Glossary: deadbeef

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• Deadbeef/ded-beef/n.

Glossary: deadbeef
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Deadbeef/ded-beef/n. (from the jargon file)

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 heisenbugs into Bohr bugs. 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.

To put it simply, deadbeaf is the guidance to use the free memory. If you see this word in the debugger, be careful.