magic cookie
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magic cookie
(1)Something passed between routines or programs that enables
the receiver to perform some operation; a capability ticket
or opaque identifier. Especially used of small data objects
that contain data encoded in a strange or intrinsically
machine-dependent way. E.g. on non-Unix operating systems
with a non-byte-stream model of files, the result of "ftell"
may be a magic cookie rather than a byte offset; it can be
passed to "fseek", but not operated on in any meaningful
way. The phrase "it hands you a magic cookie" means it
returns a result whose contents are not defined but which can
be passed back to the same or some other program later.
magic cookie
(2)An in-band code for changing graphic rendition (e.g. inverse
video or underlining) or performing other control functions.
Some older terminals would leave a blank on the screen
corresponding to mode-change magic cookies; this was also
called a glitch (or occasionally a "turd"; compare mouse droppings).
See also cookie.
See also cookie.
This article is provided by FOLDOC - Free Online Dictionary of Computing (foldoc.org)
magic cookie
A small data file passed from one program to another and sent back without change. Typically used in Unix systems, a magic cookie may be an identification token or password that activates a function. The "magic" implies some obscure data known only to the software and not the user. The Web cookie term was coined after magic cookie. See cookie.Copyright © 1981-2019 by The Computer Language Company Inc. All Rights reserved. THIS DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. All other reproduction is strictly prohibited without permission from the publisher.