memory dump

core dump

n. [common Iron Age jargon, preserved by Unix]
1. [techspeak] A copy of the contents of core, produced when a process is aborted by certain kinds of internal error.
2. By extension, used for humans passing out, vomiting, or registering extreme shock. "He dumped core. All over the floor. What a mess." "He heard about X and dumped core."
3. Occasionally used for a human rambling on pointlessly at great length; esp. in apology: "Sorry, I dumped core on you".
4. A recapitulation of knowledge (compare bits, sense 1). Hence, spewing all one knows about a topic (syn. brain dump), esp. in a lecture or answer to an exam question. "Short, concise answers are better than core dumps" (from the instructions to an exam at Columbia). See core.

memory dump definition

programming, operating system, jargon
(Or "core dump") A file on hard disk (traditionally called "core") containing a copy of the contents of a process's memory, produced when a process is aborted by certain kinds of internal error or signal.
Debuggers like adb and gdb can load the dump file and display the information it contains about the state of the running program. This can be related to the program code, both object code and, in a source-level debugger, the source code. Information includes the contents of registers, the call stack and all other program data.
(2007-05-09)