:Linux Orbit Professional: Command Line 101: Cleaning Core Dumps Made Easy
Linux Orbit Professional: Command Line 101: Cleaning Core Dumps Made Easy Feb 3, 2003, 07 :00 UTC (6 Talkback[s]) (6862 reads) (Other stories by John Gowin)
"GNU/Linux desktop users have a common problem: Whether they use a GNOME or KDE desktop environment or stripped down window managers like Black Box or FVWM, desktop programs will occasionally crash. When they do, they can create large files called core dumps that appear as the filename core somewhere on the user's filesystem. These files can be many megabytes in size and can cause disk space trouble if you're unaware of them.
"So what are core dump files for? Used mainly as an aid for software developers to debug problems, a core dump is a snapshot of the information in your system RAM at the moment a program crashes. Most users aren't developers however, so although they serve a purpose, they can be a problem. In this month's Command Corner, we're going to show you how to prevent core dump files from being created using the BASH command ulimit..."
