Unintended adverse side effects from a tiny change to a small component of a complex OS kernel that runs on complex modern processors that are part of mindbogglingly complex computer systems, on which we run the ridiculously vast software ecosystem which makes possible the massively complex global network of applications and services we call "the Web."
Every time I read or hear about unintended-consequence incidents like this one, I'm reminded me of Jean-Baptiste Queru's essay, "Dizzying but Invisible Depth" -- highly recommended if you haven't read it.[1]
The problem is that no testing is done. I found 3 bugs in fcntl/dup2/dup3 in the latest kernel release, things which were easily found when I ran the gnulib test suite, but had been bugs in the kernel for at least 2 months:
Every time I read or hear about unintended-consequence incidents like this one, I'm reminded me of Jean-Baptiste Queru's essay, "Dizzying but Invisible Depth" -- highly recommended if you haven't read it.[1]
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[1] https://plus.google.com/u/0/112218872649456413744/posts/dfyd...