chase pointers

1. To go through multiple levels of indirection, as in

traversing a linked list or graph structure. Used especially

by programmers in C, where explicit pointers are a very

common data type.

See dangling pointer and snap.

2. (Cambridge) "pointer chase" or "pointer hunt": The process

of going through a core dump, interactively or on a large

piece of paper printed with hex runes, following dynamic

data-structures. Used only in debugging.

[Jargon File]

(1995-05-11)