abort() and exit(1) make RHEL freeze when core size limit is higher than 2 MB

abort() and exit(1) make RHEL freeze when core size limit is higher than 2 MB

[Xavier Wielemans]

[ I hope this is a relevant linux-kernel bug - I think so, all apologies if 
not... ]
[ Please CC me personally if replying, I'm not subscribed to the list - 
thank you ! ]

Hi all,

I encountered the following problem - when my C++ application executes the 
abort() or exit(1) system instructions, if the core size limit was 
previously set to more than ~2MB (ulimit -c 2000), my PC freezes totally 
and must be power-cycled...

If the core limit is left untouched to 0 (default), the abort or exit 
instructions are executed without problems, but of course no core file is 
dumped !

If core limit is set to 2000 or less, a core file is dumped but it is 
unreadable (certainly because it is trimmed to less than its actual size).

If core limit is set to 4000 or higher (including 'ulimit -c unlimited') 
the machine freezes as soon as abort() or exit() are executed.

Here are my configuration details :

[wielemans@electro:wielemans] cat /etc/redhat-release
Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS release 3 (Taroon Update 1)

[wielemans@electro:wielemans] uname -a
Linux electro 2.4.21-9.0.1.EL #2 Fri Apr 16 13:51:32 CEST 2004 i686 i686 
i386 GNU/Linux

[wielemans@electro:wielemans] gcc -v
Reading specs from /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux/3.2.3/specs
Configured with: ../configure --prefix=/usr --mandir=/usr/share/man 
--infodir=/usr/share/info --enable-shared --enable-threads=posix 
--disable-checking --with-system-zlib --enable-__cxa_atexit 
--host=i386-redhat-linux
Thread model: posix
gcc version 3.2.3 20030502 (Red Hat Linux 3.2.3-24)

If you need more details, please ask !  Any help or idea welcome, thanks in 
advance...

Have a nice day !

Willy.

Xavier Wielemans

Alterface
Avenue Alexander Fleming 10
B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
Belgium
http://www.alterface.com

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Re: abort() and exit(1) make RHEL freeze when core size limit is higher than 2 MB

[Marcelo Tosatti]

On Wed, Apr 21, 2004 at 02:11:19PM +0200, Xavier Wielemans wrote:
> [ I hope this is a relevant linux-kernel bug - I think so, all apologies if 
> not... ]
> [ Please CC me personally if replying, I'm not subscribed to the list - 
> thank you ! ]
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> I encountered the following problem - when my C++ application executes the 
> abort() or exit(1) system instructions, if the core size limit was 
> previously set to more than ~2MB (ulimit -c 2000), my PC freezes totally 
> and must be power-cycled...
> 
> If the core limit is left untouched to 0 (default), the abort or exit 
> instructions are executed without problems, but of course no core file is 
> dumped !
> 
> If core limit is set to 2000 or less, a core file is dumped but it is 
> unreadable (certainly because it is trimmed to less than its actual size).
> 
> If core limit is set to 4000 or higher (including 'ulimit -c unlimited') 
> the machine freezes as soon as abort() or exit() are executed.
> 
> Here are my configuration details :
> 
> [wielemans@electro:wielemans] cat /etc/redhat-release
> Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS release 3 (Taroon Update 1)
> 
> [wielemans@electro:wielemans] uname -a
> Linux electro 2.4.21-9.0.1.EL #2 Fri Apr 16 13:51:32 CEST 2004 i686 i686 
> i386 GNU/Linux
> 
> [wielemans@electro:wielemans] gcc -v
> Reading specs from /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux/3.2.3/specs
> Configured with: ../configure --prefix=/usr --mandir=/usr/share/man 
> --infodir=/usr/share/info --enable-shared --enable-threads=posix 
> --disable-checking --with-system-zlib --enable-__cxa_atexit 
> --host=i386-redhat-linux
> Thread model: posix
> gcc version 3.2.3 20030502 (Red Hat Linux 3.2.3-24)
> 
> If you need more details, please ask !  Any help or idea welcome, thanks in 
> advance...

Xavier,

Odd. Is this the latest RH update? Maybe you can try a mainline kernel?