What is meaning of core dump in C?

Question

#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
    char vowels[5]={'a','e','i','o','u'};
    int x;

    printf("Vowel Letters");
    for(x=0;x<=5;x++)
    {
         printf("\n %C",vowels[x]);
    }
}

Output

Vowel Letters
a
e
i
o
u
♣
Process exited after 0.1132 seconds with return value 3

What is the meaning of return value 3

Answer 1

What is a core file
A core file is the memory image of a process at that point in time when it was terminated.

Why process can get terminated
Termination could happen through a segmentation fault or a failed assert.

How to see the coredump
To "view" a coredump you will need a debugger i.e. gdb -e <binary> -c <corefile>. It will allow you to examine the state of the process. This includes listing the stack traces for all the threads of the process. Printing the values of variables and registers. Note that this works "better" if you have debug information available.

Answer 2

Core dump or core:

Is a file, generated when a program is crashed or terminated abnormally because of segmentation fault or some other reason.

Information of the memory used by a process is dumped in a file called core. This file is used for debugging purpose. Core dump has file name like “core.”
Core dump file is created in current working directory when a process terminates abnormally. Core dump is a typical error occurs because of illegal memory access.

Core dump is also called as memory dump, storage dump or dump.