Core Files filling up /

[bsasninja]

Today I found that my / partition was at 96%. I checked and I found a lot of these files:

-rw------- 1 root root 131145728 May 27 01:55 core.1474
-rw------- 1 root root 131137536 May 27 05:20 core.14757
-rw------- 1 root root 131137536 May 27 05:40 core.16498
-rw------- 1 root root 131137536 May 27 05:50 core.16870
-rw------- 1 root root 131145728 May 27 02:00 core.1897
-rw------- 1 root root 131145728 May 27 02:05 core.2212
-rw------- 1 root root 131145728 May 27 02:10 core.2531
-rw------- 1 root root 131145728 May 27 02:15 core.3129
-rw------- 1 root root 131145728 May 27 02:20 core.3408
-rw------- 1 root root 131145728 May 27 02:25 core.3640
-rw------- 1 root root 131145728 May 27 02:30 core.3933
-rw------- 1 root root 131145728 May 27 02:35 core.4354
-rw------- 1 root root 131145728 May 27 02:40 core.4599
-rw------- 1 root root 131145728 May 27 02:45 core.4818
-rw------- 1 root root 131145728 May 27 02:50 core.5312
-rw------- 1 root root 131145728 May 27 02:55 core.5537
-rw------- 1 root root 131145728 May 27 03:00 core.5768
-rw------- 1 root root 131031040 May 26 21:49 core.8961

What the hell are these and how I prevent them from creating?
This started to appear yesterday and I didnt touch anything.

Thanks!

[chinmay]

Hi there,

You may come across core files which gets generated within your accounts . The possible reason for the core files getting generated is when a php process is killed, apache creates core files under your account .

On phpSuexec servers this may cause due to incorrect php.ini file placed in your account and if it is caused due to php/apache then you can get rid off those core files by editing the httpd start up file on the server end .

root@server [~]# vi /etc/init.d/httpd

Search for ulimit lines .For eg : you can see these lines

ulimit -n 1024
ulimit -n 4096
ulimit -n 8192
ulimit -n 16384

You need to add ulimit -c 0 at the end .Which will look like :

ulimit -n 1024
ulimit -n 4096
ulimit -n 8192
ulimit -n 16384
ulimit -c 0

Save changes and quit.

Now kill / stop apache service and then start apache service on the server .

root@server [~]# service httpd stop
root@server [~]# service httpd stop
httpd (no pid file) not running
root@server [~]# service httpd startssl
root@server [~]# service httpd startssl
httpd (pid 21154) already running

You are done ! The core files won't be generated..

[Infopro]

More on Core files:
http://forums.cpanel.net/f5/what-fil...el-117393.html
http://forums.cpanel.net/f7/core-files-115173.html
http://forums.cpanel.net/f7/how-disa...es-110417.html
http://forums.cpanel.net/f34/core-xxx-files-67600.html
http://forums.cpanel.net/f4/php4-core-dumps-73189.html

Might be worth looking into what they are before killing them.