NAME¶
crashme - test operating environment software robustness
SYNOPSIS¶
crashme [NBYTES] [SRAND] [NTRYS] [NSUB] [VERBOSE]
DESCRIPTION¶
crashme is a very simple program that tests the operating environment's
robustness by invoking random data as if it were a procedure. The standard
signals are caught and handled with a setjmp back to a loop which will try
again to produce a fault by executing random data. Some people call this
stress testing.
COMMAND LINE OPTIONS¶
- [NBYTES]
- The [NBYTES] should be an integer, specifying the
size of the random data string in bytes. If given negative then the bytes
are printed instead of being executed. If given with an explicit plus sign
then the storage for the bytes is freshly malloc'ed each time. This can
have an effect on machines with seperate I and D cache mechanisms. The
argument can also have a dot in it, X.Y, in which case Y is a increment
for a pointer into the random data. The buffer is recalculated only when
the pointer gets near the end of the data.
- [SRAND]
- The [SRAND] is an input seed to the random number
generator, passed to srand.
- [NTRIES]
- The [NTRIES] is how many times to loop before
exiting normally from the program.
- [NSUB]
- The [NSUB] is optional, the number of vfork
subprocesses running all at once. If negative run one after another. If
given as a time hrs:mns:scs (hours, minutes, seconds) then one subprocess
will be run to completion, followed by another, until the time limit has
been reached. If this argument is given as the empty string or . then it
is ignored.
When in sequential-subprocess mode there is a 30 second time limit on each
subprocess. This is to allow the instruction-set-space random walk to
continue when a process bashes itself into an infinite loop. For example,
the ntrys can be bashed to a very large number with nbytes bashed to zero.
(10 second limit on Windows NT).
The SRAND argument is incremented by one for each subprocess.
- [VERBOSE]
- The [VERBOSE] arg is optional. 0 is the least
verbose, 5 the most.
EXAMPLE¶
This is a suggested test, to run it for a least an hour.
crashme +2000 666 100 1:00:00
FILES¶
crashme.c
DIAGNOSTICS¶
When a signal is caught the number and nature of the signal is indicated.
Setting the environment variable CRASHLOG will cause each subprocess to record
the arguments it was given.
BUGS¶
Not all signals are caught, and the state of the user program/process enviroment
can be sufficiently damaged such that the program terminates before going
through all [NTRIES] operations.
If the architecture uses some kind of procedure descriptor but no special code
has been not been added to castaway() in crashme.c then the stress test will
not be as potent as it would otherwise be.
Beware: This program can crash your computer if the operating system or hardware
of same is buggy. User data may be lost.
AUTHOR¶
George J Carrette. GJC@world.std.com
VERSION¶
2.4 20-MAY-1994