# Why is there a "V" in SIGSEGV Segmentation Fault?

DevFeed: [Why is there a "V" in SIGSEGV Segmentation Fault?](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/why-is-there-a-v-in-sigsegv-segmentation-fault-38993.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://idea.popcount.org/2020-06-18-why-is-there-a-v-in-sigsegv-segmentation-fault>)

Author: Marek

Published: 2020-06-17T22:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Marek Majkowski](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/marek-majkowski.md>)

Topics: [C](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/c.md>), [Linux](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/linux.md>), [Unix](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/unix.md>), [Kernel](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/kernel.md>), [cpu](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cpu.md>)

Tags: [article](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/article.md>), [bug](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/bug.md>), [c](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/c.md>), [kernel](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/kernel.md>), [linux](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/linux.md>), [unix](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/unix.md>)

## AI overview

The article explains that the V in SIGSEGV stands for "Segmentation Violation," tracing the name from early memory-segmentation faults and the SIGSEG designation to its later adoption as SIGSEGV in Unix userspace and the kernel.

## Source excerpt

Why is there a "V" in SIGSEGV Segmentation Fault? This article is also co-published on Cloudflare blog: Another long night. I was working on my perfect, bug-free program in C, when the predictable thing happened: Oh, well... Maybe I'll be more lucky taking over the world another night. But then it struck me. My program received a SIGSEGV signal and crashed with "Segmentation Fault" message. Where does the "V" come from? Did I read it wrong? Was there a "Segmentation Vault?"?