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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | COMMANDS | FILES | ENVIRONMENT | NOTES | AUTHOR | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON |
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CRASH(8) System Manager's Manual CRASH(8)
crash - Analyze Linux crash dump data or a live system
crash [OPTION]... NAMELIST MEMORY-IMAGE[@ADDRESS] (dumpfile form)
crash [OPTION]... [NAMELIST] (live system
form)
Crash is a tool for interactively analyzing the state of the Linux
system while it is running, or after a kernel crash has occurred and
a core dump has been created by the netdump, diskdump, LKCD, kdump,
xendump or kvmdump facilities. It is loosely based on the SVR4 UNIX
crash command, but has been significantly enhanced by completely
merging it with the gdb(1) debugger. The marriage of the two
effectively combines the kernel-specific nature of the traditional
UNIX crash utility with the source code level debugging capabilities
of gdb(1).
In the dumpfile form, both a NAMELIST and a MEMORY-IMAGE argument
must be entered. In the live system form, the NAMELIST argument must
be entered if the kernel's vmlinux file is not located in a known
location, such as the /usr/lib/debug/lib/modules/<kernel-version>
directory.
The crash utility has also been extended to support the analysis of
dumpfiles generated by a crash of the Xen hypervisor. In that case,
the NAMELIST argument must be that of the xen-syms binary. Live
system analysis is not supported for the Xen hypervisor.
The crash utility command set consists of common kernel core analysis
tools such as kernel stack back traces of all processes, source code
disassembly, formatted kernel structure and variable displays,
virtual memory data, dumps of linked-lists, etc., along with several
commands that delve deeper into specific kernel subsystems.
Appropriate gdb commands may also be entered, which in turn are
passed on to the gdb module for execution. If desired, commands may
be placed in either a $HOME/.crashrc file and/or in a .crashrc file
in the current directory. During initialization, the commands in
$HOME/.crashrc are executed first, followed by those in the
./.crashrc file.
The crash utility is designed to be independent of Linux version
dependencies. When new kernel source code impacts the correct
functionality of crash and its command set, the utility will be
updated to recognize new kernel code changes, while maintaining
backwards compatibility with earlier releases.
NAMELIST
This is a pathname to an uncompressed kernel image (a vmlinux
file), or a Xen hypervisor image (a xen-syms file) which has
been compiled with the "-g" option. If using the dumpfile
form, a vmlinux file may be compressed in either gzip or bzip2
formats.
MEMORY-IMAGE[@ADDRESS]
A kernel core dump file created by the netdump, diskdump, LKCD
kdump, xendump or kvmdump facilities.
If a MEMORY-IMAGE argument is not entered, the session will be
invoked on the live system, which typically requires root
privileges because of the device file used to access system
RAM. By default, /dev/crash will be used if it exists. If it
does not exist, then /dev/mem will be used; but if the kernel
has been configured with CONFIG_STRICT_DEVMEM, then
/proc/kcore will be used. It is permissible to explicitly
enter /dev/crash, /dev/mem or /proc/kcore.
An @ADDRESS value must be appended to the MEMORY-IMAGE if the
dumpfile is a raw RAM dumpfile that has no header information
describing the file contents. Multiple MEMORY-IMAGE@ADDRESS
ordered pairs may be entered, with each dumpfile containing a
contiguous block of RAM, where the ADDRESS value is the
physical start address of the block expressed in hexadecimal.
The physical address value(s) will be used to create a
temporary ELF header in /var/tmp, which will only exist during
the crash session. If a raw RAM dumpile represents a live
memory source, such as that specified by the QEMU mem-path
argument of a memory-backend-file object, then "live:" must be
prepended to the MEMORY-IMAGE name.
mapfile
If the NAMELIST file is not the same kernel that is running
(live system form), or the kernel that was running when the
system crashed (dumpfile form), then the System.map file of
the original kernel should be entered on the command line.
-h [option]
--help [option]
Without an option argument, display a crash usage help
message. If the option argument is a crash command name, the
help page for that command is displayed. If it is the string
"input", a page describing the various crash command line
input options is displayed. If it is the string "output", a
page describing command line output options is displayed. If
it is the string "all", then all of the possible help messages
are displayed. After the help message is displayed, crash
exits.
-s Silently proceed directly to the "crash>" prompt without
displaying any version, GPL, or crash initialization data
during startup, and by default, runtime command output is not
passed to any scrolling command.
-i file
Execute the command(s) contained in file prior to displaying
the "crash>" prompt for interactive user input.
-d num Set the internal debug level. The higher the number, the more
debugging data will be printed when crash initializes and
runs.
-S Use /boot/System.map as the mapfile.
-e vi | emacs
Set the readline(3) command line editing mode to "vi" or
"emacs". The default editing mode is "vi".
