ReportCrash(8)            BSD System Manager's Manual           ReportCrash(8)

NAME
     ReportCrash -- Generates crash reports

SYNOPSIS
     ReportCrash

DESCRIPTION
     ReportCrash analyzes crashing processes and saves a crash report to disk.
     A crash report contains information that can help a developer diagnose
     the cause of a crash.  ReportCrash also records the identity of the
     crashing process and the location of the saved crash report in the sys-
     tem.log and the ASL log database.

     ReportCrash is invoked automatically by launchd when a crash is detected.
     For applications and other processes running in the per-user launchd con-
     text, ReportCrash runs as a LaunchAgent and saves crash reports in the
     user's ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/ directory.  For daemons, other
     processes running in the system launchd context and other privileged pro-
     cesses, ReportCrash runs as a LaunchDaemon and saves crash reports in the
     system's /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports directory where they are only
     readable by admin users.  If there are too many crash reports saved for a
     particular process, older reports will automatically be removed in order
     to conserve disk space.

     launchtl can be used to disable and re-enable crash reporting.  To dis-
     able crash reporting:

           launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.ReportCrash.plist
           sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.ReportCrash.Root.plist

     To re-enable crash reporting:

           launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.ReportCrash.plist
           sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.ReportCrash.Root.plist

     For application crashes (but not background process crashes) ReportCrash
     will display a dialog notifying the user that the application unexpect-
     edly quit and offering to reopen the application or send the report to
     Apple.  For developers, the behavior of this dialog can be adjusted using
     /Developer/Applications/Utilities/CrashReporterPrefs.app which is
     installed as part of the developer tools.

     Crash reports which are sent to Apple are submitted anonymously by the
     SubmitDiagInfo process.  The reports are used by Apple to improve its
     products.  Users who need support should use http://www.apple.com/support
     or other authorized support channels.  Developers who are ADC members
     should report bugs using http://bugreporter.apple.com in order to allow
     for two way communication between Apple and the bug reporter.

     More information about interpreting the contents of crash reports can be
     found in Technote 2123: https://developer.apple.com/library/content/tech-
     notes/tn2004/tn2123.html

SEE ALSO
     launchd(8), launchd.plist(8), launchctl(8), spindump(8),
     SubmitDiagInfo(8)

Mac OS                         November 14, 2024                        Mac OS