[minicoredumper] Debugging corrupt tar files (invalid sparse archive member)

[John Ogness]

On 2023-02-06, "Jos Hulzink (Ellips B.V.)" <jos.hulzink at ellips.com> wrote:
> We are facing an issue with the mini core dumps of our application:
> The tar files are quite often invalid (tar: core: invalid sparse
> archive member) and cannot be opened by any tool. We do get some valid
> dumps from the same application sometimes, so the tool is not
> completely broken.

The tar files should never be invalid.

> We are trying to find out why this is happening, but we are looking
> for directions how to debug this. Any ideas ?

Can you create a crashing application that reproduces the problem? If
yes, can I have such an application so I can reproduce it?

If you can reproduce it, it would also be useful if I had access to the
core file produced without minicoredumper. Although a crashing example
would be preferred.

And finally, does it help to force the kernel to wait for the dumping
process:

sysctl -w kernel.core_pipe_limit=0x7fffffff

> MiniCoreDumper 2.0.2, configuration can be found below.

Some tar creation code was modified in 2.0.2. Do you have these problems
with 2.0.1?

John Ogness