Dump types

The dumpType parameter of Write and WriteAsync chooses what the dump contains, and therefore its size:

MemoryDumpType	Content	Use it to
Normal	Module and thread lists, all stacks, and exception information	See what every thread is doing: a deadlock, a hang, thread pool starvation
WithHeap	Same as Normal, plus handle information and all memory except mapped images	Also inspect the managed objects: a memory leak, the state of an object
Triage	Same as Normal, with personally identifiable information such as paths and passwords removed	Send the stacks to someone else
Full	All the memory of the process, including module images	Keep everything, when you cannot reproduce the problem. This is the default

The types match the DumpType enumeration of Microsoft.Diagnostics.NETCore.Client and the --normal, --withheap, --triage and --full options of createdump, the tool of the .NET runtime that writes the dumps on Linux and macOS.

Size

A full dump is as large as the memory used by the process, often hundreds of megabytes. A heap dump contains most of it too. Write the dumps to a disk that has room for them, and delete the old ones. A normal or triage dump is much smaller, because it does not contain the heap.

Any dump can contain sensitive data: what the process had in memory, the paths of its files. A triage dump removes the personally identifiable information, at the cost of the heap:

// A small dump, without paths and other personally identifiable information, to send to someone else
var path = Path.Combine(Path.GetTempPath(), $"myapp-{Environment.ProcessId}.dmp");
MemoryDump.Write(path, MemoryDumpType.Triage);

The removal is done by the code that writes the dump, MiniDumpWriteDump on Windows and createdump on Linux and macOS, and only covers what they recognize. Still treat a triage dump as sensitive.