1. To go through multiple levels of indirection, as in traversing a linked list or graph structure. Used especially by programmers in C , where explicit pointers are a very common data type.
See dangling pointer and snap .
2. (Cambridge) "pointer chase" or "pointer hunt": The process of going through a core dump , interactively or on a large piece of paper printed with hex runes , following dynamic data-structures. Used only in debugging .
[ Jargon File ]
(1995-05-11)