memory dump

(programming, operating system, jargon)   (Or "core dump") A file on hard disk (traditionally called "core") containing a copy of the contents of a process's memory, produced when a process is aborted by certain kinds of internal error or signal.

Debuggers like adb and gdb can load the dump file and display the information it contains about the state of the running program. This can be related to the program code, both object code and, in a source-level debugger, the source code. Information includes the contents of registers, the call stack and all other program data.

Last updated: 2007-05-09