.TH memtester "8" "November 2006" "memtester 4" "Maintenance Commands"
.SH NAME
memtester \- stress test to find memory subsystem faults.
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B memtester
<\fIMEMORY\fR>
[\fIITERATIONS\fR]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.\" Add any additional description here
.PP
memtester is an effective userspace tester for stress-testing the memory
subsystem.  It is very effective at finding intermittent and non-deterministic
faults.  Note that problems in other hardware areas (overheating CPU, 
out-of-specification power supply, etc.) can cause memory faults.
.PP
memtester will malloc(3) the amount of memory specified, if possible.  If
this fails, it will decrease the amount of memory requested until it succeeds.
It will then attempt to mlock(3) this memory; if it cannot do so, testing
will be slower and less effective.
.PP
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
\fIMEMORY\fR
the amount of memory to allocate and test, in megabytes
.TP
\fIITERATIONS\fR
(optional) number of loops to iterate through.  Default is infinite.
.SH NOTE
.PP
memtester must be run with root privileges to mlock(3) its pages.  Testing
memory without locking the pages in place is mostly pointless and slow.
.SH EXIT CODE
.PP
memtester's exit code is 0 when everything works properly.  Otherwise,
it is the logical OR of the following values:
.TP
\f0x01
error allocating or locking memory, or invocation error
.TP
\f0x02
error during stuck address test
.TP
\f0x04
error during one of the other tests
.SH AUTHOR
Written by Charles Cazabon.
.SH "REPORTING BUGS"
Report bugs to <memtester-bugs@discworld.dyndns.org>.
.PP
.SH COPYRIGHT
Copyright \(co 2006 Charles Cazabon
.br
This is free software; see the file COPYING for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.