-f Force the usage of a compressed vmlinux file if its original
name does not start with "vmlinux".
-k Indicate that the NAMELIST file is an LKCD "Kerntypes"
debuginfo file.
-g [namelist]
Determine if a vmlinux or xen-syms namelist file contains
debugging data.
-t Display the system-crash timestamp and exit.
-L Attempt to lock all of its virtual address space into memory
by calling mlockall(MCL_CURRENT|MCL_FUTURE) during
initialization. If the system call fails, an error message
will be displayed, but the session continues.
-c tty-device
Open the tty-device as the console used for debug messages.
-p page-size
If a processor's page size cannot be determined by the
dumpfile, and the processor default cannot be used, use page-
size.
-o filename
Only used with the MEMORY-IMAGE@ADDRESS format for raw RAM
dumpfiles, specifies a filename of a new ELF vmcore that will
be created and used as the dumpfile. It will be saved to
allow future use as a standalone vmcore, replacing the
original raw RAM dumpfile.
-m option=value
--machdep option=value
Pass an option and value pair to machine-dependent code.
These architecture-specific option/pairs should only be
required in very rare circumstances:
X86_64:
phys_base=<physical-address>
irq_eframe_link=<value>
irq_stack_gap=<value>
max_physmem_bits=<value>
kernel_image_size=<value>
vm=orig (pre-2.6.11 virtual memory address ranges)
vm=2.6.11 (2.6.11 and later virtual memory address ranges)
vm=xen (Xen kernel virtual memory address ranges)
vm=xen-rhel4 (RHEL4 Xen kernel virtual address ranges)
vm=5level (5-level page tables)
PPC64:
vm=orig
vm=2.6.14 (4-level page tables)
IA64:
phys_start=<physical-address>
init_stack_size=<size>
vm=4l (4-level page tables)
ARM:
phys_base=<physical-address>
ARM64:
phys_offset=<physical-address>
kimage_voffset=<kimage_voffset-value>
X86:
page_offset=<CONFIG_PAGE_OFFSET-value>
-x Automatically load extension modules from a particular
directory. If a directory is specified in the
CRASH_EXTENSIONS shell environment variable, then that
directory will be used. Otherwise /usr/lib64/crash/extensions
(64-bit architectures) or /usr/lib/crash/extensions (32-bit
architectures) will be used; if they do not exist, then the
./extensions directory will be used.
--active
Track only the active task on each cpu.
--buildinfo
Display the crash binary's build date, the user ID of the
builder, the hostname of the machine where the build was done,
the target architecture, the version number, and the compiler
version.
--memory_module modname
Use the modname as an alternative kernel module to the
crash.ko module that creates the /dev/crash device.
--memory_device device
Use device as an alternative device to the /dev/crash,
/dev/mem or /proc/kcore devices.
--log dumpfile
Dump the contents of the kernel log buffer. A kernel namelist
argument is not necessary, but the dumpfile must contain the
VMCOREINFO data taken from the original /proc/vmcore ELF
header.
--no_kallsyms
Do not use kallsyms-generated symbol information contained
within kernel module object files.
--no_modules
Do not access or display any kernel module related
information.
--no_ikconf
Do not attempt to read configuration data that was built into
kernels configured with CONFIG_IKCONFIG.
--no_data_debug
Do not verify the validity of all structure member offsets and
structure sizes that it uses.
--no_kmem_cache
Do not initialize the kernel's slab cache infrastructure, and
commands that use kmem_cache-related data will not work.
--no_elf_notes
Do not use the registers from the ELF NT_PRSTATUS notes saved
in a compressed kdump header for backtraces.
--kmem_cache_delay
Delay the initialization of the kernel's slab cache
infrastructure until it is required by a run-time command.
--readnow
Pass this flag to the embedded gdb module, which will override
its two-stage strategy that it uses for reading symbol tables
from the NAMELIST.
--smp Specify that the system being analyzed is an SMP kernel.
-v
--version
Display the version of the crash utility, the version of the
embedded gdb module, GPL information, and copyright notices.
--cpus number
Specify the number of cpus in the SMP system being analyzed.
--osrelease dumpfile
Display the OSRELEASE vmcoreinfo string from a kdump dumpfile
header.
--hyper
Force the session to be that of a Xen hypervisor.
--p2m_mfn pfn
When a Xen Hypervisor or its dom0 kernel crashes, the dumpfile
is typically analyzed with either the Xen hypervisor or the
dom0 kernel. It is also possible to analyze any of the guest
domU kernels if the pfn_to_mfn_list_list pfn value of the
guest kernel is passed on the command line along with its
NAMELIST and the dumpfile.
--xen_phys_start physical-address
Supply the base physical address of the Xen hypervisor's text
and static data for older xendump dumpfiles that did not pass
that information in the dumpfile header.
