Re: [tlug] What is a core dump?

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

>>>>> "Nguyen" == Nguyen Hung Takeshi <vuhung@example.com> writes:

    Nguyen> What is a core dump?

A core dump is a file that is an image of all the information
pertaining to the state of a program at a given instant of time, as it
appears in memory in the program's memory space.

Exactly what this means varies by operating system.

In theory (and in practice---for example, Emacs does this), you can
take a (part of a) core dump that isn't already in an error state,
load it into memory, and branch to the appropriate place, thus
restarting the process exactly as it was when it dumped core.

I'm told that there actually is no such thing as a Word file format;
it's just MS Word dumping core.  This means that Word can load files
very quickly, but of course MS doesn't care about that.  (What they
care about is that nothing else can load them at all!)


-- 
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