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1da6d6c3 KM |
1 | .\" Copyright (c) 1980 Regents of the University of California. |
2 | .\" All rights reserved. The Berkeley software License Agreement | |
3 | .\" specifies the terms and conditions for redistribution. | |
4 | .\" | |
d6a30cad | 5 | .\" @(#)dmesg.8 6.1 (Berkeley) %G% |
1da6d6c3 | 6 | .\" |
d6a30cad | 7 | .TH DMESG 8 "" |
1da6d6c3 KM |
8 | .UC 4 |
9 | .SH NAME | |
10 | dmesg \- collect system diagnostic messages to form error log | |
11 | .SH SYNOPSIS | |
12 | .B /etc/dmesg | |
13 | [ \- ] | |
14 | .SH DESCRIPTION | |
15 | .I Dmesg | |
16 | looks in a system buffer for recently printed diagnostic messages | |
17 | and prints them on the standard output. | |
18 | The messages are those printed by the system when device (hardware) errors | |
19 | occur and (occasionally) when system tables overflow non-fatally. | |
20 | If the | |
21 | .B \- | |
22 | flag is given, then | |
23 | .I dmesg | |
24 | computes (incrementally) the new messages since the last time it | |
25 | was run and places these on the standard output. | |
26 | This is typically used with | |
27 | .IR cron (8) | |
28 | to produce the error log | |
29 | .I /usr/adm/messages | |
30 | by running the command | |
31 | .IP | |
32 | /etc/dmesg \- >> /usr/adm/messages | |
33 | .LP | |
34 | every 10 minutes. | |
35 | .SH FILES | |
36 | .ta 2i | |
37 | /usr/adm/messages error log (conventional location) | |
38 | .br | |
39 | /usr/adm/msgbuf scratch file for memory of \- option | |
40 | .SH BUGS | |
41 | The system error message buffer is of small finite size. As | |
42 | .I dmesg | |
43 | is run only every few minutes, not all error messages | |
44 | are guaranteed to be logged. This can be construed as a blessing rather | |
45 | than a curse. | |
46 | .PP | |
47 | Error diagnostics generated immediately before a system crash will | |
48 | never get logged. |