osx man page for core

CORE(5) 						      BSD File Formats Manual							   CORE(5)

NAME
     core -- memory image file format

SYNOPSIS
     #include <sys/param.h>

DESCRIPTION
     A small number of signals which cause abnormal termination of a process also cause a record of the process's in-core state to be written to
     disk for later examination by one of the available debuggers.  (See sigaction(2).)  This memory image is written to a file named by default
     core.pid, where pid is the process ID of the process, in the /cores directory, provided the terminated process had write permission in the
     directory, and the directory existed.

     The maximum size of a core file is limited by setrlimit(2).  Files which would be larger than the limit are not created.

     The core file consists of the Mach-O(5) header as	described in the <mach-o/loader.h> file.  The remainder of the core file consists of vari-
     ous sections described in the Mach-O(5) header.

NOTE
     Core dumps are disabled by default under Darwin/Mac OS X.	To re-enable core dumps, a privileged user must do one of the following

     * Edit /etc/launchd.conf or $HOME/.launchd.conf and add a line specifying the limit limit core unlimited

     * A privileged user can also enable cores with launchctl limit core unlimited

     * A privileged user can also enable core files by using ulimit(1) or limit(1) depending upon the shell.

SEE ALSO
     gdb(1), setrlimit(2), sigaction(2), Mach-O(5), launchd.conf(5), launchd.plist(5), sysctl(8)

HISTORY
     A core file format appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.

BSD
								   June 26, 2008							       BSD