Core Dump!

khaleel5000 · 06-27-2006, 05:36 AM

hELLO , i have a bad habit of using my linux as root and was wondering if i can create another account say named KHALEEL and it would have as many powers as root has? if yeah then how can i do that? please tell me ....
also i have noticed that there are a few files named core.3654 or sorta named few with considerably large file size 300MB + , what are these and what are they for?
also i have noticed some MEMPRY DUMP option in windowsXP in system properties , small dump etc whats taht for?

raskin · 06-27-2006, 05:51 AM

Well, if it will have all the power, no point in it. Maybe you would want to install sudo, and then read its manual.

khaleel5000 · 06-27-2006, 06:56 AM

i know SUDO but i just say I WANT ANOTHER ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT now can i know how to create one ?>

raskin · 06-27-2006, 07:02 AM

What for? Surely you can always make another uid-0 user (by editing /etc/passwd), and maybe remove root, but this user will be just root - why bother? You'll preserve 100% of security risks.

timmeke · 06-27-2006, 10:09 AM

Core dumps are just that: dumps of the memory (stack, etc) occupied by a program when it crashes.
The "core" only gets dumped in some specific cases though (depends on the exit code of the program, if I remember correctly) and can be used - by a programmer for instance - to debug the program (ie track down where it crashed, what code it was running, etc).

Personnally, I would recommend just throwing them away, unless they keep re-appearing often.
If they do appear regularly, try looking at the program that keeps dumping it's core and try to figure
out the problem.

khaleel5000 · 06-29-2006, 03:10 AM

OKEIZ THANKS PPL but how do i find out which prog dumped the core? i mean is there a log created in say /var/log or somewhere else?
also is the data in that file in BINARY form if not then which ?

timmeke · 06-29-2006, 05:21 AM

The core file has it's own format, which is mostly binary.
They are simply created when a program exits with certain exit codes.
However, it is possible that some other program, that called the faulty program, logged it's unexpected end.

You may also find a clue as to which program crashed in the core dump file itself.

The filename core.xxxx may imply that xxxx is the Process ID of the program that crashed. I'm not sure of this though.

Maybe you can find some info on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_dump
It has a link to dump analyzing tools.