Re: configure test "working C stack overflow detection" seems to loop

[Paul Eggert]

Gerard Beekmans <address@hidden> writes:

> I tried out the new 4.5.8 release and it doesn't exhibit the same
> symptoms. It runs the check and determines that I don't have a
> working C stack overflow, but without using up all the RAM.
> 
> Is this normal for a Linux system?

Yes, it's expected for coreutils 4.5.8, since it has a workaround for
the problem.

However, it's not clear to me that 4.5.8 is doing the right thing in
general, since apparently some Linux kernels have extremely poor C
stack overflow detection by default -- which is why the 4.5.7 test
thrashed some people's systems -- and I suspect (without having the
time to check this) that a similar problem might occur with coreutils
when given weird test cases.  I plan to look into this in more detail
soon.