Provided by: mcelog_128+dfsg-1_amd64 bug

NAME

       mcelog - Decode kernel machine check log on x86 machines

SYNOPSIS

       mcelog [options] [device]
       mcelog [options] --daemon
       mcelog [options] --client
       mcelog [options] --ascii
       mcelog [options] --is-cpu-supported
       mcelog --version

DESCRIPTION

       X86  CPUs  report errors detected by the CPU as machine check events (MCEs).  These can be
       data corruption detected in the CPU  caches,  in  main  memory  by  an  integrated  memory
       controller,  data  transfer  errors  on  the  front  side bus or CPU interconnect or other
       internal errors.  Possible causes  can  be  cosmic  radiation,  instable  power  supplies,
       cooling problems, broken hardware, running systems out of specification, or bad luck.

       Most  errors  can  be  corrected  by  the  CPU  by  internal  error correction mechanisms.
       Uncorrected errors cause machine check exceptions which may kill processes  or  panic  the
       machine.  A small number of corrected errors is usually not a cause for worry, but a large
       number can indicate future failure.

       When a corrected or recovered error happens the x86 kernel writes a record describing  the
       MCE  into a internal ring buffer available through the /dev/mcelog device mcelog retrieves
       errors from /dev/mcelog, decodes them into a human readable format and prints them on  the
       standard output or optionally into the system log.

       Optionally  it  can  also  take  more  options like keeping statistics or triggering shell
       scripts on specific events.  By  default  mcelog  supports  offlining  memory  pages  with
       persistent  corrected  errors,  offlining  CPU cores if they developed cache problems, and
       otherwise logging specific events to the system log after they crossed a threshold.

       The normal operating modi for mcelog are running as a regular cron job  (traditional  way,
       deprecated),  running as a trigger directly executed by the kernel, or running as a daemon
       with the --daemon option.

       When an uncorrected machine check error happens that the kernel cannot recover  from  then
       it  will  usually  panic  the  system.  In this case when there was a warm reset after the
       panic mcelog should pick up the machine check errors after reboot.  This is  not  possible
       after a cold reset.

       In addition mcelog can be used on the command line to decode the kernel output for a fatal
       machine check panic in text format using the --ascii option. This  is  typically  used  to
       decode  the  panic console output of a fatal machine check, if the system was power cycled
       or mcelog didn't run immediately after reboot.

       When the panic triggers a kdump kexec crash kernel the crash kernel boot up script  should
       log the machine checks to disk, otherwise they might be lost.

       Note  that  after mcelog retrieves an error the kernel doesn't store it anymore (different
       from dmesg(1)), so the output should be always saved  somewhere  and  mcelog  not  run  in
       uncontrolled ways.

       When  invoked  with  the --is-cpu-supported option mcelog exits with code 0 if the current
       CPU is supported, 1 otherwise.

OPTIONS

       When the --syslog option is specified redirect output to system  log.  The  --syslog-error
       option  causes  the  normal  machine  checks  to be logged as LOG_ERR (implies --syslog ).
       Normally only fatal errors or high level remarks are logged with error level.  High  level
       one  line  summaries  of  specific  errors are also logged to the syslog by default unless
       mcelog operates in --ascii mode.

       When the --logfile=file option is specified append log output to the specified file.  With
       the --no-syslog option mcelog will never log anything to the syslog.

       When  the  --cpu=cputype  option  is  specified set the to be decoded CPU to cputype.  See
       mcelog --help for a list of valid CPUs.  Note that specifying an incorrect CPU can lead to
       incorrect  decoding  output.   Default  is either the CPU of the machine that reported the
       machine check (needs a newer kernel version) or the CPU of the machine mcelog  is  running
       on, so normally this option doesn't have to be used. Older versions of mcelog had separate
       options for  different  CPU  types.  These  are  still  implemented,  but  deprecated  and
       undocumented now.

       With  the  --dmi  option  mcelog  will look up the DIMMs reported in machine checks in the
       SMBIOS/DMI tables of the BIOS and map the DIMMs to board  identifiers.   This  only  works
       when  the  BIOS  reports  the  identifiers correctly.  Unfortunately often the information
       reported by the BIOS is either subtly or obviously wrong or useless.  This option requires
       that  mcelog  has  read  access  to /dev/mem (normally requires root) and runs on the same
       machine in the same hardware configuration as when the machine check event happened.

