tar like script fails: free: underflow detected; mh_nbytes out of range

[arjen]

Configuration Information [Automatically generated, do not change]:
Machine: i686
OS: linux-gnu
Compiler: gcc
Compilation CFLAGS:  -DPROGRAM='bash' -DCONF_HOSTTYPE='i686' 
-DCONF_OSTYPE='linux-gnu' -DCONF_MACHTYPE='i686-pc-linux-gnu' 
-DCONF_VENDOR='pc' -DSHELL -DHAVE_CONFIG_H   -I.  -I. -I./include -I./lib -g -O2
uname output: Linux china 2.4.4-4GB #1 Sat Jun 23 05:26:59 GMT 2001 i686 unknown
Machine Type: i686-pc-linux-gnu

Bash Version: 2.05a
Patch Level: 0
Release Status: release


malloc: array.c:79: assertion botched
free: underflow detected; mh_nbytes out of range
last command: cat /dev/null > all; S=0; cat gifs | tr '/' ' ' | tr -d '.gif' | 
sort -n +2 +1 | while read s x y; do cat /mnt/hdb1/gif/$x/$y.gif >> all; echo 
$S $x $y; S=$[S + s]; done | tee index
Stopping myself...

extra info:

arjen@china:~ > wc gifs
 176161  352322 3030591 gifs
arjen@china:~ > head gifs
2333 100/713.gif
3274 100/714.gif
1772 100/715.gif
2152 100/716.gif
3374 100/717.gif
2727 100/718.gif
1835 100/719.gif
1733 100/720.gif
2119 100/721.gif
1460 100/722.gif
arjen@china:~ > wc index
  32831   98493  548654 index
arjen@china:~ > head index
0 345 613
1216 346 613
2826 347 613
4373 348 613
5803 349 613
7862 350 613
10224 351 613
12679 352 613
15129 353 613
16794 354 613
arjen@china:~ > tail index
84485906 95 796
84488209 96 796
84489528 97 796
84490835 98 796
84493355 99 796
84494718 100 796
84496103 101 796
84498162 102 796
84500134 103 796
84503891 104 796

after

cat /dev/null > all; S=0; cat gifs | tr '/' ' ' | tr -d '.gif' | sort -n +2 +1 
> gifsorted

and doing 

cat gifsorted | while read s x y; do cat /mnt/hdb1/gif/$x/$y.gif >> all; echo 
$S $x $y; S=$[S + s]; done > index

the problem remains.

it stops after about 33000 lines all the time. there is nothing special over 
there in the gifsorted file.

The bug is also in: 
GNU bash, version 2.05.0(1)-release (i386-suse-linux)