fandango on core

2 definitions found

fandango on core - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  fandango on core
  
     <jargon, programming> (Unix/C, from the Mexican dance) In C,
     a wild pointer that runs out of bounds, causing a core dump,
     or corrupts the malloc arena in such a way as to cause
     mysterious failures later on, is sometimes said to have "done
     a fandango on core".  On low-end personal machines without an
     MMU, this can corrupt the operating system itself, causing
     massive lossage.  Other frenetic dances such as the rhumba,
     cha-cha, or watusi, may be substituted.
  
     See aliasing bug, precedence lossage, smash the stack,
     memory leak, memory smash, overrun screw, core.
  
     [Jargon File]
  
     (1994-12-16)
  

fandango on core - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  fandango on core
   n.
  
     [Unix/C hackers, from the Iberian dance] In C, a wild pointer that
     runs out of bounds, causing a core dump, or corrupts the malloc(3)
     arena in such a way as to cause mysterious failures later on, is
     sometimes said to have `done a fandango on core'. On low-end personal
     machines without an MMU (or Windows boxes, which have an MMU but use
     it incompetently), this can corrupt the OS itself, causing massive
     lossage. Other frenetic dances, such as the cha-cha or the watusi,
  may
     be substituted. See aliasing bug, precedence lossage, smash the stack
     , memory leak, memory smash, overrun screw, core.