Linux kernel oops

An oops is a deviation from correct behavior of the Linux kernel which produces a certain error log. The better-known kernel panic condition results from many kinds of oops, but others may allow continued operation with compromised reliability. The term does not stand for anything.

When the kernel detects a problem, it prints an oops message and kills any offending process. The message is used by Linux kernel engineers to debug the condition which created the oops and fix the programming error which caused it.

Once a system has experienced an oops, some internal resources may no longer be in service. Even if the system appears to work correctly, undesirable side effects may have resulted from the active task being killed. A kernel oops often leads on to a kernel panic once the system attempts to use resources which have been lost.

Further reading

*cite mailing list
title = Re: what's an OOPS
author = John Bradford
date = 2003-03-08
mailinglist = LKML
url = http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0303.1/0009.html
accessdate = 2006-05-22
*cite mailing list
title = Re: what's an OOPS
author = Szakacsits Szabolcs
date = 2003-03-08
mailinglist = LKML
url = http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0303.1/0027.html
accessdate = 2006-05-22
*cite mailing list
title = OOPS report analysis
author = Al Viro
date = 2008-01-14
mailinglist = LKML
url = http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/624292
accessdate = 2008-01-14
*cite web
title = oops-tracing.txt
work = Linux Kernel Documentation
url = http://sosdg.org/~coywolf/lxr/source/Documentation/oops-tracing.txt?v=2.6.16
accessdate = 2007-03-04

External links

*http://www.kerneloops.org/