Minidumps

Minidumps are compact crash dumps that capture the essential state of a running process at the moment it terminates abnormally. They are intended to aid developers and support teams in diagnosing faults while keeping file sizes and privacy concerns manageable.

A minidump typically includes information such as the thread that caused the crash, a stack trace, the exception code, the process and thread identifiers, loaded modules, and selected memory regions around the fault. It does not contain a full memory dump of the entire process, which makes it smaller and faster to generate and transmit. The exact contents can be configured by the crash reporter or operating system, and some sensitive data may be omitted or redacted.

Minidumps are produced by various mechanisms depending on the platform. In Windows, the MiniDumpWriteDump API and the Windows crash reporting infrastructure create minidumps with a portable, well-documented format. Cross-platform crash reporting systems, such as Breakpad and Crashpad, generate minidumps that follow a common schema to simplify analysis across environments. Minidumps are commonly stored with a .dmp extension in locations chosen by the application or system crash reporter.

Reading and analyzing minidumps typically uses specialized tools. On Windows, debuggers like WinDbg, CDB, or Visual Studio can open minidumps. On other platforms, dedicated crash viewers or debugging tools integrated with Breakpad/Crashpad are used.

Minidumps are a practical compromise between detailed crash data and resource usage, enabling efficient debugging while helping to protect user privacy and system resources.