Core dump

A display or printout of the contents of memory. When a program abnormally ends, a memory dump can be taken in order to examine the status of the program at the time of the crash. The programmer examines the information to see which tasks were being worked on when it failed. Counters, variables, switches, flags, and sometimes program data (such as passwords) are also included in the dump.

Unix environments often create a core file to hold this information. Windows NT environments display a blue screen, and optionally write the information to a file of your choosing. This file is typically called MEMORY.DMP, and is controlled by the System control panel, on the Startup/Shutdown tab.