Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!hsdndev!husc6!genrad!rep
From: rep@genrad.com (Pete Peterson)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: problem with "out of memory" in perl debugger
Keywords: perl, debugger, bug, out of memory
Message-ID: <40012@genrad.UUCP>
Date: 11 Dec 90 20:00:09 GMT
Sender: news@genrad.UUCP
Lines: 32

We have run into a couple problems with the perl debugger in perl3.0
patchlevel 41.  The problems do not occur on the sun4 (sparc) or the pmax
(decstation/mips).

On the vax, perl -d ANYTHING gives segmentation fault core dump.

On the sun3, things the following fail when you try to step into the
"while" loop:
------------------------------
#!/usr/local/perl
@foo = (1, 2, 3, 4);
while (@foo) {
        print shift(foo), "\n";
        }
------------------------------

Actually, any "while" or equivalent "for" seems to do the same thing; it
doesn't seem to relate to array references

------------------------------
#!/usr/local/perl
$i = 4;
while ($i) {
        print $i--, "\n";
        }
------------------------------

Note that the programs work fine when not running under the debugger.

At present, the workaround is to avoid debugging on vax or sun3!

Has anybody seen and fixed this problem?