core dump files in wordpress install

  • Hi,

    I was recently surprised to see that my wordpress install folders have swelled up in size like anything. I have 3 installs of WP and I noticed that in the root of each install there were dump files with a name pattern “core.*” and with sizes to the tune of 12MB each.

    I asked my host and he said WP often generates such files and advised deleting them. I have never seen such a thing happening before WP 2.5.1. Does WP really generates these files or is it a bug?

    Example from one install:
    core.6845 12 MB 0600
    core.6964 14 MB 0600

    The File Type is shown as: ELF 32-bit LSB core file Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), SVR4-style, from ‘php’

    Thanks,

    Debashish

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

  • Core dumps are not specifically generated by WordPress, however it’s NOT a bug that they are made either. They serve a purpose. (Not to suggest that a bug might not be causing them)

    Think of them like a the result of the bsod in Windows.

    If you are so inclined here is some further reading:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_dump

    Your host, fwiw, is sort of full of crap — what they should have said was that something is crashing, PHP, or Apache, etc…, and that they need to debug it. Thats what core dumps are for.

    Thread Starter Debashish

    (@debashish)

    Thanks!

    So, what exactly would you do with the core dump file of WordPress ?

    delete them. or read them, but they wont mean anything to you.

    and like I said, core dumps arent caused by wordpress.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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