&.e\&.
\fBsystemd\-coredump\fR, not the crashed process\&. See
\fBsystemd.journal-fields\fR(7)\&.
.PP
The following fields are saved (if known) with the external file listed in
\fICOREDUMP_FILENAME=\fR
as extended attributes:
.PP
\fIuser\&.coredump\&.pid\fR, \fIuser\&.coredump\&.uid\fR, \fIuser\&.coredump\&.gid\fR, \fIuser\&.coredump\&.signal\fR, \fIuser\&.coredump\&.timestamp\fR, \fIuser\&.coredump\&.rlimit\fR, \fIuser\&.coredump\&.hostname\fR, \fIuser\&.coredump\&.comm\fR, \fIuser\&.coredump\&.exe\fR
.RS 4
Those are the same as
\fICOREDUMP_PID=\fR,
\fICOREDUMP_UID=\fR,
\fICOREDUMP_GID=\fR,
\fICOREDUMP_SIGNAL=\fR,
\fICOREDUMP_TIMESTAMP=\fR,
\fICOREDUMP_RLIMIT=\fR,
\fICOREDUMP_HOSTNAME=\fR,
\fICOREDUMP_COMM=\fR, and
\fICOREDUMP_EXE=\fR, described above\&.
.sp
Added in version 248\&.
.RE
.PP
Those can be viewed using
\fBgetfattr\fR(1)\&. For the core file described in the journal entry shown above:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
$ getfattr \-\-absolute\-names \-d /var/lib/systemd/coredump/core\&.Web\&...\&.552351\&.\&...\&.zst
# file: /var/lib/systemd/coredump/core\&.Web\&...\&.552351\&.\&...\&.zst
user\&.coredump\&.pid="552351"
user\&.coredump\&.uid="1000"
user\&.coredump\&.gid="1000"
user\&.coredump\&.signal="11"
user\&.coredump\&.timestamp="1614342930000000"
user\&.coredump\&.comm="Web Content"
user\&.coredump\&.exe="/usr/lib64/firefox/firefox"
\&...
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.PP
\fBcoredump.conf\fR(5),
\fBcoredumpctl\fR(1),
\fBsystemd-journald.service\fR(8),
\fBsystemd-tmpfiles\fR(8),
\fBcore\fR(5),
\fBsysctl.d\fR(5),
\fBsystemd-sysctl.service\fR(8),
\m[blue]\fBsystemd Coredump Handling\fR\m[]\&\s-2\u[1]\d\s+2
.SH "NOTES"
.IP " 1." 4
systemd Coredump Handling
.RS 4
\%https://systemd.io/COREDUMP
.RE
.IP " 2." 4
Journal Export Format
.RS 4
\%https://systemd.io/JOURNAL_EXPORT_FORMATS#journal-export-format
.RE
.IP " 3." 4
systemd-coredump-python
.RS 4
\%https://github.com/systemd/systemd-coredump-python
.RE
.IP " 4." 4
\fBkill\fR(1)
expects signal names
\fIwithout\fR
the prefix;
\fBkill\fR(2)
uses the prefix; all systemd tools accept signal names both with and without the prefix.
.IP " 5." 4
the coredump metadata spec
.RS 4
\%https://systemd.io/COREDUMP_PACKAGE_METADATA/
.RE
|