JargonFile/entries/DEADBEEF.txt
2014-04-26 16:54:15 +01:00

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DEADBEEF
/dedbeef/ , n. The hexadecimal word-fill pattern for freshly allocated
memory under a number of IBM environments, including the RS/6000. Some
modern debugging tools deliberately fill freed memory with this value as a
way of converting heisenbug s into Bohr bug s. As in Your program is
DEADBEEF (meaning gone, aborted, flushed from memory); if you start from an
odd half-word boundary, of course, you have BEEFDEAD. See also the anecdote
under fool and dead beef attack.