MKDUMRD(8)

📦
version 2.0.29 · 2 versions
, in centos-stream 10, centos-stream 9, fedora 43, fedora 44

💅 MKDUMRD — ok bestie, it's the mkdumprd(8) page ✨

Like, it lives in the System Manager's Manual, section 8, and it's all about building tiny little ramdisks so your crashed kernel can have a soft landing. 🦋

🌸 NAME 🌸

mkdumprd — she makes initial ramdisk images for kdump crash recovery. that's it, that's the job. 💖

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

mkdumprd [OPTION]

one option slot. that's the whole vibe. 🎀

🫶 DESCRIPTION 🫶

okay so. mkdumprd creates an initial ram file system for use in conjunction with the booting of a kernel within the kdump framework for crash recovery. literally that's her whole personality. 💅

and her purpose, the thing she's actually here for, is to create an initial ram filesystem that's capable of copying the crashed system's vmcore image to a location specified in /etc/kdump.conf. so yeah, she's the girl who shows up after everything goes wrong and carries the evidence to the drop-off spot. iconic behavior honestly. 👑

she doesn't just guess, either. mkdumprd interrogates the running system to understand what modules need to be loaded in the initramfs — and that's based on configuration retrieved from /etc/kdump.conf. she asks, the system answers, no cap. 🔥

then she adds a new dracut module, 99kdumpbase, and uses the dracut utility to generate the initramfs. teamwork makes the dream work fr fr. 🌈

here's the part where you gotta pay attention though, bestie. when generating a kdump initramfs, mkdumprd will determine how much disk space is available. and if the dump target's available space is not greater than the total system memory, mkdumprd will print a warning to remind you that there might not be enough space to save a vmcore. 😭

and like, that warning is covering the extreme scenarios too — the slab explodes with non-zero data, a full vmcore, all of it. so you really do need to prevent users from having minimum disk space for crash dump. don't skip the warning, she's not being dramatic. 💀

now. the important part. mkdumprd was not intended for casual use outside of the service initialization script for the kdump utility, and should not be run manually. 🙈 like, do not just type her name into a terminal for funsies.

if you require a custom kdump initramfs image, it is suggested that you use the kdump service infrastructure to create one, and then manually unpack, modify and repack the image. that's the sanctioned route. take it. 🧚

💜 OPTIONS 💜

  • all options here are passed to dracut directly — please refer to the dracut docs for the info. that's the whole list. she's a middleman and she's at peace with it. ✨

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

and that's the page, bestie!! 🎀 this one's dated Fri Feb 9 2007 and it's part of the System Manager's Manual — MKDUMRD(8), in all her 2007 glory. go forth and not run her manually. mwah. 💖🌸🦋

📦 where this page comes from