heisenbug
<jargon> /hi:'zen-buhg/ (From Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle in
quantum physics) A bug that disappears or alters its behaviour when one attempts
to probe or isolate it. (This usage is not even particularly fanciful; the use
of a debugger sometimes alters a program's operating environment significantly
enough that buggy code, such as that which relies on the values of uninitialised
memory, behaves quite differently.)
In C, nine out of ten heisenbugs result from uninitialised auto variables,
fandango on core phenomena (especially lossage related to corruption of the
malloc arena) or errors that smash the stack.
Opposite: Bohr bug. See also mandelbug, schroedinbug.
[Jargon File]
(1995-02-28)
Nearby terms:
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