Support for collecting crash dumps on Windows

Add support for collecting "minidump" style crash dumps on
Windows, by setting up an exception handling filter. Crash
dumps will be generated in PGDATA/crashdumps if the directory
is created (the existance of the directory is used as on/off
switch for the generation of the dumps).

Craig Ringer and Magnus Hagander

1 files changed, 16 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/installation.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/installation.sgml
index 0eeaa25af9a..a480a8dfd9e 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/installation.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/installation.sgml
@@ -2734,6 +2734,22 @@ cc-1020 cc: ERROR File = pqcomm.c, Line = 427
     under <command>CMD.EXE</command>, as the MSYS console has
     buffering issues.
    </para>
+
+   <sect3>
+    <title>Collecting crash dumps on Windows</title>
+
+    <para>
+     If PostgreSQL on Windows crashes, it has the ability to generate
+     <productname>minidumps</> that can be used to track down the cause
+     for the crash, similar to core dumps on Unix. These dumps can be
+     read using the <productname>Windows Debugger Tools</> or using
+     <productname>Visual Studio</>. To enable the generation of dumps
+     on Windows, create a subdirectory named <filename>crashdumps</filename>
+     inside the cluster data directory. The dumps will then be written
+     into this directory with a unique name based on the identifier of
+     the crashing process and the current time of the crash.
+    </para>
+   </sect3>
   </sect2>
 
   <sect2 id="installation-notes-sco">