SNAP(6)                                                   SNAP(6)

     NAME
          snap - process snapshots

     DESCRIPTION
          Process snapshots are used to save a process image for
          debugging on another machine or at another time.  They are
          like old Unix core dumps but can hold multiple process
          images and are smaller.

          The first line of a snapshot begins with the prefix
          ``process snapshot'' and often contains other information as
          well, such as creation time, user name, system name, cpu
          type, and kernel type.  This information is intended for
          humans, not programs.  Programs reading snapshots should
          only check that this line begins with the specified prefix.

          Throughout the rest of the snapshot, decimal strings are
          always right-justified, blank-padded to 11 characters, and
          followed by a single space character.

          The rest of the snapshot is one or more records, each of
          which begins with a one-line header.  This header is a
          decimal process id followed by an identification string,
          which denotes the type of data in the record.

          Records of type fd, fpregs, kregs, noteid, ns, proc, regs,
          segment, and status are all formatted as a decimal number n
          followed by n bytes of data.  This data is the contents of
          the file of the same name found in /proc.

          The format of the mem and text sections is not as simple.
          These sections contain one or more page descriptions.  Each
          describes a one kilobyte page of data.  If the section is
          not a multiple of a kilobyte in size, the last page will be
          shorter.  Each description begins with a one-byte flag.  If
          the flag is r, then it is followed by a page of binary data.
          If the flag is z, then the data is understood to be zeros,
          and is omitted.  If the flag is m or t, then it is followed
          by two decimal strings p and o, indicating that this page is
          the same as the page at offset o of the memory or text seg-
          ment for process p. This data must have been previously
          described in the snapshot, and the offset must be a multiple
          of a kilobyte.

          It is not guaranteed that any of the sections described
          above be in a process snapshot, although the snapshot
          quickly becomes useless when too much is missing.

          Memory and text images may be incomplete.  The memory or
          text file for a given process may be split across multiple

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     SNAP(6)                                                   SNAP(6)

          disjoint sections in the snapshot.

     SEE ALSO
          proc(3), snap(4).

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