Heisenbug
A heisenbug is a software fault whose behavior changes or disappears when observation or debugging alters the program’s execution.
Learn Concurrent Programming with Go
A Heisenbug is a software bug whose behavior disappears or changes when debugging or observation alters execution timing.
- How it is used
- Uses timing-sensitive failures to motivate understanding and preventing race conditions in concurrent programs.
- How deep it goes
- Explains altered timing, shared-memory interleavings, and register updates, but stops before detailing prevention techniques.
- Examples
- Demonstrates unpredictable account balances through Go goroutines named Stingy and Spendy.
- What you can do after
- Diagnose timing-sensitive race conditions by recognizing that debugging pauses can change or conceal their behavior.
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Troubleshooting Java, Second Edition
A Heisenbug is a software behavior or failure that changes when the program is observed or interfered with, especially through debugging.
- How it is used
- Guides investigation of timing-sensitive and multithreaded failures whose behavior changes under debugging.
- How deep it goes
- Defines debugger interference and gives alternative techniques, but does not descend into thread-dump or heap-dump analysis.
- Examples
- Uses multithreaded execution, expiring access tokens, timers, and short-lived external sessions as timing-sensitive cases.
- What you can do after
- Diagnose with logging, cautious profiling, controlled stubs, or reduced thread counts when debugging changes the symptom.
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Related concepts
- debuggerproduced by · A debugger is a software tool for controlling program execution and inspecting runtime state to investigate behavior and diagnose defects.
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