From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S261376AbVCQXtP (ORCPT ); Thu, 17 Mar 2005 18:49:15 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S261383AbVCQXtP (ORCPT ); Thu, 17 Mar 2005 18:49:15 -0500 Received: from shawidc-mo1.cg.shawcable.net ([24.71.223.10]:32946 "EHLO pd4mo3so.prod.shaw.ca") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S261376AbVCQXtK (ORCPT ); Thu, 17 Mar 2005 18:49:10 -0500 Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2005 17:48:31 -0600 From: Robert Hancock Subject: Re: linux: detect application crash In-reply-to: <3J9Nd-3qf-19@gated-at.bofh.it> To: linux-kernel Message-id: <423A174F.6090906@shaw.ca> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit X-Accept-Language: en-us, en References: <3J9Nd-3qf-19@gated-at.bofh.it> User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0 (Windows/20041206) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Allison wrote: > Hi, > > Several times when I worked with Windows, I have had a scenario when I > am editing a file and saved some time ago and then the application > crashes and I lose all recent data. > > Can the operating system detect all application crashes ? If so, why > can't the OS save the user data to disk before the application quits ? > > How does this work in Linux. I was curious if such a functionality > already exists in Linux. If not, what are the issues involved in > implementing this functionality. The OS doesn't have enough information to be able to save the app's data in the event of a crash in a form that would be usable or meaningful, since only the app knows what format its data structures are in. The app itself could do this (installing a signal handler for segfaults, etc.) but the problem is that whatever caused the program to crash may have also left its data in a messed-up state. -- Robert Hancock Saskatoon, SK, Canada To email, remove "nospam" from hancockr@nospamshaw.ca Home Page: http://www.roberthancock.com/