Path: utzoo!utstat!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!mcsun!cernvax!chx400!cgch!whna
From: whna@ciba-geigy.ch (Heinz Naef)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: cnews checkgroups processing core-dumps (SIGSEGV)
Summary: Also occurs with our (non-Sun) ksh.
Message-ID: <1990Jul19.075348.2504@ciba-geigy.ch>
Date: 19 Jul 90 07:53:48 GMT
References: <1990Jul18.101929.23679@ciba-geigy.ch> <1990Jul18.162721.951@zoo.toronto.edu>
Sender: news@ciba-geigy.ch (USENET News Agent)
Organization: CIBA-GEIGY AG, Basle, Switzerland
Lines: 88

In article <1990Jul18.162721.951@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:
>
>My guess would be that the timing was coincidental; I don't think we did
>anything to checkgroups in that patch.  What might be significant is the
>ever-growing number of newsgroups.  It looks like it hit some limit in
>your shell.  Geoff has been heard to mutter about Sun shells; I wouldn't
>know because we don't run them ourselves.  (Suns, yes, Sun shells, no.)
>-- 

I modified $NEWSBIN/ctl/checkgroups specifying #!/bin/ksh instead of #!/bin/sh, and
inserted a 'set -vx' as follows:

	[...]

	#       for i in `cat /tmp/$$add`
	#       do
	# *** "Subject: cmsg " is a hideous botch of a kludge-hack; avoid it!
	#               inews -h <<!
	#Control: newgroup $i
	#Newsgroups: control
	#Subject: newgroup $i
	#Distribution: general
	#
	#Create $i locally.
	#!
	#       done

	fi 2>&1 >>/tmp/$$out

	set -vx

	if test -s /tmp/$$out; then
			(echo "Subject: Problems with your active file"; echo "";
			 cat /tmp/$$out) | mail $NEWSMASTER
	fi

	rm -f /tmp/$$*          # clean up temporaries

Running the following command causes the same crash as if relaynews would have
spawned the checkgroups script (login shell is /bin/ksh, too):

	/usr/lib/news> (PATH=$NEWSCTL/bin:$NEWSBIN/ctl;checkgroups </usr/spool/news/control/6073; echo "exit code $?")

	if test -s /tmp/$$out; then
			(echo "Subject: Problems with your active file"; echo "";
			 cat /tmp/$$out) | mail $NEWSMASTER
	fi
	+ test -s /tmp/2164out
	+ echo Subject: Problems with your active file
	+ mail usenet
	+ echo 
	+ cat /tmp/2164out

	rm -f /tmp/$$*          # clean up temporaries
	+ rm -f /tmp/2164a /tmp/2164add /tmp/2164b /tmp/2164out /tmp/2164remove
	Memory fault(coredump)
	/usr/lib/news> adb - core
	core file = core -- program ``ksh''
	SIGSEGV 11: segmentation violation
	/usr/lib/news> 

However, running the following command works (login shell is /bin/ksh, too):

	/usr/lib/news> (PATH=$NEWSCTL/bin:$NEWSBIN/ctl;checkgroups </usr/spool/news/control/6073; /bin/echo "exit code $?")

	if test -s /tmp/$$out; then
			(echo "Subject: Problems with your active file"; echo "";
			 cat /tmp/$$out) | mail $NEWSMASTER
	fi
	+ test -s /tmp/2322out
	+ echo Subject: Problems with your active file
	+ echo 
	+ mail usenet
	+ cat /tmp/2322out

	rm -f /tmp/$$*          # clean up temporaries
	+ rm -f /tmp/2322a /tmp/2322add /tmp/2322b /tmp/2322out /tmp/2322remove
	exit code 0
	/usr/lib/news> 

Would you agree that there must have something happened to the shell environment
the checkgroups script is running in? For the checkgroups script itself, it seems
to make no difference whether the script is processed by the Sun /bin/sh or our
/bin/ksh.

--
Heinz Naef, CIBA-GEIGY AG, R-1045.3.37, P.O.Box, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland
 E-mail: whna@ciba-geigy.ch - Phone: +41 61 697 2675 - Fax: +41 61 697 3288