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 separate 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  environment  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

                                                      LOCAL                                           CRASHME(1)