limit the size of core dumps

[federico_3]

We should limit the size of core dumps so that they don't fill up too much disk space (limit to 10 Mb for example).

How can i do ??


Thanks
Federico

[Bruno Vidal]

under sh/ksh: "ulimit -c size"
For the other shell, looks at man pages and for ulimit build in command.

Cheers.

[federico_3]

should i put the command in every .profile file( for every user...)?

Is the size you indicated in MBs or KBs?


Thanks
Federico

[Bruno Vidal]

Look in man pages:
-c The number of 512-byte blocks in the size of core dumps.

So the easy way, is to add it in the /etc/profile a line like this:

ulimit -c 20480

It will limit core files to 10Mb.

Cheers.

[Zeev Schultz]

All this (ulimit) is ok,but it's per shell session condition (like if you have one user connected or opened more that one shell - he/she would have more than 10mb of core space).I don't know actually if it should be a login shell or not.

Zeev

[Bruno Vidal]

Okay, if the purpose is to limit the overall size of core on a system, I don't see any solution, because an application is core dumping in his directory, and it is not possible to indicate to a process where doing the core. So the only solution can also to avoid the creation of any core by setting a null size for every user. By default any core are not usable because no application are compiled with -g or any debugging option. If a developper need the core file, it is still possible to change with ulimit.

Cheers.

[Michael Steele_2]

'ulimit' is a ksh specific command, for csh I believe its 'limit'. Note these threads:

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0xe0086d96588ad4118fef0090279cd0f9,00.html

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0xe51272106351d5118fef0090279cd0f9,00.html

Regarding "...should i put the command in every .profile file...."

Every user goes through /etc/profile. Additions in this file can be made here for all users, just parse out the shell.

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x3de0f841489fd4118fef0090279cd0f9,00.html

[Pete Randall]

How about removing the core files rather than limiting their size? I use find to search them out and remove them if they're older than a couple of days. That way, if a developer is actually using one for debugging purposes, he'll have the whole thing available to him instead of just a truncated version.


Pete

[federico_3]

I set the command "ulimit -c 20480 " in the /etc/profile script and when I logon in the system I get the error" ulimit"bad option"... How come???

[Umapathy S]

hi Federico,
Just ulimit will do in ksh for both 11 and 10.2.

$ulimit 20480

If the core size exceeds the limit, it will dump as much as allowed by the ulimit.

HTH
Umapathy

[Michael Steele_2]

Regarding "...I set the command "ulimit -c 20480 " in the /etc/profile script and when I logon in the system I get the error" ulimit"bad option"..."

Sounds like a shell mismatch. Posix vs. ksh.

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x8f106049dbb6d611abdb0090277a778c,00.html

Test for the shell:

echo $SHELL
/usr/bin/sh (* Posix *)
echo $SHELL
/usr/bin/ksh (* ksh *)

If you're having trouble determining where to put the logic in /etc/profile then use 'set -xv' to debug.

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0xbcbf68da2286d711abdc0090277a778c,00.html