A strange random file named core

jiggywiggy · n00b Joined: 24 Feb 2004 Posts: 28

I recently was merging a few different web browsers and I ended up with a file named core in my home directory. It is a little frighting to me because the icon is a bomb (using gnome). I just am curious if I can delete. Yeah this does seem like a very vague question, but if you happen to know it would help.

Epyon · l33t Joined: 11 Sep 2003 Posts: 754 Location: NJ, USA

AFAIK it's a core dump. It's safe to delete.

Sgaduuw · Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2004 2:42 am Post subject:

the core file is the remnant of a program that has crashed and 'dumped it's core', or left a coredump.
The core file can be used for debugging purposes, since a coredump contains a memory print of the program.
It's safe to delete the file. Running the command "file core" should tell you what the crashed program was.
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giannifive · n00b Joined: 29 Jan 2004 Posts: 50 Location: Chicago, IL

The core file means some application you were running crashed. It's output for debugging purposes so you can do a post mortem and see what went wrong. It's not a particularly useful file for non-developers, and you can safely delete it. But if you want to see what application crashed and created it, you can do

johnmc · Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2004 2:45 am Post subject:

It's OK to delete.

Can you tell what left the core, or were there any errors during the emerge?

Programs that abort leave core files that can be used to debug whatever caused the problem, so a core file usually means something aborted.
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jiggywiggy · n00b Joined: 24 Feb 2004 Posts: 28

I used file core and it ended up being metacity and I deleted it.

Thanks for the help