memtester
                                       
  Utility to test for faulty memory subsystem
  
    by Charles Cazabon <memtest@discworld.dyndns.org>
    
   Copyright © 1999 Simon Kirby. Version 2 Copyright © 1999 Charles
   Cazabon.
   Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2. See the file
   COPYING for license details.
   
      Top of Page     About memtester     Building memtester     Using
              memtester     Current Version     Download Now!
                                      
  About memtest
  
   memtest is a utility for testing the memory subsystem in a computer to
   determine if it is faulty. The original source was by Simon Kirby
   <sim@stormix.com>. I have by this time completely rewritten the
   original source, and added many additional tests to help catch
   borderline memory. I also rewrote the original tests (which catch
   mainly memory bits which are stuck permanently high or low) so that
   they run approximately an order of magnitude faster.
   
  Building memtest
  
   memtest is currently only distributed in source-code form. Building
   it, however, is simple, even for a non-programmer. To build memtest,
     * Download and extract the tarball in a convenient directory. This
       is typically done as follows: tar xzf memtester-x.xx.tar.gz
       Note the tarball is also available compressed with bzip2.
     * In the resulting memtester-x.xx directory, type make to build the
       executable. If it fails to compile, complaining about missing the
       function strsignal, type make bsd instead. Although I build and
       test it on Linux/x86, it should build and run on any sufficiently
       Unix-like system. I have reports from users running it under
       various flavours of BSD, System V, and of course Linux. There may
       be gcc-isms in the source -- if it won't build with your favourite
       compiler, please let me know so I can fix it.
       
  Using memtest
  
   Usage is simple. Run the resulting memtest binary with the following
   commandline:
   
   memtest <memory> [runs] [-l or --log]
   
   where <memory> is the amount of memory to test. This can be the
   special value 'all', or a number followed by a units suffix (use a
   suffix of B for bytes, K for kilobyes, M for megabytes, or G for
   gigabytes).
   [runs] is an optional limit to the number of runs through all tests.
   memtest will attempt to lock its pages into memory after allocating
   them, in an attempt to test more physical memory. This call will only
   succeed if the user has sufficient privileges (read: root). If memtest
   fails to lock its pages, it will issue a warning and continue
   regardless.
   
   The -l or --log options will log output to a file (memtest.log) in
   addition to stderr.
   
   Unlike the original version, memtest will not exit after detecting its
   first error. It will simply abort the current test and proceed with
   the next test in the current run. After each run, memtest reports how
   long the run took, and how many errors were found. Note that it will
   not log multiple errors in a single test. At the completion of the
   last run (if a run limit supplied on the commandline) it will report
   total runtime and total errors logged. memtest will also exit if it
   receives one of SIGINT, SIGTERM, SIGSEGV, or SIGQUIT. memtest catches
   and ignores SIGHUP.
   
   More details are available in the man page (memtest.1).
   
  Current Version
  
   The current version of memtest should be available at
   http://www.qcc.sk.ca/~charlesc/software/memtester/ 
   
   The current version is v.2.93.1, dated 26-Apr-2000.
   Questions, comments, bug reports, and feature requests should be
   directed to me at <memtest@discworld.dyndns.org>.
   
  Download
  
                               Download now:
                          memtester-2.93.1.tar.gz
   http://www.qcc.sk.ca/~charlesc/software/memtester/memtester-2.93.1.ta
                                    r.gz
                          memtester-2.93.1.tar.bz2
   http://www.qcc.sk.ca/~charlesc/software/memtester/memtester-2.93.1.ta
                                   r.bz2
                                      
   The current experimental/development version (if any) is kept in
   http://www.qcc.sk.ca/~charlesc/software/memtester/experimental/
   
   Older versions may be found in
   http://www.qcc.sk.ca/~charlesc/software/memtester/old-tarballs/