[SWLUG] how hard can it be... to get a core dump

[Philip Downer]

Mark Summerfield wrote:
> I think the Ubuntu people have changed the kernel to control core dumps
> and this is something I can't seem to get around.
>   

ah actually this seems more likely :

"If it's a core dump of a program that you wrote yourself, normally the 
file is called "core" and is in the working directory from which you ran 
it. A segmentation fault is usually a memory-handling error (like an 
invalid or NULL pointer, for example).

It appears that resource limits (which include the maximum size of a 
core dump file) are set by PAM on login. The settings for these limits 
are in /etc/security/limits.conf, which on my system (which is 
unmodified) is comments only. A quick look at the source code suggests 
that the default core dump limit is 0 (zero), which means no dump at all 
is created (even though the message suggests otherwise).

In summary: edit /etc/security/limits.conf, set the core limit to be 
non-zero (measured in kilobytes), and log in again."

-- taken from https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/10616

Phil