Debugging Elusive Bugs
This cluster focuses on experiences with hard-to-track-down software bugs, such as Heisenbugs, that take significant time to diagnose but often have simple fixes, including anecdotes from production and open-source code.
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You've never had a bug in your code that seemed insane after the fact?
It's not surprising. As a software engineer I've seen bugs that took days to track down which were fixed with a single line of code.
In practice annoying bugs can be caused by few easily understandable lines that no one bothered to look into so far.
There's nothing like spending hours tracking down a bug that shouldn't occur in normal practice.
The Heisenbug: a software bug that seems to disappear or alter its behavior when one attempts to study it.[0] They're rare, but they do happen.[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heisenbug
Doubt accepted. A spot-the-bug challenge on real OSS/prod code would be fun.
Finding bugs must be unpleasant.
How do you avoid sinking time into chasing illusory bugs?
This is brilliant. Is it based on a real bug you found in your company's own code?
There's always a bug, you just haven't found it yet