Memory Allocation For Crash Dump

A module for performing a crash dump of memory in a data processing apparatus, comprising:

• a processing unit for running a first routine to identify memory locations of data for use by a second routine;
• and
• a memory allocator for allocating memory for the second routine from a memory range that does not contain the identified memory locations,
• said processing unit being further operable to run the second routine using the memory allocated by the memory allocator, wherein the first routine comprises a dummy crash dump routine and the second routine comprises a crash dump routine.

An apparatus comprising

• a memory;
• a kernel;
• a memory allocator for allocating a first portion of said memory to be used for a crash dump of a second portion of said memory when the kernel crashes;
• and
• a crash dump module for saving said second portion of the memory to non-volatile storage when the kernel crashes,
• the crash dump module further being operable to run a dummy crash dump routine when the kernel crashes to identify kernel data structures used to perform a crash dump routine and the memory allocator being configured to identify a memory range that does not include the identified kernel data structures and to allocate said first portion of said memory to be used for the crash dump from the identified memory range.