Bug#323352: nscd segfaults when persistent database files are not available (seemingly)

[Mark Nipper <nipsy@tamu.edu>]

Package: nscd
Version: 2.3.5-3
Severity: important

	I've been running PAM LDAP and nscd now for a few weeks.  After
a recent upgrade (within the fast three or four days probably), my nscd
started crashing on all my machines (I have nine clients talking to one
LDAP server).

	I ran one with 'nscd -d' and found that with the Debian default
configuration (and installation scripts), /var/db/nscd is not created
which causes the following output on startup:
---
5369: cannot create /var/db/nscd/passwd; no persistent database used
5369: cannot create /var/db/nscd/group; no persistent database used
5369: cannot create /var/db/nscd/hosts; no persistent database used

This didn't seem to be an issue for me initially, but it looks like this
is what is causing my segfault.  Looking at the debug output immediately
before the segfault shows:
---
5369: handle_request: request received (Version = 2) from PID 5391
5369:   GETFDHST
5369: handle_request: request received (Version = 2) from PID 5391
5369:   GETHOSTBYNAME (www.google.com)
5369: Haven't found "www.google.com" in hosts cache!
5369: handle_request: request received (Version = 2) from PID 5391
5369:   GETHOSTBYADDR (64.233.187.104)
5369: Haven't found "64.233.187.104" in hosts cache!
5369: remove GETHOSTBYADDR entry "64.233.187.99"
zsh: 5369 segmentation fault  nscd -d

I was just running a 'ping www.google.com' at the time.  I had run it a
few seconds before this and once before that too, but it isn't until
nscd goes to remove it from the cache (or so it appears) that it
segfaults, presumably because the cache files don't exist in the first
place.

	Let me know if you want me to compile with -g or strace it or
something.  I went ahead and created the directory /var/db/nscd and it
doesn't segfault now:
---
5472: handle_request: request received (Version = 2) from PID 5554
5472:   GETFDHST
5472: provide access to FD 8, for hosts
5472: handle_request: request received (Version = 2) from PID 5554
5472:   GETHOSTBYNAME (www.google.com)
5472: Haven't found "www.google.com" in hosts cache!
5472: handle_request: request received (Version = 2) from PID 5554
5472:   GETHOSTBYADDR (64.233.187.99)
5472: Haven't found "64.233.187.99" in hosts cache!
5472: remove GETHOSTBYADDR entry "64.233.187.99"

(and still running)...

-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'stable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell:  /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.12.4
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)

Versions of packages nscd depends on:
ii  libc6                         2.3.5-3    GNU C Library: Shared libraries an

nscd recommends no packages.

-- no debconf information