What triggers a segmentation fault in a C program?

What triggers a segmentation fault in a C program?

• A. Accessing a null pointer
• B. Accessing an array out of bounds
• C. Accessing an unauthorized memory area
• D. All of the above

Answer: (D)

A segmentation fault occurs when a program tries to access a region of memory that it's not allowed to access, which typically happens due to a variety of issues related to improper memory access. Accessing a null pointer is a common trigger because dereferencing a null pointer indicates an attempt to access memory location zero, which is not permitted. Similarly, accessing an array out of bounds can lead to a segmentation fault when the program tries to read or write data beyond the allocated memory for that array, potentially touching memory that it shouldn't. Accessing an unauthorized memory area, which could include trying to read or write to memory that the process doesn't have permission to access, is also a classic cause of segmentation faults. Each of these scenarios represents an attempt to access memory that the C program does not have the rights to, thus leading to a segmentation fault. Given that all the mentioned situations can independently cause this error, the most comprehensive answer is that they all trigger segmentation faults.

A segmentation fault occurs when a program tries to access a region of memory that it's not allowed to access, which typically happens due to a variety of issues related to improper memory access.

Accessing a null pointer is a common trigger because dereferencing a null pointer indicates an attempt to access memory location zero, which is not permitted. Similarly, accessing an array out of bounds can lead to a segmentation fault when the program tries to read or write data beyond the allocated memory for that array, potentially touching memory that it shouldn't. Accessing an unauthorized memory area, which could include trying to read or write to memory that the process doesn't have permission to access, is also a classic cause of segmentation faults.

Each of these scenarios represents an attempt to access memory that the C program does not have the rights to, thus leading to a segmentation fault. Given that all the mentioned situations can independently cause this error, the most comprehensive answer is that they all trigger segmentation faults.