Good name for the opposite of the "canary" metaphor [closed]

Question

The "canary" is a common metaphor (for example in buffer overflow checks) for detecting mis-behaving operations by setting a flag before and verifying that it is still set after.

Is there a common term for the opposite, when the operation should kill the "canary"?

Answer 1

I actually don't like the canary term, because it causes silly conversations like "did you check the canary? Yeah, it's still alive" and you need the coal mine connotation to understand it. I prefer "buffer guard or guard pattern" so the inverse would be "goal pattern", because that is the data that should have been changed by your test.

Edit: of course, if you like the animal metaphor, you could use "fly" as in "did you manage to swat the fly?"

Answer 2

Gotta be Sylvester!

"I tawt I taw a puddy tat"

alt text http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a3/Sylvester_J_Pussycat.png