Re: segfault in grep 2.5.1

[Bob Proulx]

Dean Pierce wrote:
> today i used the command [grep "foo" bar/*] on a directory that contained 
> about 1,067,638 small text files.

Wow.  That is a lot of files in one place.

> the first time i did it it just kicked me out and said "segmentation
> fault".  when i tried again it killed my xterm.  when i try to do it
> when not in X, it killed my shell and brought me back to the login
> prompt.

Those results are truly bizarre.  I can't begin to guess at why those
events would have occurred.

> when i tried it on another directory that contained about 433,549 of
> the same kind of file, it just told me that my argument list was too
> long.

Yes.  That is the expected result.  Take a look at this faq entry.  It
describes what is happening in some detail.  Look for "Argument list
too long".

  http://www.gnu.org/software/fileutils/doc/faq/

> i managed to get the intended task acomplished with [grep "foo" bar/
> -r],

Yes, that is a good method.

> but i just thought i should let you know, because it looked
> like a bug.

Probably a bug in there somewhere.  But without being able to
reproduce the bug it is impossible to come to root cause.  Also,
because you are observing your shell exiting it looks like it might be
a bug in your shell and not a bug in grep.  Or possibly in your
kernel, but less likely.

Try the command you are trying in a different shell.  If you are not
using bash then I would try it in 'bash'.  If you are using bash then
I would try it in 'ash'.  If you can reproduce it as a shell problem
then please report it.

> I run debian testing and i make sure to apt-get upgrade daily.  im
> running it with an athalon 2400 proc with 256megs of ram..  if i can
> give you any more information, just let me know.

Very good.  Sounds like a fine system.

Bob

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