Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!batcomputer!theory.TC.Cornell.EDU!christos
From: christos@theory.TC.Cornell.EDU (Christos S. Zoulas)
Subject: Re: TCSH exit crashing Sparc
Message-ID: <1991May28.021730.6397@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>
Sender: news@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu
Nntp-Posting-Host: theory.tc.cornell.edu
Organization: Electrical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca NY
References: <1991May24.025110.8586@TIRS.oz.au> <1991May27.221004.2841@odin.diku.dk>
Date: Tue, 28 May 1991 02:17:30 GMT

In article <1991May27.221004.2841@odin.diku.dk> thorinn@diku.dk (Lars Henrik Mathiesen) writes:
>pauln@TIRS.oz.au (Paul Ninnis) writes:
>>We're having the occasional problem using tcsh on a sparc station 1 under
>>SunOS 4.1
>>It appears to create a data fault causing a panic condition leading to
>>rebooting when a terminal user logs out (only occasionally)
>>(possibly by the use of exit rather than ^D)
>
[stuff deleted]

>It turned out that he set the coredump resource limit. This somehow
>made the kernel botch the fork/exit stuff. (There may be a patch by
>now.) I think any limit (zero or not) would provoke the crash.
>
>You might want to check if the crashes you see have anything to do
>with the coredump size limit.

I've had the same problem long time ago, not with tcsh but with 
another program that did lots of fork()/exec() calls. If I remember
well, this crash has something to do with spilling the register
windows. Anything that fork()/exec()'s frequently enough can cause it.

The place with the most sun fixes (I know about) is princeton.edu (thanks
a lot guys!!!) The one you want is 1029939 in /pub/sun-fixes/sunos4.1. 
We have a copy of the fix on tesla.ee.cornell.edu in
/pub/sun-patches/flush_windows.tar.Z


christos
-- 
Christos Zoulas         | 389 Theory Center, Electrical Engineering,
christos@ee.cornell.edu | Cornell University, Ithaca NY 14853.
christos@crnlee.bitnet  | Phone: (607) 255 0302, Fax: (607) 255 9072