live /li:v/ adj.,adv.
[common] Opposite of `test'. Refers to actual real-world data
or a program working with it. For example, the response to "I
think the record deleter is finished" might be "Is it live yet?"
or "Have you tried it out on live data?" This usage usually
carries the connotation that live data is more fragile and must
not be corrupted, or bad things will happen. So a more
appropriate response might be: "Well, make sure it works
perfectly before we throw live data at it." The implication here
is that record deletion is something pretty significant, and a
haywire record-deleter running amok live would probably cause
great harm.
Node:live data, Next:Live Free Or Die!,
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live data n.
1. Data that is written to be interpreted and takes over
program flow when triggered by some un-obvious operation, such as
viewing it. One use of such hacks is to break security. For
example, some smart terminals have commands that allow one to
download strings to program keys; this can be used to write live
data that, when listed to the terminal, infects it with a
security-breaking virus that is
triggered the next time a hapless user strikes that key. For
another, there are some well-known bugs in vi that allow certain texts to send arbitrary
commands back to the machine when they are simply viewed. 2. In C
code, data that includes pointers to function hooks (executable code). 3. An object, such as a
trampoline, that is constructed
on the fly by a program and intended to be executed as code.
Node:Live Free Or Die!,
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Live Free Or Die! imp.
1. The state motto of New Hampshire, which appears on that
state's automobile license plates. 2. A slogan associated with
Unix in the romantic days when Unix aficionados saw themselves as
a tiny, beleaguered underground tilting against the windmills of
industry. The "free" referred specifically to freedom from the
fascist design philosophies and
crufty misfeatures common on competing operating systems. Armando
Stettner, one of the early Unix developers, used to give out fake
license plates bearing this motto under a large Unix, all in New
Hampshire colors of green and white. These are now valued
collector's items. In 1994 DEC put an
inferior imitation of these in circulation with a red corporate
logo added. Compaq (half of which was once DEC) has continued the
practice.