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fandango on core
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fandango on core /n./ [Unix/C hackers, from the Mexican
dance] 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.
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