I'm not sure when the behavior changed, but recent versions of file (including the one in Fedora Core 6, Rawhide, and the Fedora 7 test releases) no longer display the name of the executable that generated a core file when examining the core file. FC7test2 / Rawhide: $ rpm -q file; file core.5676 file-4.20-1.fc7 core.5676: ELF 32-bit LSB core file Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), SVR4-style FC6: $ rpm -q file; file core.5676 file-4.19-1.fc6 core.5676: ELF 32-bit LSB core file Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), SVR4-style This isn't caused by a change in the structure of core files, as older versions of file can identify the executable of core files with no problem: RHEL4: [transfer core.5676 from the FC7test2 system] $ rpm -q file; file core.5676 file-4.10-2.EL4.4 core.5676: ELF 32-bit LSB core file Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), SVR4-style, from 'dig' This might be a recurrence of bug 172015.
*** Bug 240183 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
This feature seems to be back in version 4.21. If you still are able to reproduce this behaviour with updated file feel free to reopen this bz.
I see no difference in the behavior with version 4.21, for either i386 or x86_64: $ uname -m; file --version; file core.5254 x86_64 file-4.21 magic file from /usr/share/file/magic core.5254: ELF 64-bit LSB core file x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), SVR4-style $ uname -m; file --version; file core.5901 i686 file-4.21 magic file from /usr/share/file/magic core.5901: ELF 32-bit LSB core file Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), SVR4-style
I've rebuilt file from rawhide and I still don't get file to show program name from a core file: ------------ [perra@localhost ~]$ uname -m; rpm -q file; file --version; file core.* i686 file-4.21-2.fc7 file-4.21 magic file from /usr/share/file/magic core.2636: ELF 32-bit LSB core file Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), SVR4-style core.3689: ELF 32-bit LSB core file Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), SVR4-style core.5896: ELF 32-bit LSB core file Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), SVR4-style core.7284: ELF 32-bit LSB core file Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), SVR4-style
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 172015 ***