Segmentation fault

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The Jargon File Parts of this article are based on the Jargon File, v. 4.4.7, a public domain document of hacker jargon.

segmentation fault: n.

[Unix]

1. To lose a train of thought or a line of reasoning. Also uttered as an exclamation at the point of befuddlement.
2. [techspeak] An error in which a running program attempts to access memory not allocated to it and core dumps with a segmentation violation error. This is often caused by improper usage of pointers in the source code, dereferencing a null pointer, or (in C) inadvertently using a non-pointer variable as a pointer. The classic example is:

int i; scanf ("%d", i); /* should have used &i */

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