What is /proc/kcore

[Alan McKinnon]

On Sunday 26 March 2006 02:40, Daniel Carrera wrote:
> Alan McKinnon wrote:
> >>I'm still curious though, what is /proc/kcore? Why does it "look"
> >>huge when everything else in /proc looks either 0kb or 4.0kb?
> >
> > If you are
> > truly masochistic, you can cat it (as root) to see what it looks
> > like. Use cat, not less.
>
> Hmm.... in theory, if I use less I'd get an infinite loop right? :)
> It would make the used memory grow exponentially, right? Would that
> make the system crash?

I tried it once without thinking it through and less immediately went 
into 100% cpu usage and started using lots of swap. I could still 
kill it from another session, so no harm done. I never analysed it (I 
have no need for that info), but if less watches files for changes 
and reloads the file, then I assume less /proc/core would do what you 
describe. 

-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan at linuxholdings dot co dot za
+27 82, double three seven, one nine three five