crash is a Linux kernel analysis utility for investigating system crashes and examining the internal state of a running kernel.
It provides an interactive environment for analysing kernel memory, processes, stack traces and data structures. Administrators and kernel developers can use the utility to investigate the circumstances surrounding a failure and identify the underlying causes of system instability.
The application works with kernel dump files produced by several crash collection mechanisms, including kdump. It can also inspect live systems where the necessary kernel memory interfaces are accessible.
crash incorporates GDB functionality while providing its own commands specifically designed for Linux kernel analysis. This combination allows users to examine low-level kernel information through a command interface suited to system debugging.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Analyse Linux kernel crash dumps and examine live kernel memory where supported.
- Supports dump files produced by kdump and several other kernel crash collection mechanisms.
- Generate kernel stack backtraces to investigate the execution context surrounding a system failure.
- Inspect processes, tasks and associated kernel structures to understand their state at the time of a crash.
- Examine kernel memory, symbols and variables using commands designed for low-level system analysis.
- Display formatted kernel data structures, including linked lists and other interconnected objects.
- Investigate kernel logs and other diagnostic information retained in a crash dump.
- Examine information associated with kernel subsystems, including memory management, scheduling, devices and interrupts.
- Disassemble machine instructions and use integrated GDB functionality for deeper investigation.
- Supports interactive commands for searching memory and examining virtual-to-physical address translations.
- Extend the debugger with additional commands compiled into the utility or loaded dynamically from shared object modules.
- Provides support for multiple kernel dump compression formats, including optional LZO, Snappy and Zstandard handling.
- Can examine kernel data from numerous Linux architectures, including x86, ARM, PowerPC, RISC-V and others.
Website: github.com/crash-utility/crash
Support:
Developer: crash-utility developers
License: GNU General Public License v3.0
crash is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
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