What (who) is shotgun debugging - definition
MAKING HAPHAZARD OR DIVERSE CHANGES TO SOFTWARE IN THE HOPE THAT A BUG WILL BE PERTURBED OUT OF EXISTENCE
Voodoo debugging
shotgun debugging
The software equivalent of Easter egging; the making of
relatively undirected changes to software in the hope that a
bug will be perturbed out of existence. This almost never
works, and usually introduces more bugs.
[Jargon File ]
Automatic shotgun
AUTOMATIC FIREARM THAT FIRES SHOTGUN SHELLS
Selective-fire shotgun; Selective fire shotgun; Auto shotgun; Auto-shotgun; Autoshotgun; Selective-fire shotguns; Machine shotgun
An automatic shotgun is an automatic firearm that fires shotgun shells and uses some of the energy of each shot to automatically cycle the action and load a new round. It will fire repeatedly until the trigger is released or ammunition runs out.
Shotgun (shooting sports)
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SHOOTING SPORTS DISCIPLINES
Shotgun shooting sports; Shotgun shooting
The shotgun is the name of the sport discipline assigned in the international shooting sports competitions, organized by the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF), which includes the three clay shooting disciplines of trap, double trap and skeet.
Wikipedia
Shotgun debugging
Shotgun debugging can be defined as:
- A process of making relatively un-directed changes to software in the hope that a bug will be perturbed out of existence.
- Using the approach of trying several possible solutions of hardware or software problem at the same time, in the hope that one of the solutions (typically source code modifications) will work.
Shotgun debugging has a relatively low success rate and can be very time-consuming, except when used as an attempt to work around programming language features that one may be using improperly. When combined with domain expertise and a strong intuition for the underlying codebase, it can be a good starting point to gut-solve a buggy piece of code a few times before formally researching the corresponding error message. When used in this way, it may be a valuable technique that is faster than browsing through the Internet searching a particular error message every time.
