On Fri, Jul 27, 2007 at 02:29:15PM -0600, Brian de Alwis wrote:

> On 2007.07.27 21:12:30 +0100, Andrew Doran wrote:
> > A gcore on the process won't kill it but will give you a core file. Please
> > let me know if you have gotten a core and I'll give you details of an ftp
> > server where you can upload it.
> 
> Hmm, I can't seem to do a gcore:
> 
>     $ gcore 923
>     gcore: ptrace(PT_DUMPCORE) to 923 failed: File too large
>     $ df -h .
>     Filesystem        Size       Used      Avail %Cap Mounted on
>     /dev/wd0a          45G        38G       4.8G  88% /

You need to adjust the max coredump size with ulimit -c. Without looking
that probably needs to be done in the shell before you start firefox, not
before gcore.
 
> Interestingly, running the gcore actually deparked the process and
> it continued like nothing had happened.

That's positive in that it suggests there is an undiscovered sync issue in
the pthread library / kernel. Unfortunatley it also suggests a bug in the
way gcore works, it shouldn't have visible effects for the process which is
being dumped. :-)

Andrew