Embedded Open Source Summit 2023

The core dump facility of Linux can be a powerful tool for developers to investigate why their application crashed. When active, it can store a snapshot of an application's memory at the time of a crash. This allows for detailed inspection of stack traces and data contents. However, this facility is rarely used on production systems because of the space required to save the core dump files. This is particularly true for embedded systems, where read-write space is often very limited or non-existent. The minicoredumper project [0] was created to make core dumps viable for even embedded systems. It does this by providing a set of userspace tools to extend the Linux core dump facility and allow fine-grained control over what exactly is saved when an application crashes. Using the minicoredumper, very useful core dumps for applications can be reduced to 4KB of space, making them very attractive even for embedded systems. This presentation introduces the minicoredumper project, explores some of the details as to how it works, and provides some scenarios showing how it can be used in embedded systems. [0] https://www.linutronix.de/minicoredumper