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fandango on core


fandango on core: [UNIX/C hackers, from the Mexican dance] n.
   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, this can corrupt the OS 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.