Where: /dev/pstore/... Date: March 2011 Kernel Version: 2.6.39 Contact: tony.luck@intel.com Description: Generic interface to platform dependent persistent storage. Platforms that provide a mechanism to preserve some data across system reboots can register with this driver to provide a generic interface to show records captured in the dying moments. In the case of a panic the last part of the console log is captured, but other interesting data can also be saved. # mount -t pstore -o kmsg_bytes=8000 - /dev/pstore $ ls -l /dev/pstore total 0 -r--r--r-- 1 root root 7896 Nov 30 15:38 dmesg-erst-1 Different users of this interface will result in different filename prefixes. Currently two are defined: "dmesg" - saved console log "mce" - architecture dependent data from fatal h/w error Once the information in a file has been read, removing the file will signal to the underlying persistent storage device that it can reclaim the space for later re-use. $ rm /dev/pstore/dmesg-erst-1 The expectation is that all files in /dev/pstore will be saved elsewhere and erased from persistent store soon after boot to free up space ready for the next catastrophe. The 'kmsg_bytes' mount option changes the target amount of data saved on each oops/panic. Pstore saves (possibly multiple) files based on the record size of the underlying persistent storage until at least this amount is reached. Default is 10 Kbytes.