Editing Shotgun debugging

{{one source|date=March 2017}}
'''Shotgun debugging''' can be defined as:
*A process of making relatively un-directed changes to software in the hope that a [[Computer bug|bug]] will be perturbed out of existence.<ref>[http://www.definitions.net/definition/shotgun%20debugging Definitions for Shotgun debugging]</ref><ref name="jarhei">{{cite web |url=http://catb.org/jargon/html/S/shotgun-debugging.html |title=The Jargon File: shotgun debugging }}</ref>
* 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.<ref>[http://searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com/definition/shotgun-debugging DEFINITION shotgun debugging Posted by: Margaret Rouse WhatIs.com]</ref>

''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 (software engineering)|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.

== Examples ==
Shotgun debugging can occur when working with [[multi-threaded]] applications. Attempting to debug a [[race condition]] by adding debugging code to the application is likely to change the speed of one [[Thread (computer science)|thread]] in relation to another and could cause the problem to disappear. This is known as a [[Heisenbug]]. Although apparently a solution to the problem, it is a fix by pure chance and anything else that changes the behavior of the threads could cause it to resurface &mdash; for example on a computer with a different [[Scheduling (computing)|scheduler]]. Code added to any part of the program could easily revert the effect of the "fix".

== See also ==
*[[Shotgun surgery]]
*[[Fuzzing]]
*[[Programming by permutation]]

==References==
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{{JargonFile}}

[[Category:Debugging]]

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