dumpdev default

[Jeremy Chadwick]

On Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 06:37:34PM +1100, Aristedes Maniatis wrote:
> The manual states that dumpdev "AUTO is the default as of FreeBSD 6.0" [1]
> 
> However:
> 
> # uname -a
> FreeBSD xxxxxx 9.0-RELEASE FreeBSD 9.0-RELEASE #0: Tue Jan  3 07:46:30 UTC 2012     root at farrell.cse.buffalo.edu:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  amd64
> 
> # grep dumpdev /etc/defaults/rc.conf
> dumpdev="NO"		# Device to crashdump to (device name, AUTO, or NO).
> savecore_flags=""	# Used if dumpdev is enabled above, and present.
> 
> 
> It looks like NO is still the default. Is there a reason why this should not be turned on even for production machines? I haven't read about any side effects, but it seems to be off by default for some reason.

The Handbook is incorrect, and I filed a PR for this matter last year
(PR 159650):

http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-doc/2011-August/018654.html

Worth reading:

http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2011-August/063541.html
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2011-August/063542.html
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2011-August/063543.html

And the entire thread:

http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2011-August/063535.html

-- 
| Jeremy Chadwick                                 jdc at parodius.com |
| Parodius Networking                     http://www.parodius.com/ |
| UNIX Systems Administrator                 Mountain View, CA, US |
| Making life hard for others since 1977.             PGP 4BD6C0CB |