process_dump_task_manager.rst (2424B)
1 How to get a process dump with Windows Task Manager 2 =================================================== 3 4 Introduction 5 ------------ 6 7 When tracking down the causes of process hangs, it is often helpful to 8 obtain a process dump while the process is experiencing a hang. This 9 article describes how to get a process dump with Task Manager on 10 Windows. (To get a process dump for Thunderbird or some other product, 11 substitute the product name where ever you see Firefox in these 12 instructions.) 13 14 15 Caution 16 ------- 17 18 The memory dump that will be created through this process is a complete 19 snapshot of the state of Firefox when you create the file, so it 20 contains URLs of active tabs, history information, and possibly even 21 passwords depending on what you are doing when the snapshot is taken. It 22 is advisable to create a new, blank profile to use when reproducing the 23 hang and capturing the memory dump. Please ask for help doing this! 24 25 26 Requirements 27 ------------ 28 29 Windows 30 To get a process dump, you need to be using Windows Vista or above. 31 A Firefox nightly or release 32 You need a Firefox version for which symbols are available from the 33 :ref:`symbol server <Using The Mozilla Symbol Server>`. You 34 can use any `official nightly 35 build <https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/nightly/>`__ or released 36 version of Firefox from Mozilla. You can find the latest trunk 37 nightly builds under 38 `http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.o.../latest-trunk/ <http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-trunk/>`__. 39 40 41 Creating the Dump File 42 ---------------------- 43 44 Ensure that Firefox is not already running. 45 46 47 Run Firefox, reproduce the hang 48 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 49 50 Start Firefox and perform whatever steps are necessary to cause Firefox 51 to hang. Once the browser hangs, continue with the steps below. 52 53 54 After the hang 55 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 56 57 #. Open Windows Task Manager (CTRL+SHIFT+ESC). 58 #. Find Firefox.exe among the list of processes. 59 #. Right-click Firefox.exe and select "Create dump file". Task manager 60 should indicate where the dump file was written to. 61 62 63 See also 64 -------- 65 66 - :ref:`How to get a stacktrace for a bug report <How to get a stacktrace for a bug report>` 67 - `How to create a user-mode process dump file in Windows Vista and in 68 Windows 7 69 (MSDN) <https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/client-management/generate-kernel-or-complete-crash-dump#manually-generate-a-memory-dump-file>`__