Re: gdb 5.1 dumped core on me [was: Emacs abort under gdb]

[Francesco Potorti`]

   >> (gdb) p/x current_buffer->auto_save_file_name
   >> $59 = 0x1827b31c
   >> (gdb) xstring
   >> $60 = (struct Lisp_String *) 0x827b31c
   >> Segmentation fault (core dumped)
   > 
   > Does GDB's core file say something interesting about where did GDB
   > crash?
   
   Especially a backtrace.

As far as I can tell, the backtrace of gdb's core looks like the
backtrace of a dumped Emacs, but it is different from the real backtrace
of the Emacs that was being debugged.  Maybe that's normal, I don't have
any idea of what should a crashed gdb's backtrace look like.
   
   The other useful thing would be a confirmation that the Debian GDB 5.1 
   really is a stock GDB 5.1 and doesn't have patches applied.  Is there 
   anything unusual in the startup message for instance?

Nothing.  But I can read this in Debian's copyright file:
Patch for Objective-C from:
 ftp://ftp.es.ele.tue.nl/pub/objc/gdb-gnu-objc.diff.gz.uue

Since this is sent to Debian's maintainer too, he can confirm whether
this is the only patch applied or not.
   
   GDB should never dump core.

Yes, the same that any other program.  This is obviously a bug