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Insomniactoo | 17 Jun 2012 05:32
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Is this deletable...

Hi folks,

  Just piddling around, I came upon a 'file' in /dev called 'core'. It's of a 
type called 'program crash data'.

  The name seems familiar for some reason but what's got me puzzled is that it's 
1016MB in size.

  If this is 'crash data', do I absolutely need it on my system? Is there going 
to be bad things happen if I delete this thing?

  Thanks for any info and advice on this.

  JB

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Dimitris Tzemos | 17 Jun 2012 06:57
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Re: Is this deletable...

None of the files in /proc are really there--they're all, "pretend," 
files made up by the kernel, to give you information about the system 
and don't take up any hard disk space. 

/proc/kcore is like an "alias" for the memory in your computer. Its 
size is the same as the amount of RAM you have, and if you read it as 
a file, the kernel does memory reads. 

Στις Σαβ 16 Ιουν 2012 22:32:41 Insomniactoo έγραψε:
> Hi folks,
> 
>   Just piddling around, I came upon a 'file' in /dev called 'core'. It's of
> a type called 'program crash data'.
> 
>   The name seems familiar for some reason but what's got me puzzled is that
> it's 1016MB in size.
> 
>   If this is 'crash data', do I absolutely need it on my system? Is there
> going to be bad things happen if I delete this thing?
> 
>   Thanks for any info and advice on this.
> 
>   JB

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Insomniactoo | 17 Jun 2012 13:59
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Re: Is this deletable...

On Saturday, 16 June 2012 23:57 Dimitris Tzemos wrote:

> None of the files in /proc are really there--they're all, "pretend,"
> files made up by the kernel, to give you information about the system
> and don't take up any hard disk space.
> 
> /proc/kcore is like an "alias" for the memory in your computer. Its
> size is the same as the amount of RAM you have, and if you read it as
> a file, the kernel does memory reads.
> 

  Aha! Very good. Thanks for that, Dmitris.

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John Honniball | 17 Jun 2012 14:23
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Re: Is this deletable...

Dimitris Tzemos wrote:
> /proc/kcore is like an "alias" for the memory in your computer.

But he found the file in /dev, not /proc. If it's a real
core-dump file, dropped there by a crashing process, then the
'file' command will be able to say a bit more about it:

   $ file core

> Στις Σαβ 16 Ιουν 2012 22:32:41 Insomniactoo έγραψε:
>>  Just piddling around, I came upon a 'file' in /dev called 'core'. It's of
>>a type called 'program crash data'.

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Insomniactoo | 17 Jun 2012 15:11
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Re: Is this deletable...

On Sunday, 17 June 2012 07:23 John Honniball wrote:

> Dimitris Tzemos wrote:
> > /proc/kcore is like an "alias" for the memory in your computer.
> 
> But he found the file in /dev, not /proc. If it's a real
> core-dump file, dropped there by a crashing process, then the
> 'file' command will be able to say a bit more about it:
> 
>    $ file core
> 

  Okay, I went to /dev and did that and it's a sym link to /proc/kcore, which I 
suppose is the same thing since it's exactly the same size. It doesn't *seem* to 
actually be using a whole GB of space on the HDD, as Dmitris said, it's sorta 
just 'there' doing nothing, heh.

  JB

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Insomniactoo | 17 Jun 2012 15:18
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Re: Is this deletable...

On Sunday, 17 June 2012 08:11 Insomniactoo wrote:

> On Sunday, 17 June 2012 07:23 John Honniball wrote:
> > Dimitris Tzemos wrote:
> > > /proc/kcore is like an "alias" for the memory in your computer.
> > 
> > But he found the file in /dev, not /proc. If it's a real
> > core-dump file, dropped there by a crashing process, then the
> > 
> > 'file' command will be able to say a bit more about it:
> >    $ file core
> 
>   Okay, I went to /dev and did that and it's a sym link to /proc/kcore,
> which I suppose is the same thing since it's exactly the same size. It
> doesn't *seem* to actually be using a whole GB of space on the HDD, as
> Dmitris said, it's sorta just 'there' doing nothing, heh.
> 

  file kcore had this to say:

kcore: ELF 32-bit LSB core file Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), SVR4-style, from 
'BOOT_IMAGE=Linux ro root=812 vt.default_utf8=0'

  No clue if that's bad, good, end of the world, 6 Miss Universe contestants 
have fallen in love with me and are seeking me out at this very moment, 
whatever...

  JB

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John Honniball | 17 Jun 2012 15:55
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Re: Is this deletable...

Insomniactoo wrote:
>   file kcore had this to say:
> 
> kcore: ELF 32-bit LSB core file Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), SVR4-style, from 
> 'BOOT_IMAGE=Linux ro root=812 vt.default_utf8=0'
> 
> 
>   No clue if that's bad, good, end of the world, 6 Miss Universe contestants 
> have fallen in love with me and are seeking me out at this very moment, 
> whatever...

That's absolutely normal and simply indicates the type of processor
that the kernel was compiled for.

Don't delete this file, or the link to it it /dev. Some
programs in the system will depend on them!

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Insomniactoo | 17 Jun 2012 16:15
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Re: Is this deletable...

On Sunday, 17 June 2012 08:55 John Honniball wrote:

> Insomniactoo wrote:
> >   file kcore had this to say:
> > kcore: ELF 32-bit LSB core file Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV),
> > SVR4-style, from 'BOOT_IMAGE=Linux ro root=812 vt.default_utf8=0'
> > 
> >   No clue if that's bad, good, end of the world, 6 Miss Universe
> >   contestants
> > 
> > have fallen in love with me and are seeking me out at this very moment,
> > whatever...
> 
> That's absolutely normal and simply indicates the type of processor
> that the kernel was compiled for.
> 
> Don't delete this file, or the link to it it /dev. Some
> programs in the system will depend on them!

  Good deal. Thanks everyone!

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John Honniball | 17 Jun 2012 15:53
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Re: Is this deletable...

Insomniactoo wrote:
> On Sunday, 17 June 2012 07:23 John Honniball wrote:
>>But he found the file in /dev, not /proc. If it's a real
>>core-dump file, dropped there by a crashing process, then the
>>'file' command will be able to say a bit more about it:
>>
>>   $ file core

>   Okay, I went to /dev and did that and it's a sym link to /proc/kcore, which I 
> suppose is the same thing since it's exactly the same size.

It's the same filesystem object, just pointed to by a different name.

> It doesn't *seem* to 
> actually be using a whole GB of space on the HDD, as Dmitris said, it's sorta 
> just 'there' doing nothing, heh.

Yes, it's a "pretend" file, made up by the OS kernel to represent
the kernel RAM in your system.

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