--zero_excluded
If the makedumpfile(8) facility has filtered a compressed
kdump dumpfile to exclude various types of non-essential
pages, or has marked a compressed or ELF kdump dumpfile as
incomplete due to an ENOSPC or other error during its
creation, any attempt to read missing pages will fail. With
this flag, reads from any of those pages will return zero-
filled memory.
--no_panic
Do not attempt to find the task that was running when the
kernel crashed. Set the initial context to that of the
"swapper" task on cpu 0.
--more Use /bin/more as the command output scroller, overriding the
default of /usr/bin/less and any settings in either ./.crashrc
or $HOME/.crashrc.
--less Use /usr/bin/less as the command output scroller, overriding
any settings in either ./.crashrc or $HOME/.crashrc.
--hex Set the default command output radix to 16, overriding the
default radix of 10, and any radix settings in either
./.crashrc or $HOME/.crashrc.
--dec Set the default command output radix to 10, overriding any
radix settings in either ./.crashrc or $HOME/.crashrc. This is
the default radix setting.
--CRASHPAGER
Use the output paging command defined in the CRASHPAGER shell
environment variable, overriding any settings in either
./.crashrc or $HOME/.crashrc.
--no_scroll
Do not pass run-time command output to any scrolling command.
--no_strip
Do not strip cloned kernel text symbol names.
--no_crashrc
Do not execute the commands in either $HOME/.crashrc or
./.crashrc.
--mod directory
When loading the debuginfo data of kernel modules with the mod
-S command, search for their object files in directory instead
of in the standard location.
--kaslr offset|auto
If an x86_64 kernel was configured with CONFIG_RANDOMIZE_BASE,
the offset value is equal to the difference between the symbol
values compiled into the vmlinux file and their relocated
KASLR values. If set to auto, the KASLR offset value will be
automatically calculated.
--reloc size
When analyzing live x86 kernels that were configured with a
CONFIG_PHYSICAL_START value that is larger than its
CONFIG_PHYSICAL_ALIGN value, then it will be necessary to
enter a relocation size equal to the difference between the
two values.
--hash count
Set the number of internal hash queue heads used for list
gathering and verification. The default count is 32768.
--minimal
Bring up a session that is restricted to the log, dis, rd,
sym, eval, set and exit commands. This option may provide a
way to extract some minimal/quick information from a corrupted
or truncated dumpfile, or in situations where one of the
several kernel subsystem initialization routines would abort
the crash session.
--kvmhost [32|64]
When examining an x86 KVM guest dumpfile, this option
specifies that the KVM host that created the dumpfile was an
x86 (32-bit) or an x86_64 (64-bit) machine, overriding the
automatically determined value.
--kvmio <size>
override the automatically-calculated KVM guest I/O hole size.
--offline [show|hide]
Show or hide command output that is related to offline cpus.
The default setting is show.
Each crash command generally falls into one of the following
categories:
Symbolic display
Displays of kernel text/data, which take full advantage of the
power of gdb to format and display data structures
symbolically.
System state
The majority of crash commands consist of a set of "kernel-
aware" commands, which delve into various kernel subsystems on
a system-wide or per-task basis.
Utility functions
A set of useful helper commands serving various purposes, some
simple, others quite powerful.
Session control
Commands that control the crash session itself.
The following alphabetical list consists of a very simple overview of
each crash command. However, since individual commands often have
several options resulting in significantly different output, it is
suggested that the full description of each command be viewed by
executing crash -h <command>, or during a crash session by simply
entering help command.
* "pointer to" is shorthand for either the struct or union
commands. It displays the contents of a kernel structure or
union.
alias creates a single-word alias for a command.
ascii displays an ascii chart or translates a numeric value into its
ascii components.
bt displays a task's kernel-stack backtrace. If it is given the
-a option, it displays the stack traces of the active tasks on
all CPUs. It is often used with the foreach command to
display the backtraces of all tasks with one command.
btop translates a byte value (physical offset) to its page number.
dev displays data concerning the character and block device
assignments, I/O port usage, I/O memory usage, and PCI device
data.
dis disassembles memory, either entire kernel functions, from a
location for a specified number of instructions, or from the
start of a function up to a specified memory location.
eval evaluates an expression or numeric type and displays the
result in hexadecimal, decimal, octal and binary.
exit causes crash to exit.
extend dynamically loads or unloads crash shared object extension
modules.
files displays information about open files in a context.
foreach
repeats a specified command for the specified (or all) tasks
in the system.
fuser displays the tasks using the specified file or socket.
gdb passes its argument to the embedded gdb module. It is useful
for executing gdb commands that have the same name as crash
commands.
help alone displays the command menu; if followed by a command
name, a full description of a command, its options, and
examples are displayed. Its output is far more complete and
useful than this man page.
