=======
Crashes
=======

There are many different kinds of crashes for Firefox, there is not a single system used to record all of them.

Main process crashes
====================

If the Firefox main process dies, that should be recorded as an aborted session. We would submit a :doc:`main ping <../data/main-ping>` with the reason ``aborted-session``.
If we have a crash dump for that crash, we should also submit a :doc:`crash ping <../data/crash-ping>`.

The ``aborted-session`` information is first written to disk 60 seconds after startup, any earlier crashes will not trigger an ``aborted-session`` ping.
Also, the ``aborted-session`` is updated at least every 5 minutes, so it may lag behind the last session state.

Crashes during startup should be recorded in the next sessions main ping in the ``STARTUP_CRASH_DETECTED`` histogram.

Child process crashes
=====================

If a Firefox plugin, content, gmplugin, or any other type of child process dies unexpectedly, this is recorded in the main ping's ``SUBPROCESS_ABNORMAL_ABORT`` keyed histogram.

If we catch a crash report for this, then additionally the ``SUBPROCESS_CRASHES_WITH_DUMP`` keyed histogram is incremented.

Some processes also generate :doc:`crash pings <../data/crash-ping>` when they crash and generate a crash dump. See `bug 1352496 <https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1352496>`_ for an example of how to allow crash pings for new process types.