minidump
Python library to parse Windows minidump file format
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes, if you work with Windows minidumps or need to capture process memory on Windows. The package is stable, has no dependencies, and fills a specific niche in Windows debugging and forensics. Maintenance is dormant but recent enough (last commit January 2025) that it remains usable; however, if you need active support or expect frequent updates, consider the maintenance status.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires Python >= 3.6.
- Creating minidumps requires Windows with administrator or SeDebugPrivilege; parsing works cross-platform.
- Low install friction with no runtime dependencies.
License · maintenance · safety
permissive license (permissive) — MIT license (permissive) means you can use, modify, and distribute this package freely in commercial and private projects with minimal restrictions.
last release 2024-08-15 (729 days) · last repo commit 2025-01-08 · 303 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 399,180 downloads/mo, #6,950 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install minidump
from minidump.minidumpfile import MinidumpFile
with open('dump.dmp', 'rb') as f:
md = MinidumpFile.parse(f)
# Access process memory and metadata- Whether the package handles all minidump variants (full, mini, heap dumps) or only a subset
- Performance characteristics when working with large dump files
- Compatibility with recent Windows minidump formats beyond what the fact sheet documents
What it is and what it does
Minidump is a Python library for parsing and analyzing Microsoft minidump files—the crash dumps and memory snapshots Windows generates when processes fail or are explicitly captured. It provides both a command-line tool for one-shot analysis and an interactive shell for exploring dumped process memory, as well as a library interface (MinidumpFileReader, MinidumpBufferedReader) for programmatic access to the dump's virtual address space. The library understands CPU architecture and can read and search memory with proper integer sizing.
On Windows, the package can also create minidumps directly using the Windows API via ctypes, with support for capturing processes running in different user contexts if you have the required privileges. It has no external runtime dependencies and requires only Python >= 3.6, making it straightforward to install and use for forensics, debugging, and memory analysis workflows.
Use it for
- Analyze Windows crash dumps to extract process state, threads, exceptions, and memory contents for debugging
- Programmatically search and read virtual memory from a dumped process to extract artifacts or validate memory state
- Create minidumps of running processes on Windows for offline analysis or archival
- Build forensic or incident-response tools that need to parse and inspect Windows process memory snapshots
- Extract module and thread information from crash dumps for post-mortem analysis
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes, if you work with Windows minidumps or need to capture process memory on Windows.
The package is stable, has no dependencies, and fills a specific niche in Windows debugging and forensics. Maintenance is dormant but recent enough (last commit January 2025) that it remains usable; however, if you need active support or expect frequent updates, consider the maintenance status.
Install
minidump on PyPI
Before you install
Low install friction with no runtime dependencies. Maintenance is dormant—last release was 2024-08-15 and last commit 2025-01-08, but the repository remains active and the package has been stable since its 2018 initial release.
Requires Python >= 3.6. Creating minidumps requires Windows with administrator or SeDebugPrivilege; parsing works cross-platform.
License in practice
MIT license (permissive) means you can use, modify, and distribute this package freely in commercial and private projects with minimal restrictions.
Quickstart
pip install minidump
from minidump.minidumpfile import MinidumpFile
with open('dump.dmp', 'rb') as f:
md = MinidumpFile.parse(f)
# Access process memory and metadataVerify before relying
- Whether the package handles all minidump variants (full, mini, heap dumps) or only a subset
- Performance characteristics when working with large dump files
- Compatibility with recent Windows minidump formats beyond what the fact sheet documents
Package facts
| License | permissive license permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.6 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | None |
| Maintenance | Dormant 729 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 399,180 / month, #6,950 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | License :: OSI Approved :: MIT LicenseOperating System :: OS IndependentProgramming Language :: Python :: 3.6 |
Evidence: minidump-0.0.24-py3-none-any.whl
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