Heisenbug

For the Linux distribution codenamed Heisenbug, see Fedora Linux.
Not to be confused with Heisenberg.

In computer programming jargon, a heisenbug is a software bug that seems to disappear or alter its behavior when one attempts to study it.[1] The term is a pun on the name of Werner Heisenberg, the physicist who first asserted the observer effect of quantum mechanics, which states that the act of observing a system inevitably alters its state. In electronics, the traditional term is probe effect, where attaching a test probe to a device changes its behavior.

Similar terms, such as bohrbug, mandelbug,[2][3][4] hindenbug, and schrödinbug[5][6] (see the section on related terms) have been occasionally proposed for other kinds of unusual software bugs, sometimes in jest.[7][8]

  1. ^ "The Jargon File: heisenbug".
  2. ^ "The Jargon File: Mandelbug". Catb.org. Retrieved 2013-09-05.
  3. ^ Raymond, Eric S.; The New Hacker's Dictionary, 3rd edition, 1996
  4. ^ Clarke, Arthur C., The Ghost from the Grand Banks, Bantam Books, 1990
  5. ^ "The Jargon File: Schroedinbug". Catb.org. Retrieved 2013-09-05.
  6. ^ Raymond, Eric S.; The New Hacker's Dictionary, 3rd edition, 1996
  7. ^ The following article investigates the various definitions of bohrbug, mandelbug and heisenbug proposed in the literature, as well as the statements made about the relationships between these fault types: Grottke, Michael; and Trivedi, Kishor S.; Software Faults, Software Aging and Software Rejuvenation, Journal of the Reliability Engineering Association of Japan, Vol. 27, No. 7, pp. 425–438, 2005.
  8. ^ Grottke, Michael; and Trivedi, Kishor S.; Fighting Bugs: Remove, Retry, Replicate, and Rejuvenate, IEEE Computer vol. 40, no. 2 (February 2007), pp. 107–109