No, there is no way to overwrite the file.
The relevant code is here: http://hg.openjdk.java.net/jdk/jdk/file/1ae823617395/src/hotspot/share/services/heapDumper.cpp#l465
Question
I am dumping heap (OpenJDK 7) on OOM with
-XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError -XX:HeapDumpPath=/tmp/jvm.hprof
startup opts for my VM. I dont have enough space on the disk and cant afford to store multiple dumps (heap size is 6g). Is there a way to force JVM to overwrite the dump file? Currently it will complain about 'file exists' and leave the existing dump intact. I have read Sun's docs but there doesnt seem to be any option to force overwrite
La solution
No, there is no way to overwrite the file.
The relevant code is here: http://hg.openjdk.java.net/jdk/jdk/file/1ae823617395/src/hotspot/share/services/heapDumper.cpp#l465