coredump.conf(5) — Linux manual page
COREDUMP.CONF(5) coredump.conf COREDUMP.CONF(5)
NAME
coredump.conf, coredump.conf.d - Core dump storage configuration
files
SYNOPSIS
/etc/systemd/coredump.conf
/run/systemd/coredump.conf
/usr/local/lib/systemd/coredump.conf
/usr/lib/systemd/coredump.conf
/etc/systemd/coredump.conf.d/*.conf
/run/systemd/coredump.conf.d/*.conf
/usr/local/lib/systemd/coredump.conf.d/*.conf
/usr/lib/systemd/coredump.conf.d/*.conf
DESCRIPTION
These files configure the behavior of systemd-coredump(8), a
handler for core dumps invoked by the kernel. Whether
systemd-coredump is used is determined by the kernel's
kernel.core_pattern sysctl(8) setting. See systemd-coredump(8)
and core(5) pages for the details.
CONFIGURATION DIRECTORIES AND PRECEDENCE
The default configuration is set during compilation, so
configuration is only needed when it is necessary to deviate from
those defaults. The main configuration file is loaded from one of
the listed directories in order of priority, only the first file
found is used: /etc/systemd/, /run/systemd/,
/usr/local/lib/systemd/ [1], /usr/lib/systemd/. The vendor
version of the file contains commented out entries showing the
defaults as a guide to the administrator. Local overrides can
also be created by creating drop-ins, as described below. The
main configuration file can also be edited for this purpose (or a
copy in /etc/ if it's shipped under /usr/), however using
drop-ins for local configuration is recommended over
modifications to the main configuration file.
In addition to the main configuration file, drop-in configuration
snippets are read from /usr/lib/systemd/*.conf.d/,
/usr/local/lib/systemd/*.conf.d/, and /etc/systemd/*.conf.d/.
Those drop-ins have higher precedence and override the main
configuration file. Files in the *.conf.d/ configuration
subdirectories are sorted by their filename in lexicographic
order, regardless of in which of the subdirectories they reside.
When multiple files specify the same option, for options which
accept just a single value, the entry in the file sorted last
takes precedence, and for options which accept a list of values,
entries are collected as they occur in the sorted files.
When packages need to customize the configuration, they can
install drop-ins under /usr/. Files in /etc/ are reserved for the
local administrator, who may use this logic to override the
configuration files installed by vendor packages. Drop-ins have
to be used to override package drop-ins, since the main
configuration file has lower precedence. It is recommended to
prefix all filenames in those subdirectories with a two-digit
number and a dash, to simplify the ordering. This also defines a
concept of drop-in priorities to allow OS vendors to ship
drop-ins within a specific range lower than the range used by
users. This should lower the risk of package drop-ins overriding
accidentally drop-ins defined by users. It is recommended to use
the range 10-40 for drop-ins in /usr/ and the range 60-90 for
drop-ins in /etc/ and /run/, to make sure that local and
transient drop-ins take priority over drop-ins shipped by the OS
vendor.
To disable a configuration file supplied by the vendor, the
recommended way is to place a symlink to /dev/null in the
configuration directory in /etc/, with the same filename as the
vendor configuration file.
OPTIONS
All options are configured in the [Coredump] section:
Storage=
Controls where to store cores. One of "none", "external", and
"journal". When "none", the core dumps may be logged
(including the backtrace if possible), but not stored
permanently. When "external" (the default), cores will be
stored in /var/lib/systemd/coredump/. When "journal", cores
will be stored in the journal and rotated following normal
journal rotation patterns.
When cores are stored in the journal, they might be
compressed following journal compression settings, see
journald.conf(5). When cores are stored externally, they will
be compressed by default, see below.
Note that in order to process a coredump (i.e. extract a
stack trace) the core must be written to disk first. Thus,
unless ProcessSizeMax= is set to 0 (see below), the core will
be written to /var/lib/systemd/coredump/ either way (under a
temporary filename, or even in an unlinked file), Storage=
thus only controls whether to leave it there even after it
was processed.
Added in version 215.
Compress=
Controls compression for external storage. Takes a boolean
argument, which defaults to "yes".
Added in version 215.
ProcessSizeMax=
The maximum size in bytes of a core which will be processed.
Core dumps exceeding this size may be stored, but the stack
trace will not be generated. Like other sizes in this same
config file, the usual suffixes to the base of 1024 are
allowed (B, K, M, G, T, P, and E). Defaults to 1G on 32-bit
systems, 32G on 64-bit systems.
Setting Storage=none and ProcessSizeMax=0 disables all
coredump handling except for a log entry.
Added in version 215.
ExternalSizeMax=, JournalSizeMax=
The maximum (compressed or uncompressed) size in bytes of a
coredump to be saved in separate files on disk (default: 1G
on 32-bit systems, 32G on 64-bit systems) or in the journal
(default: 767M). Note that the journal service enforces a
hard limit on journal log records of 767M, and will ignore
larger submitted log records. Hence, JournalSizeMax= may be
lowered relative to the default, but not increased. Unit
suffixes are allowed just as in ProcessSizeMax=.
ExternalSizeMax=infinity sets the core size to unlimited.
Added in version 215.
MaxUse=, KeepFree=
Enforce limits on the disk space, specified in bytes, taken
up by externally stored core dumps. Unit suffixes are allowed
just as in ProcessSizeMax=. MaxUse= makes sure that old core
dumps are removed as soon as the total disk space taken up by
core dumps grows beyond this limit (defaults to 10% of the
total disk size). KeepFree= controls how much disk space to
keep free at least (defaults to 15% of the total disk size).
Note that the disk space used by core dumps might temporarily
exceed these limits while core dumps are processed. Note that
old core dumps are also removed based on time via
systemd-tmpfiles(8). Set either value to 0 to turn off
size-based cleanup.
Added in version 215.
The defaults for all values are listed as comments in the
template /etc/systemd/coredump.conf file that is installed by
default.
SEE ALSO
systemd-journald.service(8), coredumpctl(1), systemd-tmpfiles(8)
NOTES
1. 💣💥🧨💥💥💣 Please note that those configuration files must
be available at all times. If /usr/local/ is a separate
partition, it may not be available during early boot, and
must not be used for configuration.
COLOPHON
This page is part of the systemd (systemd system and service
manager) project. Information about the project can be found at
⟨http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd⟩. If you have
a bug report for this manual page, see
⟨http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/#bugreports⟩.
This page was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨https://github.com/systemd/systemd.git⟩ on 2024-06-14. (At that
time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
repository was 2024-06-13.) If you discover any rendering
problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there
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(which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
man-pages@man7.org
systemd 257~devel COREDUMP.CONF(5)
Pages that refer to this page: coredumpctl(1), systemd.directives(7), systemd.index(7), systemd-coredump(8)