       When --ignorenodev is specified then mcelog will exit silently when the device  cannot  be
       opened. This is useful in virtualized environment with limited devices.

       When  --filter  is  specified  mcelog  will  filter  out known broken machine check events
       (default on). When the --no-filter option is specified mcelog does not filter events.

       When --raw is specified mcelog will not decode, but just dump the  mcelog  in  a  raw  hex
       format. This can be useful for automatic post processing.

       When  a  device  is  specified  the machine check logs are read from device instead of the
       default /dev/mcelog.

       With the --ascii option mcelog decodes a fatal machine check panic generated by the kernel
       ("CPU  n: Machine Check Exception ...") in ASCII from standard input and exits afterwards.
       Note that when the panic comes from a different machine than where mcelog  is  running  on
       you  might  need  to  specify the correct cputype on older kernels. On newer kernels which
       output the PROCESSOR field this is not needed anymore.

       When the --file filename option is specified mcelog --ascii will read  the  ASCII  machine
       check record from input file filename instead of standard input.

       With  the  --config-file  file  option mcelog reads the specified config file.  Default is
       /etc/mcelog/mcelog.conf See also CONFIG FILE below.

       With the --daemon option mcelog will  run  in  the  background.  This  gives  the  fastest
       reaction time and is the recommended operating mode.  If an output option isn't selected (
       --logfile or --syslog or --syslog-error ), this option implies  --logfile=/var/log/mcelog.
       Important  messages  will be logged as one-liner summaries to syslog unless --no-syslog is
       given.  The option --foreground will prevent mcelog from giving up the terminal in  daemon
       mode. This is intended for debugging.

       With the --client option mcelog will query a running daemon for accumulated errors.

       With the --cpumhz=mhz option assume the CPU has mhz frequency for decoding the time of the
       event using the CPU time stamp counter. This  also  forces  decoding.  Note  this  can  be
       unreliable.   on  some  systems with CPU frequency scaling or deep C states, where the CPU
       time stamp counter does not increase linearly.  By default the frequency  of  the  current
       CPU  is  used  when  mcelog  determines  it  is safe to use. Newer kernels report the time
       directly in the event and don't need this anymore.

       The --pidfile file option writes the process id of the daemon into file file.  Only  valid
       in daemon mode.

       Mcelog  will enable extended error reporting from the memory controller on processors that
       support it unless you tell it not to with the --no-imc-log option.  You  might  need  this
       option when decoding old logs from a system where this mode was not enabled.

       --version displays the version of mcelog and exits.

CONFIG FILE

       mcelog  supports  a  config file to set defaults. Command line options override the config
       file. By default the config file is read from  /etc/mcelog/mcelog.conf  unless  overridden
       with the --config-file option.

       The  general  format  is optionname = value White space is not allowed in value currently,
       except at the end where it is dropped Comments start with #.

       All command line options that are not commands can be specified in the config  file.   For
       example  t  to enable the --no-syslog option use no-syslog = yes (or no to disable).  When
       the option has a argument use logfile = /tmp/logfile

       For more information on the config file please see mcelog.conf(5).

NOTES

       The kernel prefers old messages over new. If the log buffer overflows only old  ones  will
       be kept.

       The exact output in the log file depends on the CPU, unless the --raw option is used.

       mcelog will report serious errors to the syslog during decoding.

SIGNALS

       When  mcelog  runs  in daemon mode and receives a SIGUSR1 it will close and reopen the log
       files. This can be used to rotate logs without restarting the daemon.

FILES

       /dev/mcelog (char 10, minor 227)

       /etc/mcelog/mcelog.conf

       /var/log/mcelog

       /var/run/mcelog.pid

SEE ALSO

       mcelog.conf(5), mcelog.triggers(5)

       http://www.mcelog.org

       AMD x86-64 architecture programmer's manual, Volume 2, System programming

       Intel 64 and IA32 Architectures Software Developer's manual, Volume 3, System  programming
       guide Chapter 15 and 16.  http://www.intel.com/sdm

       Datasheet of your CPU.

                                             Mar 2015                                   MCELOG(8)