程序員最可怕的噩夢是什麼_風聞

【來源龍騰網】

評論原創翻譯：

Mick Stute

This was mine:

I was hired by a psychologist to fix a program that seemed to have “strange output” written by one of his ex-grad students. It was a program that reads a data file, asks about 50 questions, does some calculations, and comes up with some score based on this PhD’s research. It’s on a research 3B2 at the university. He demonstrates the program and sure enough there seemed to be strange flashing words on the screen when it moves from question to question, and they don’t seem nice. I agree to do it, should be pretty straightforward, so he’ll pay me by the hour to determine how big the fix is and then we’ll agree to a fee.

我先來説説我的噩夢：

一個心理學家僱我去修復一個程序，這個程序是他以前的一個研究生寫的，這個程序最後輸出來的結果有點奇怪。這是一個會讀取數據文件、能提出大約 50 個問題、並進行一些計算，然後會根據這個博士的研究得出分數的程序。這是3B2的一項研究。他向我演示了這個程序，果然當它從一個問題移動到另一個問題的時候，屏幕上會閃爍一些奇怪的詞，而且這次詞看起來不太友好。最後我同意為他進行修復，因為我覺得這個問題應該很簡單。他説先按小時計費，然後再根據修復的大小，最後再跟我商定具體的費用。

Day 1

I sit down at the 3B2 and login to the ex-grad student’s account that has been given to me. This is where the code resides. I examine the C code. It is written to be hard to read. All the code is squished on one line. It’s spread over 15 files with about 3 functions per file -- all on one line. All variable names are just three, seemingly random, letters. I talk to the guy and agree to go with hourly on this (great decision). I untangle all the code and format it nicely so I can see it.

It was done on purpose. It used the curses library to move to a point on the screen, print a question and the answers, and wait for a response. But it first went to the first line of the question, printed some white supremacy message, waited 1/2 a second, and then overwrote it with the question. This ought to be simple. There are only about five places it could output anything, and all of them had this subliminal flash of a message. dexe the offending mvprintw() and all is well. Or should be. I compile, thinking I’m done. But when I ran it, there it is again -- the subliminal messages. This time with different text still the same subject, just different messages.

I check my code and believe it or not it’s back to the initial state I found it. 15 files, mangled, 3-letter variables -- the whole thing right back where I started. I want shoot myself for not making a copy of my code. I unmangle again, this time putting it in three files, named differently. I make a copy of the whole directory, and I mark the files readable only. I compiled it. All looks good. I run the program. There’s now a copy of the original 15 files in the directory along with mine and the subliminal messages are back.

Okay, so somewhere on the disk is the source code necessary to keep doing this and he’s set the program up to pull in that code when you compile it. I do a full disk search in the include areas (/usr/include) and since this is a research version we have source for just about everything but the kernel itself. That’s a lot of header files and this takes some time on the 3B2, so that’s day 1.

第1天：

我打開了3B2 ，然後登錄了他給我的以前研究生的帳户。這就是代碼所在的位置。我檢查了 C 代碼，這個代碼寫得難以讀懂，所有的代碼都壓縮到了一行裏。它分佈在 15 個文件中，每個文件大約有 3 個函數，而且這些函數還都在一行。所有的變量名都只是三個看起來很隨機的字母。然後我和那個心理學家談過了，同意在這個問題上按小時計費（這個決定做得非常好）。我解開了所有的代碼，並把他們全部格式化了，這樣方便我查看。

這個程序是使用curses庫移動到屏幕上的某個點，再輸入問題和答案，然後等待響應。但它是先到了問題的第一行，輸入了一些關於白人至上的不實信息，然後等了 1/2 秒之後，又用問題覆蓋了這個信息。當我發現這一點的時候，覺得這應該挺簡單的，因為它可以輸出內容的地方只有五個，而且這五個地方都有這種信息閃現。所以我刪掉有問題的 mvprintw()以後，一切正常，或者説應該是一切正常，我以為我完成了修復。但是當我再運行它的時候，它又出現了那些不實的信息。這次雖然是不同的文字，但主題還是相同的，只是信息不同而已。