ipcs displays data about the System V IPC facilities.
irq displays data concerning interrupt request numbers and bottom-
half interrupt handling.
kmem displays information about the use of kernel memory.
list displays the contents of a linked list.
log displays the kernel log_buf contents in chronological order.
mach displays data specific to the machine type.
mod displays information about the currently installed kernel
modules, or adds or deletes symbolic or debugging information
about specified kernel modules.
mount displays information about the currently-mounted filesystems.
net display various network related data.
p passes its arguments to the gdb "print" command for evaluation
and display.
ps displays process status for specified, or all, processes in
the system.
pte translates the hexadecimal contents of a PTE into its physical
page address and page bit settings.
ptob translates a page frame number to its byte value.
ptov translates a hexadecimal physical address into a kernel
virtual address.
q is an alias for the "exit" command.
rd displays the contents of memory, with the output formatted in
several different manners.
repeat repeats a command indefinitely, optionally delaying a given
number of seconds between each command execution.
runq displays the tasks on the run queue.
search searches a range of user or kernel memory space for given
value.
set either sets a new context, or gets the current context for
display.
sig displays signal-handling data of one or more tasks.
struct displays either a structure definition or the contents of a
kernel structure at a specified address.
swap displays information about each configured swap device.
sym translates a symbol to its virtual address, or a static kernel
virtual address to its symbol -- or to a symbol-plus-offset
value, if appropriate.
sys displays system-specific data.
task displays the contents of a task_struct.
tree displays the contents of a red-black tree or a radix tree.
timer displays the timer queue entries, both old- and new-style, in
chronological order.
union is similar to the struct command, except that it works on
kernel unions.
vm displays basic virtual memory information of a context.
vtop translates a user or kernel virtual address to its physical
address.
waitq walks the wait queue list displaying the tasks which are
blocked on the specified wait queue.
whatis displays the definition of structures, unions, typedefs or
text/data symbols.
wr modifies the contents of memory on a live system. It can only
be used if /dev/mem is the device file being used to access
system RAM, and should obviously be used with great care.
When crash is invoked with a Xen hypervisor binary as the NAMELIST,
the command set is slightly modified. The *, alias, ascii, bt, dis,
eval, exit, extend, gdb, help, list, log, p, pte, rd, repeat, search,
set, struct, sym, sys, union, whatis, wr and q commands are the same
as above. The following commands are specific to the Xen hypervisor:
domain displays the contents of the domain structure for selected, or
all, domains.
doms displays domain status for selected, or all, domains.
dumpinfo
displays Xen dump information for selected, or all, cpus.
pcpus displays physical cpu information for selected, or all, cpus.
vcpus displays vcpu status for selected, or all, vcpus.
.crashrc
Initialization commands. The file can be located in the
user's HOME directory and/or the current directory. Commands
found in the .crashrc file in the HOME directory are executed
before those in the current directory's .crashrc file.
EDITOR Command input is read using readline(3). If EDITOR is set to
emacs or vi then suitable keybindings are used. If EDITOR is
not set, then vi is used. This can be overridden by set vi or
set emacs commands located in a .crashrc file, or by entering
-e emacs on the crash command line.
CRASHPAGER
If CRASHPAGER is set, its value is used as the name of the
program to which command output will be sent. If not, then
command output is sent to /usr/bin/less -E -X by default.
CRASH_MODULE_PATH
Specifies an alternative directory tree to search for kernel
module object files.
CRASH_EXTENSIONS
Specifies a directory containing extension modules that will
be loaded automatically if the -x command line option is used.
If crash does not work, look for a newer version: kernel evolution
frequently makes crash updates necessary.
The command set scroll off will cause output to be sent directly to
the terminal rather than through a paging program. This is useful,
for example, if you are running crash in a window of emacs.
Dave Anderson <anderson@redhat.com> wrote crash.
Jay Fenlason <fenlason@redhat.com> and Dave Anderson
<anderson@redhat.com> wrote this man page.
The help command within crash provides more complete and accurate
documentation than this man page.
http://people.redhat.com/anderson - the home page of the crash
utility.
netdump(8), gdb(1), makedumpfile(8)
This page is part of the crash (Linux crash dump analyzer) project.
Information about the project can be found at
⟨http://people.redhat.com/anderson/⟩. If you have a bug report for
this manual page, send it to crash-utility@redhat.com. This page was
obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨https://github.com/crash-utility/crash/releases⟩ on 2018-02-02. (At
that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
repository was 2018-01-30.) If you discover any rendering problems
in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is a better or
more up-to-date source for the page, or you have corrections or
improvements to the information in this COLOPHON (which is not part
of the original manual page), send a mail to man-pages@man7.org
CRASH(8)
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