[techtalk] Re: [grrltalk] extremely new

[Nancy Corbett]

A segmentation fault is reported when you run a program and it tries to
access something it doesn't have permission to access...at least that's my
understanding of it.  A program will skip merrily along until BAM!  it
hits a wall when it tries to occupy a space where it isn't allowed to be.
It will promptly fall on its fanny and barf up a core dump.  Any time
you see the segmentation fault message, do an ls -l on that directory, and
you'll probably find a new file called core.  Unless you're doing testing
for a development team, it is safe just to delete that file.  Core files
can be huge!  But they can contain information developers can use to debug
their software.  

Hope this helps.
Nancy

On Fri, 1 Sep 2000, Mary Gardiner wrote:

> On Thu, Aug 31, 2000 at 04:35:03PM -0700, grpnurd at linuxfreemail.com wrote:
> > I forgot to ask in my last post - what is a segmentation fault?
> 
> In short (because I don't know much about the kernel), it's the signal the
> kernel sends a process when it's eating into memory that the kernel didn't
> give it. If it's a program of mine dying with a segfault I've stuffed up
> the memory management (malloc/free, new/delete in C/C++
> respectively) somewhere.
> 
> It's pretty much the same thing in other programs, just happens less often
> (at least if you're using a stable).
> 
> Basically it's the OS putting the brakes on a (possibly) out of control
> program before it eats into other processes.
> 
> All corrections and expansions most welcome.
> 
> Mary,
> who should know more about kernel internals... one day.
> 
> CC to techtalk (the technical mailing list full of friendly people who
> know more than I do).
> 
> 
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