A segmentation fault (often shortened to segfault) is a particular error condition that can occur during the operation of computer software. In short, a segmentation fault occurs when a program attempts to access a memory location that it is not allowed to access, or attempts to access a memory location in a way that is not allowed (e.g., attempts to write to a read-only location, or to overwrite part of the operating system). Systems based on processors like the Motorola 68000 tend to refer to these events as Address or Bus errors.
Segmentation is one approach to memory management and protection in the operating system. It has been superseded by paging for most purposes, but much of the terminology of segmentation is still used, "segmentation fault" being an example. Some operating systems still have segmentation at some logical level although paging is used as the main memory management policy.
On Unix-like operating systems, a process that accesses invalid memory receives the SIGSEGV signal. On Microsoft Windows, a process that accesses invalid memory receives the STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION exception.
panfeng@ubuntu:~/segfault$ nm segfault3
08049f20 d _DYNAMIC
08049ff4 d _GLOBAL_OFFSET_TABLE_
080484dc R _IO_stdin_used
w _Jv_RegisterClasses
08049f10 d __CTOR_END__
08049f0c d __CTOR_LIST__
08049f18 D __DTOR_END__
08049f14 d __DTOR_LIST__
080484ec r __FRAME_END__
08049f1c d __JCR_END__
08049f1c d __JCR_LIST__
0804a014 A __bss_start
0804a00c D __data_start
08048490 t __do_global_ctors_aux
08048360 t __do_global_dtors_aux
0804a010 D __dso_handle
w __gmon_start__
0804848a T __i686.get_pc_thunk.bx
08049f0c d __init_array_end
08049f0c d __init_array_start
08048420 T __libc_csu_fini
08048430 T __libc_csu_init
U __libc_start_main@@GLIBC_2.0
0804a014 A _edata
0804a01c A _end
080484bc T _fini
080484d8 R _fp_hw
080482bc T _init
08048330 T _start
0804a014 b completed.6990
0804a00c W data_start
0804a018 b dtor_idx.6992
080483c0 t frame_dummy
080483e4 T main
U memcpy@@GLIBC_2.0