Re: [aclug-L] Segmintation faults

[Jonathan Hall <jonhall@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

No... *typically* a segmentation fault is due to a bug in a program.
Normally, a buffer overrun.  It *can* be hardware related, but not
typically.

It's essentially the same thing you see in Windows (3.1 especially) when
you get a "General protection fault".

The program that segfaults is attempting to access a portion of memory it
is not allowed to access.

If, however, something like a kernel compilation is segfaulting, as you
mention, that may well be hardware related.

If Netscape segfaults, though, or a program you're writing, it's rarely
hardware related.


On Wed, 15 Sep 1999, John Phillips wrote:

> Typically hardware related.  I had 64 meg Sdram with Siemens
> glue chips and 64 meg Sdram with non-Siemens glue chips in the
> same machine and it took a little time to decide that was not
> a good thing. The ram tests all showed no problems, but major
> compiles would seg fault, while small compiles worked.
> John Phillips
> 
> 
> On Wed, 15 Sep 1999, Wayne White wrote:
> 
> > What causes segmintation faults? Is it usually a software
> > problem or a hardware problem?
> > 
> > Wayne
> > 
> > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> > "Great Spirits have always encounterd violent
> > opposition from mediocre minds." -Albert Einstein
> > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> > 
> 
> 

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