我又重新檢查了我的代碼，不管你信不信，這個程序又回到了它的初始狀態。 15 個損壞的文件，3 個字母的變量，一切又回到了我剛開始的地方。我當時特別後悔沒有把我的代碼複製過來，我只能把代碼再重新解開一次。我這次把它放在了三個文件中，並給它們編了不同的名字。我複製了整個目錄，並將文件標記為只讀。我開始修復這個程序，一切看起來都不錯。現在在我的目錄裏有15個原始文件的副本，然後我繼續運行程序，那些不當的信息又出現了。

所以説，在這個磁盤上有一個地方有繼續執行此操作的源代碼，並且他已經將這個程序設置為在編譯時就引入該代碼。所以我不得不將這個程序所包含的區域全都進行了完整的磁盤搜索，因為這是一個研究版本，所以我們擁有除了內核本身之外的所有源代碼。這是一個很大的母文件，所以需要在3B2上花費一些時間，但這才第一天。

Day 2

The disk search showed up nothing. The strings were apparently either encrypted or they are buried in a library somewhere. I decide to search all libraries for the text. This is even longer than before, so day two is over.

Day 3

No results. The strings are encrypted. That means I’m going to have to follow all the header files from each #include and each one they #include to find where this is. And that will, take some time. We do alx the campus computing department that we believe someone has gained root level access to Dr. Phelps research computer, which is just a shared lab computer in the science building. They’re understandably not convinced.

I start unwinding the #include files. I do that, nowhere do I find the code. So now I know it’s compiled in a library.Why not just recompile all those libraries, we do have the source after all.

第 2 天：

我們在磁盤搜索中一無所獲。這些字符串要麼是被加密了，要麼是被藏在某個角落裏。所以我決定搜索所有庫中的文本。這比第一天還要花費更多的時間，所以第二天就這麼結束了。

第 3 天：

還是沒有結果。字符串被加密了，這意味着我將不得不跟蹤每個 #include 和每個 #include 中的所有母文件，來找到它的位置。這需要一些時間。我們提醒校園的計算機部門，我們認為有人獲取了菲爾普斯博士研究計算機的根級訪問權限，因為這個計算機只是科學樓裏的一台共享計算機。但是他們並不相信我説的話，但這也是可以理解的。

我開始跟蹤#include 文件。即使我這麼做了，我還是找不到代碼。但現在我知道了它是在庫裏編譯的。所以我們為什麼不重新編譯這些庫呢，畢竟我們有源代碼。

Days 4-6

The hardest part, convincing the campus nerds they have an issue. But we finally do and Mark, the Unix admin who was hired because he married the Dean’s daughter, gets busy learning how to do this. In the end, he agrees to allow me to handle it, because he just doesn’t really know how to get all that stuff compiled. End of Day 6, all standard libraries are recompiled. Woo hoo!

I whip out my modified, cleaned up source and start the compile. All looks good. I run it. O M G. It did it again. 15 messed up source files and the subliminal messages are back. This is suddenly like magic. I investigate very very carefully though I am stumped. This code doesn’t exist in source code. I think I might be beaten. Dr. Phelps isn’t happy with the hours involved and thinks maybe we ought to just rewrite the program from scratch. “Sure”, I say staring at the terminal like a lost puppy too deep in my thoughts to put out of my thinking mode, “I think you’re right. That will be quicker.” “Good,” he says, “we can start tomorrow.”

Day 7

To hell with that. This guy isn’t beating me. We are compiling it from his stinking code or not at all! “You don’t have to pay me anymore, Dr. Phelps, I just want lab time.” This is nerd war.

Days 8-14

I get smart, I’m thinking he somehow modified the curses library.I start learning. I read manuals for 6 days, piecing together that assembly code. Waste of time, nothing seems unusual.

