expand_dump(8)						      System Manager's Manual						    expand_dump(8)

NAME

       expand_dump - Produces a non-compressed kernel crash dump file

SYNOPSIS

       /usr/sbin/expand_dump input-file output-file

DESCRIPTION

       By  default, kernel crash dump files (vmzcore.#) are compressed during the crash dump.  Compressed core files can be examined by the latest
       versions of debugging tools that have been recompiled to support compressed crash dump files.  However, not  all  debugging  tools  may	be
       upgraded on a given system, or you may want to examine a crash dump from a remote system using an older version of a tool.  The expand_dump
       utility produces a file that can be read by tools that have not been upgraded to support compressed crash dump files.  This  non-compressed
       version can also be read by any upgraded tool.

       This  utility  can  only  be used with compressed crash dump files, and does not support any other form of compressed file.  You cannot use
       other decompression tools such as compress, gzip, or zip on a compressed crash dump file.

       Note that the non-compressed file will require significantly more disk storage space as it is possible to achieve compression ratios of	up
       to  60:1.  Check the available disk space before running expand_dump and estimate the size of the non-compressed file as follows: Run tests
       by halting your system and forcing a crash as described in the Kernel Debugging manual.	Use an upgraded debugger to determine the value of
       the  variable  dumpsize.   Multiply this vale by the 8Kb page size to approximate the required disk space of the non-compressed crash-dump.
       Run expand_dump and pipe the output file to /dev/null, noting the size of the file that is printed when expand_dump completes its task.

RETURN VALUES

       Successful completion of the decompression.  The user did not supply the correct number of command line arguments.  The	input  file  could
       not  be	read.	The  input file is not a compressed dump, or is corrupted.  The output file could not be created or opened for writing and
       truncated.  There was some problem writing to the output file (probably a full disk).  The input file is not formated consistantly.  It	is
       probably corrupted.  The input file could not be correctly decompressed.  It is probably corrupted.

EXAMPLES

       expand_dump vmzcore.4 vmcore.4

SEE ALSO

       Commands: dbx(1), kdbx(8), ladebug(1), savecore(8)

       Kernel Debugging

       System Administration

																    expand_dump(8)