Auto doadump()

[Garrett Cooper]

On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 2:30 PM, David Rhodus <sdrhodus at gmail.com> wrote:
> Is there a rc.conf variable to automatically save core on a panic and reboot ?
> Setting dumpdev="AUTO"  doesn't seem to do the trick.
>
> # uname -a
> FreeBSD  9.0-CURRENT FreeBSD 9.0-CURRENT #0: Thu Jun  3 20:00:22 UTC
> 2010     root@:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GE  amd64

dumpdev=AUTO in rc.conf has been broken for a while from what I've
seen, despite what rc.conf(5) suggests:

     dumpdev     (str) Indicates the device (usually a swap partition) to
                 which a crash dump should be written in the event of a system
                 crash.  If the value of this variable is ``AUTO'', the first
                 suitable swap device listed in /etc/fstab will be used as
                 dump device.  Otherwise, the value of this variable is passed
                 as the argument to dumpon(8).  To disable crash dumps, set
                 this variable to ``NO''.

You have to explicitly note the dump device in /boot/loader.conf and
have to reboot the box (otherwise it won't pick up the appropriate
value via kenv). Kind of lame if you ask me...

HTH,
-Garrett