Re: Emacs core dump

[Cyprian Adam Laskowski]

Hmmm...: control characters, etc. got slain. I've replaced them with their
visual counterparts, the o with line through it with "o", and in the last
excerpt below, general crypticness (since there was lots of it) with <cryptic>.
This should be better:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi,

I've been getting Emacs core dumps (as mentioned at gnu.emacs.help) on various
platforms recently.  I'm pretty sure it's due to something in my relatively
complex init elisp stuff.  But before I try my luck gdbing the core dump (I'm
not experienced with gdb (yet!)), I thought I'd post a commonality that I
noticed with just the verbatim core fil from a few different sessions (and as
far as I can tell, across all crashing sessions).

Any help would be very much appreciated, as I don't know what I'm doing in a
situation like this.

I've replaced regexps "^@+" with "^@" for legibility; otherwise this is verbatim
from core files near where it says "(core dumped)".

The cores have this in common: first, they were all accompanied by either a
"Segmentation Fault" or an "Abort"; secondly, about 1% into the core files, they
all seem to have the following:

--------------
^@^@Can't fstat (%s): errno %d
^@Can't mmap (%s): errno %d
^@.bss^@Can't find .bss in %s.
^@.bss shrank when undumping???
^@Can't creat (%s): errno %d
^@Can't ftruncate (%s): errno %d
^@Program segment above .bss in %s
^@Couldn't find segment next to .bss in %s
^@.data^@Can't find .data in %s.
^@.data1^@_end^@end^@_edata^@edata^@Can't close (%s): errno %d
^@Can't stat (%s): errno %d
^@Can't chmod (%s): errno %d
^@ml-if^@ml-nargs^@ml-arg^@ml-interactive^@ml-provide-prefix-argument^@ml-prefix-argument-loop^@insert-string^@mocklisp^@byte-code^@unknown^@
 (core dumped)
^@
^@finished
^@exited abnormally with code 
^@/dev/ptmx^@<%d>^@processp^@get-process^@get-buffer-process^@Process %s does 
not exist^@Buffer %s has no 
process^@delete-process^@process-status^@process-exit-status^@process-id^@process-name^@process-command^@process-tty-name^@set-process-buffer^@process-buffer^@process-mark^@set-process-filter^@process-filter^@set-process-sentinel^@process-sentinel^@set-process-window-size^@set-process-inherit-coding-system-flag^@process-inherit-coding-system-flag^@process-kill-without-query^@process-contact^@Proc
         Status   Buffer         Tty         Command
----         ------   ------         ---         -------
-------------------

Before the first line there, though, they differ. Here are the preceding couple
of lines for 4 of them (note that they all end with some "read error"):

************1**************
(gnus-group-set-info '("alt.star^@ 
^@^H^A^@^E^@o^@^DCORE^@^A^@^Aalt.startrek.enterprise" 3 8 nil nil)
(gnus-group-set-info '("alalt.starprise" 3 nil))
(gnus-group-set-info '("alt.startrek.ente^@^@\202^@^A^@r reading: errno %d
************2********************
<index;

string .= ', ' if $group_string;
     $group_string .= $^@^@\202^@^@^A^@r reading: errno %d
************3***************
revision 1.1
date: ^@^H ^@^H^A^@^E^@o^@^DCORE^@^A^@^Ac names:
keyword substitution: kv
total revisions: 1;     selected rte: 2001to set some configuration variables
--------------------^@^@\202^@^@^@r reading: errno %d
**********4**********
CORE<cryptic>/plans/#2001.06<cryptic>lans/#20,elisp,ecrash,*scratch*,*Messages*,*File
 Cache*,*Buffer 
Completions*,*Completion<cryptic>CORE<cryptic>SUNW,Ultra-250<cryptic>CORE<cryptic>CORE<cryptic>p/plans/#2001.06?<cryptic>lans/#20,elisp,ecrash,*scratch*,*Messages*,*File
 Cache*,*Buffer Completions*,*Completion<cryptic>CORE<cryptic>Customize Group: 
estate*,*Customize Group: help*,*Customize 
Groumpletion,elisp,ecrash,*scratch*,*Messages*,*File Cache*,*Buffer<cryptic>r 
reading: errno %d
***************************



If it helps, here is what my estate.el logged within 3 minutes of the
catastrophe last time, showing primarily which features were loaded. (I've added
newlines in the output in a few places in the display of `features' below to
circumvent gnus' "long line" complaint.)



*******************************
Date:  11:31:04 - 06/12/01

Variables:
**********

features

=> (mmm-cmds sql perl-cyp-hooks perl-mode tramp-cyp-hooks tramp format-spec env 
cal-move rect w3-style ethio-util url-gw w3-hot url-file url-cache w3-e20 
w3-e19 w3-emacs19 w3-script w3-jscript w3-elisp w3-forms url-http url-cookie 
timezone urlauth w3-cyp-hooks w3 w3-menu w3-emulate w3-auto w3-parse url md5 mm 
base64 w3-display w3-mouse w3-imap w3-widget w3-vars w3-keyword w3-cus 
url-parse url-vars css font disp-table devices ange-ftp-cyp-hooks ange-ftp 
mule-sysdp w3-cfg w3-sysdp cvs-cyp-hooks pcl-cvs
add-log cookie dll elib-node cperl-mode mmm-mason html-cyp-hooks sgml-mode sort 
skeleton sh-script find-dired tmm electric toggle-option vocab-test-cyp-custom 
eval-sexp-in-comments estate apropos bookmark man assoc info-look 
info-cyp-hooks infobook info cus-edit wid-browse cus-start cus-load wid-edit 
dired-cyp-hooks sorter dired-tar compile dired-a dired-x dired-aux dired shell 
comint eldoc view-cyp-hooks view pp cyp-power-macros power-macros sitecyp-init 
cyp-map cyp-customize uniquify planner
completing-help advice advice-preload sitecyp-config cyp-config ffap complete 
which-func imenu rsz-mini iswitchb timer time cal-china lunar solar cal-dst 
cal-persia cal-islam cal-julian cal-hebrew holidays diary-lib 
calendar-cyp-hooks calendar cal-menu sitecyp-autoload cyp-autoload 
winring-cyp-hooks timeclock-cyp-hooks mmm-cyp-hooks hippie-exp-cyp-hooks 
filecache-cyp-hooks fff-cyp-hooks emacs-wiki-cyp-hooks browse-url-cyp-hooks 
browse-url-sitecyp-hooks browse-url tea-timer proc-menu mmm-mode mmm-univ
mmm-class mmm-region mmm-auto mmm-vars mmm-utils mmm-compat regexp-opt 
timeclock tex-site initsplit hippie-exp scroll-in-place ws-trim filecache 
fff-elisp fff records-cyp-hooks emacs-lisp-cyp-hooks emacs-wiki executable 
pcomplete lines winring ring read-library move-mode ibuffer edmacro backquote 
lmenu font-lock cus-face derived easymenu cyp-various cyp-misc mini-cl cl cl-19 
fontset ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type lisp-mode page menu-bar select 
scroll-bar mouse facemenu faces frame romanian slovak czech case-table format 
mule custom widget x-toolkit)



Functions:
**********

(emacs-version)

=> "GNU Emacs 20.3.1 (sparc-sun-solaris2.6, X toolkit)
 of Thu Aug 27 1998 on tensor.vnet.net"

**************************


Thanks a-plenty in advance,

cyp