# Analyzing crash data of Firefox

If Firefox crashes whilst under automation, it's helpful to retrieve the
generated crash data aka minidump files, and report these to us.

## Retrieve the crash data

Since geckodriver creates a temporary user profile for Firefox, it automatically
removes all associated folders once the tests complete. As a result, any minidump
files generated during a crash are also deleted.

To preserve these files, set the `MINIDUMP_SAVE_PATH` environment variable to an
existing folder and pass it into geckodriver:

```shell
MINIDUMP_SAVE_PATH="~/.geckodriver/minidumps" geckodriver
```

For each detected Firefox crash, two files will be stored in the specified folder:

- **`.dmp` file** – Contains the actual crash data.
- **`.extra` file** – Includes details about the running Firefox instance.

Both files are essential for further analysis and should be attached to a
[GitHub issue] for investigation.

[GitHub issue]: https://github.com/mozilla/geckodriver/issues/new

## Getting details of the crash

More advanced users can upload the generated minidump files themselves and
receive details information about the crash. Therefore find the [crash reporter]
folder and copy all the generated minidump files into the `pending` sub directory.
Make sure that both the `.dmp` and `.extra` files are present.

Once done you can also [view the crash reports].

If you submitted a crash please do not forget to also add the link of the
crash report to the geckodriver issue.

[crash reporter]: https://support.mozilla.org/kb/mozillacrashreporter#w_viewing-reports-outside-of-firefox
[view the crash reports]: https://support.mozilla.orgkb/mozillacrashreporter#w_viewing-crash-reports

## Enabling the crash reporter

**Deprecation warning**: `--enable-crash-reporter` argument is deprecated and planned
to be removed with the 0.37.0 release of geckodriver. As such it shouldn't be used
with version 0.36.0 or later anymore. Please use the solution described above.

By default geckodriver disables the crash reporter so it doesn't submit crash
reports to Mozilla's crash reporting system, and also doesn't interfere with
testing.

This behaviour can be overridden by using the command line argument
`--enable-crash-reporter`. You can [view the crash reports] and share it with
us after submission.

**Important**: Please only enable the crash reporter if the above mentioned
solution does not work.