dmesg
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
dmesg (for "display message") is a command on Unix-like operating systems that prints the message buffer of the kernel.
When the computer system is initially booted the kernel is loaded into memory. At this stage each device driver present in the kernel probes the system for the existence of relevant hardware. If the hardware is located, a diagnostic message is produced documenting precisely what was found. Other elements within the kernel may also produce similar output reporting both the presence of that particular module, and the values of any parameters adopted. This process typically happens at a speed where individual messages scroll off the top of the screen before they can be read. The dmesg command allows these messages to be reviewed in a controlled manner after the system has started.
Even after the system has fully booted, the kernel may occasionally produce further diagnostic messages. Common examples of when this might happen are when I/O devices encounter errors, or USB devices are hot-plugged. dmesg provides a mechanism to review these messages at a later time. When first produced they will be directed to the system console: if the console is in use then these messages may be confused with or quickly overwritten by the output of user programs.
The output of dmesg can amount to several complete screens. For this reason, this output is normally reviewed using standard text-manipulation tools such as more, tail, or grep. The output is often captured in a permanent system logfile via a logging daemon, such as syslog.
Many commercial operating systems display an animated splash screen during this stage of the boot process, so the user does not see these messages. However, there is frequently a mechanism to disable the splash screen and view the messages. This is an important diagnostic capability if the system fails to boot. There is also usually a method of reviewing these messages subsequent to start up in a manner equivalent to dmesg.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- dmesg(8) – Linux Programmer's Manual
- The dmesg Command - by The Linux Information Project (LINFO)
