What is the DUMP file format?
The .dump extension is used by symbol files created by Google Breakpad, an open-source crash-reporting library used by various software, including Mozilla Firefox. Rather than recording crash details themselves, .dump files are plain-text debug-symbol tables generated by the dump_syms tool from a binary's native debug data (Windows PDB files, ELF DWARF, or macOS DWARF/STABS). They map raw machine-code addresses to function names, source-file paths and line numbers.
.dump files are produced in advance and stored on a symbol server or local directory, not generated when a program crashes. When a crash does occur, the companion tool minidump_stackwalk reads the .dump symbol file together with a minidump crash report to produce a human-readable stack trace. The resulting symbolicated trace, along with the crash report, can be sent to software developers in order for them to determine and address the errors causing the program to crash.
A Breakpad symbol file is line-oriented ASCII text. The first line is always a MODULE record - for example MODULE Linux x86_64 <build-id> libfoo.so - identifying the OS, CPU architecture, a unique build ID and the library or executable name. Subsequent records (FILE, FUNC, PUBLIC, STACK) carry the rest of the symbol mapping; later format revisions add INLINE and INLINE_ORIGIN records, and readers are designed to tolerate unknown record types. Files range from tens of kilobytes to hundreds of megabytes depending on the size of the library being symbolicated.
Because .dump symbol files are plain ASCII, they can be inspected in any text editor such as Notepad++ or VS Code, or processed programmatically by Sentry CLI and the symbolic library, which also support the same Breakpad symbol format.
Security & safety
RISK: LOWA Breakpad symbol file is plain text with no executable content, so it's safe to open. The only real concern is that symbol files expose internal function names and source paths of a program (mild information disclosure), so vendors usually keep them on private symbol servers. Because '.dump' is also used for memory dumps and database exports, verify what a given file actually is before assuming it's harmless - a raw memory dump can contain sensitive data.
Format details
in a nutshell- Memory / crash dump file - A raw process or kernel memory dump (e.g. core dump, Windows .dmp) - binary, opened in a debugger; unrelated to text symbol files.
- Database / SQL dump - A text export of a database produced by tools like mysqldump/pg_dump; replayed back into the database, not a symbol table.
- Wireshark / packet capture or generic data dump - Various tools write a '.dump' of raw captured or exported data; format depends entirely on the producing tool.
Programs that open DUMP files
Windows3 apps
Text editor (Notepad++, VS Code)
Open-source Open the file to read the MODULE/FUNC/PUBLIC records - it's plain text. Useful to confirm it's a Breakpad symbol file and check the debug id.
Breakpad tools (minidump_stackwalk / dump_syms)
Open-source Use minidump_stackwalk with a minidump and the symbol files to produce a symbolicated stack trace; dump_syms generates these files. (BreakPad in db.)
Sentry CLI / symbolic
Open-source Use sentry-cli / the 'symbolic' library to validate and process Breakpad symbol files for crash symbolication. 
macOS2 apps
Breakpad tools (minidump_stackwalk / dump_syms)
Open-source Build Breakpad and run dump_syms on a binary or minidump_stackwalk to symbolicate; symbols are the same text format. 
Linux2 apps
Breakpad tools (minidump_stackwalk / dump_syms)
Open-source dump_syms generates the file from ELF/DWARF; minidump_stackwalk consumes it with a minidump to print a stack trace.
Any text editor / less
Open-source It's ASCII text - open with any editor or 'less' to read the records. Technical details
deep spec| Format type | Plain-text debug-symbol table; line-oriented ASCII records mapping machine-code addresses to function names and source locations |
| MIME type | text/plain (also seen as application/octet-stream in generic transfer contexts) |
| File header / magic | No binary magic bytes; first line is always a MODULE record: MODULE <os> <arch> <build-id> <name> |
| Text encoding | ASCII; lines delimited per host platform (LF on Unix, CRLF on Windows) |
| Container | Plain text - no binary wrapper, no embedded sections or chunks |
| Compression | None built-in; files may be stored gzip-compressed externally on symbol servers |
| Typical file size | Tens of KB to hundreds of MB - scales with the number of functions and source lines in the symbolicated binary |
| Record types | MODULE (header), FILE (source path list), FUNC (function address ranges), PUBLIC (exported symbols), line-number records, STACK (frame-unwinding), INLINE, INLINE_ORIGIN |
| Build ID / match key | The MODULE record embeds a debug build ID (hash) used to pair the symbol file with the exact binary or minidump |
| Producer tool | dump_syms (Breakpad/Crashpad) - extracts symbol data from Windows PDB, ELF DWARF or macOS DWARF/STABS debug info |
| Consumer tools | minidump_stackwalk (Breakpad), Sentry CLI, symbolic library (Rust/Python) - all read this format to symbolicate crash stack traces |
| Platform support | Windows, macOS, Linux, Android - Breakpad and Crashpad generate and consume .dump symbol files on all four platforms |
| Format extensibility | Additive keyword-record design; parsers skip unrecognised record types, allowing INLINE and INLINE_ORIGIN records to be added without breaking older tools |
| Source debug formats read | Windows PDB (.pdb), ELF DWARF (.so / .elf), macOS DWARF and STABS (.dSYM / .dylib) - dump_syms converts all of these into the unified .dump symbol format |
| Released | 2007 (Google Breakpad open-sourced; symbol-file format dates from that era) |
| Latest version | Breakpad symbol format additively extended (INLINE/INLINE_ORIGIN records added in later revisions); no formal version number |
| Open standard | Yes · royalty-free |
| Specification | github.com |
DUMP conversions
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