Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!AUREL.CALTECH.EDU!bfox
From: bfox@AUREL.CALTECH.EDU (Brian Fox)
Newsgroups: gnu.bash.bug
Subject: Runaway bash
Message-ID: <8907271354.AA29470@aurel.caltech.edu>
Date: 27 Jul 89 13:54:14 GMT
References: <8907261931.AA29540@life.ai.mit.edu>
Sender: daemon@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Reply-To: bfox@aurel.caltech.edu
Distribution: gnu
Organization: GNUs Not Usenet
Lines: 29


   Date: Wed, 26 Jul 89 15:20:30 -0400
   From: James J Dempsey <jjd@bbn.com>

   I use: Vax 8530, Ultrix 3.0, GCC 1.35, yacc, GNU make 1.35

   I have had over a dozen cases where a bash of mine gets into some very
   tight infinite loop and eats up gobs of cpu time.  I have tried to get
   a core dump, but the only signal they will respond to is SIGKILL, so I
   have been unsuccessful.

   These runaway bashes must come from shells which are in the process of
   exiting or X windows which are closing or something, because I never
   notice when they get created.  Currently running interactive shells
   don't go into this state.

   Does anyone have any good ideas about how to debug this problem?

The only thing that comes to mind is that bash is trying to do some
output, (or read some input) and just keeps trying instead of getting
blocked, or stopped, or something.

If these runaway shells won't respond to SIGTSTP or SIGSTOP, then it is
likely that they are login shells.

If anyone gets more information on this problem, I would like to hear
about it.

Brian