Kyle Jones <kyle_jones(a)wonderworks.com> writes:
Henry S. Thompson writes:
> I'm concerned that there's been no follow-up to either my [1] or a
> similar [2] report of crashes resulting from stack overflows
> underneath re_search_2. It would be nice if these could be fixed
> before we declare 21.4 to be stable.
>
> Thanks
>
> ht
>
> [1]
http://list-archive.xemacs.org/xemacs-beta/200206/msg00005.html
> [2]
http://list-archive.xemacs.org/xemacs-beta/200206/msg00191.html
This looks like a stack overflow, something that is easily
triggered by the regular expression search code and its use
of alloca() to grab large blocks of memory off the stack. If
you can increase your stacksize under Cygwin, try doubling it
and see if it makes the problem go away. XEmacs could be
made to do this for the user, or XEmacs could be compiled
with REGEX_MALLOC by default in environments that have an
insuffieciently large default stack size.
Indeed it is a stack overflow -- the point is that up through 21.4.3,
this stack overflow was caught and an abort raised, which is what also
happens still with 21.4.8 under e.g. Solaris. I don't mind the abort,
I don't need or want to change my stacksize, what I mind is the crash.
Is it really reasonable to ship something as 'stable' which is
vulnerable to stack overflow in this way? That's a genuine question,
it's not my call, I'll abide by what the good guys, i.e. you
developers, decide. I'm sorry I'm not competent to help find and fix
the problem, beyond the information already given in my email
referenced above.
ht
--
Henry S. Thompson, HCRC Language Technology Group, University of Edinburgh
W3C Fellow 1999--2002, part-time member of W3C Team
2 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LW, SCOTLAND -- (44) 131 650-4440
Fax: (44) 131 650-4587, e-mail: ht(a)cogsci.ed.ac.uk
URL:
http://www.ltg.ed.ac.uk/~ht/
[mail really from me _always_ has this .sig -- mail without it is forged spam]