Software bug

A software bug is bug in computer software.

Debugging is the process of analyzing a bug which may result in finding its root cause, workarounds and possible fixes.

A computer program with many or serious bugs may be described as buggy.

The effects of a software bug range from minor (i.e. a misspelled word) to severe (i.e. crash or hang).

Software bugs have been linked to disasters. Software bugs in the Therac-25 radiation therapy machine were directly responsible for patient deaths in the 1980s. In 1996, the European Space Agency's US$1 billion prototype Ariane 5 rocket was destroyed less than a minute after launch due to a bug in the on-board guidance computer program.^[1] In 1994, an RAF Chinook helicopter crashed, killing 29; was initially blamed on pilot error, but was later thought to have been caused by a software bug in the engine-control computer.^[2] Buggy software caused the early 21st century British Post Office scandal.^[3]

In 2002, a study commissioned by the US Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology concluded that "software bugs, or errors, are so prevalent and so detrimental that they cost the US economy an estimated $59 billion annually, or about 0.6 percent of the gross domestic product".^[4]

Since the 1950s, some computer systems have been designed to detect or auto-correct various software errors during operations.