第 4-6 天：

但最難的部分是，要如何説服校園裏宅男們相信這個庫是有問題的。但我們最終還是做到了，因為馬克娶了院長的女兒，所以他被聘用為Unix的管理員，他一直在學習怎麼編程。所以他最後同意讓我來處理這個問題了，因為他真的不知道如何編譯這些東西。等到第 6 天結束的時候，所有的標準庫都會被重新編譯。真是太棒了！

我拿出我修改過、清理過的源代碼並開始重新編譯，所有的進展都很順利。然後我又重新運行了一下程序。結果，我的天吶，又變成那樣了， 15 個混亂的源文件和不實的信息就像變魔術一樣又出現了。儘管我被難住了，但我還是非常仔細地繼續調查。源代碼中並不存在此代碼。我想這次的任務我可能要失敗了。菲爾普斯博士對我花了那麼多時間還沒解決問題很不滿意，他覺得我們應該從頭開始重新寫程序。我此時在這個問題中陷得很深，以至於無法擺脱我的思維模式，我像一隻迷路的小狗一樣盯着終端機説， “當然，我認為你説的對，那樣做會更快。”他説， “很好，那我們明天就可以重新開始了。”

第 7 天：

讓這個程序滾蛋吧，我不會被他打敗的。我們正在根據他這個噁心的代碼重新編寫程序，或者根本就不編了！ “菲爾普斯博士，你不用再給我付錢了，我現在只想要在實驗室裏繼續編程。”這是兩個程序員之間的戰爭。

第 8-14 天：

我變聰明瞭，我覺得他是在以某種方式修改了這個程序的庫。我花了6天的時間去閲讀操作手冊，並把這些代碼拼在了一起。我在繼續消耗時間，這一切看起來並沒有什麼不尋常的。

Day 15

I suddenly realize it’s in the compiler. It was the compiler. And every time you compile the original code and run it puts in the subliminal message code into the source code. I’d heard of this before.

Ah ah! I’ve got him!!!! We have the source code for the compiler as well. I search through it looking for a reference. Lo and behold, I find it. Indeed. There is source code in the compiler/lixer that does this:

1) it examines any call to fopen(), searches the file opened looking for Dr. Phelp’s questions; if it finds them then

2) it rewrites the 15 files to the current directory when compiling that specific program.

3) It then compiles Dr. Phelps program using the 15 files and outputs to the -o name in the lix phase.

第 15 天：

我這天突然意識到它可能是在編譯器中。原來是編譯器！每次編譯並運行原始代碼時，它都會將不實的信息代碼放入源代碼中。我以前就聽説過這個。

我忽然想起我們也有編譯器的源代碼。我去找找看有沒有參考資料，果然，我找到了。確實，在編譯器或鏈接器中有執行此操作的源代碼：

1.首先，它檢查了所有對 fopen() 的調用，如果發現有這些調用的話，它就會搜索打開的文件，來查找菲爾普斯博士的問題。

2.當你開始編寫該特定程序時，它就會將 15 個文件重新寫到了當前的目錄中。

3.然後用這15個文件編寫菲爾普斯博士的程序，並在鏈接階段輸出不好的言論。

The compiler was modified to put that code in Dr. Phelps program was written by the man that modified the compiler.

Several days later, an AT&T tech shows up with a disk and loads the proper compile and lixer source and we recompile the compiler from the source. That solves it. All the bad source in the compiler is gone and we’ve got a new clean copy of the compiler.

that source code, that now existed only in the executable compiler, put those changes back into the compiler source before it compiled it. But this time it didn’t modify the /usr/src copy, it copied it to a hidden directory, modified the compiler source, compiled itself from there, and dexed the hidden directory. It took an AT&T tech to find this. The ex-grad student had poisoned the compiler to poison itself when it was recompiled. We had to put a new binary version of the compiler on disk from another 3B2 running the same revision before the problem went away.

We also found that if /sbin/login is compiled it puts in a backdoor allowing anyone who uses a specific password to login in as the root user. This computer is accessible by modem and Tymnet. Finally, this gets the computing center’s attention.

