Core dump limits are disabled for a user using the normal /etc/security/limits.conf mechanism:
# ulimit -a
core file size (blocks, -c) unlimited
However, running a segfault test shows no core being dumped:
/tmp/a.out
Segmentation fault
No 'core dumped' message. Hrm. /etc/security/limits.conf looks as follows:
username - core unlimited
Has anyone encountered this before? Is this a bug in SLES? Thanks.
Core dumps were enabled, but the core_pattern used for filenames was pointing to a directory that did not exist.
This causes the core dump to silently fail.
# cat /proc/sys/kernel/core_pattern
/cores/core.%p
# ls -la /cores
/bin/ls: /cores: No such file or directory
The fix is simple: create the dir specified, or modify sysctl.conf accordingly:
# mkdir /cores
# /tmp/a.out
Segmentation fault (core dumped)