編譯器被修改為，將該代碼放入菲爾普斯博士的程序裏。這個程序是由修改編譯器的人編寫的。 

幾天後，AT&T 的技術人員帶着磁盤出現在我們的面前並加載了正確的編譯器和鏈接器的源代碼，我們從源代碼中重新編譯了編譯器。這樣問題就解決了，編譯器中所有的錯誤源代碼都消失了，我們得到了一個全新的編譯器副本。

那個源代碼，現在只存在於可執行的編譯器中，在編譯之前將那些更改重新放回編譯器源代碼中。但這一次它並沒有修改/usr/src 副本，而是將其複製到一個隱藏目錄，修改了編譯器源代碼，從那裏編譯，並刪除了隱藏目錄。 AT&T的技術人員找到了這個問題的來源。這位前研究生在編譯器重新編譯時毒害了編譯器。在這個問題解決之前，我們不得不把一個新的編譯器的二進制版本放在另一個相同版本的3b2的磁盤上。

我們還發現，如果編譯了/sbin/login，它就會設置一個後門，允許任何使用特定密碼的人以 root 用户身份登錄。這台計算機可以通過調制解調器和 Tymnet 訪問。最後，這件事引起了計算中心的注意。

Anonymous

After an 11-hour work day I was greeted by my father and he announced he had promised his “future boss” that his son was going to program a “small” application for him. For free. But maybe the boss would “give a gift” to me after I complete it. His exact words.

This “small” application by any estimates would take me 1.5 months minimum, IF I didn’t work 60 hours a week already. That one and a half months is an extremely conservative estimate since the guy handed him a post-it note with a 6-7 vague things as requirements.

I’m getting angry again so I’ll get to the point instead of rambling on. The point is, a coder’s nightmare is not made of code, bugs, programming languages, computers, tools etc. It’s made of people. There’s a reason coders become coders. I love computers, but man, fuck people.

當我工作了 11 個小時回到家後，我的父親在門口迎接我，並向我宣佈，他已經向他的“未來老闆”承諾了，他的兒子將會為他免費編寫一個“小”的應用程序。也許這個老闆會在我完成這個程序之後，會送給我一份禮物。 這就是他的原話。

就算我每週工作 60個小時，這個“小”的應用程序至少也要一個半月的時間才能完成。而且這一個半月還是一個非常保守的估計，因為那個老闆給他遞了一張便利貼，上面寫着 6-7 條模糊的要求。

我真的是要生氣了，所以這次我要開門見山的跟我的父親説，而不是跟他東拉西扯。關鍵是，程序員的噩夢不是由代碼、錯誤、編程語言、計算機、工具等組成的，而是由人組成的。程序員之所以成為程序員是有原因的。我喜歡電腦，但是我真的不喜歡和人打交道。

Aladin Bensassi

Code works perfectly after the first try. I mean, what kind of sorcery is this? The stars are not even aligned today.

A call from a relative. I could be in a hospital and they’d still ask if I can fix the “Internet” for them.

Favorite coffee shop is closed. What am I supposed to drink? Water?

Clients from hell.

“Hey bro, I have this awesome idea that can change the world, you can code it for me, and I’ll even give you 30% of the company. No, really hear me out, it’s like Facebook, but instead of sending full text messages, only 140 characters. Isn’t this revolutionary?”

Clients who ask for changes that could take me days to implement, but want them at the end of the day.

“This is the computer genius I told you about. He can totally fix your printer that fell from the fourth floor.”

代碼在我第一次嘗試後就完美的運行了。 我的意思是，這是哪門子的魔法啊？ 今天的星星甚至都沒有對齊呢。

一個親戚給我打電話，問我能不能幫他們修好“網絡”。 就算我在醫院，他們還是會問我能不能幫他們修。

我最喜歡的咖啡店關門了。所以我應該喝什麼呢？喝水嗎？

我還有來自地獄的客户。

“嘿，兄弟，我有一個可以改變世界的很棒的想法，你可以幫我寫代碼，我甚至可以給你公司30%的股份。 不，你聽我説完，它就像 Facebook一樣，但不是發送短信，它只有 140 個字符。 這難道不是革命性的變化嗎？”

客户提的要求我可能要花好幾天的時間才能完成，但是他們想要我一天就能完成。

“這就是我跟你説過的那個計算機天才。 他甚至可以把你從四樓掉下去的打印機都能修好。”