[Pkg-octave-devel] Bug#695551: panic: segfault at startup

[Drew Parsons <dparsons@debian.org>]

Package: octave
Version: 3.6.2-5
Severity: grave
Justification: renders package unusable

octave has just started failing to start, with the error message:

$ octave -q
panic: Segmentation fault -- stopping myself...
attempting to save variables to `octave-core'...
save to `octave-core' complete
Segmentation fault
$ echo $?
139

(so octave exits immediately with error code 139.)

The bug appears also in 3.6.3-2.

The interaction with gdb is odd. An error is found, but the octave
command line appears regardless.  I think octave catches the error,
but doesn't panic inside gdb.  So no backtrace is available. The gdb
behaviour is:
$ gdb octave 
GNU gdb (GDB) 7.4.1-debian
Reading symbols from /usr/bin/octave...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
(gdb) run -q
Starting program: /usr/bin/octave -q
[Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
Using host libthread_db library "/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libthread_db.so.1".
error: fclose: invalid stream number = -1
error: called from:
error:   /usr/share/octave/3.6.2/m/pkg/pkg.m at line 463, column 1
error:   /usr/share/octave/3.6.2/m/startup/octaverc at line 21, column 1
octave:1> 

Is the octave-core file useful?

Thanks,
Drew


-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 3.6-trunk-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_AU.utf8, LC_CTYPE=en_AU.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages octave depends on:
ii  libamd2.2.0                      1:3.4.0-3
ii  libarpack2                       3.1.1-2.1
ii  libatlas3-base [liblapack.so.3]  3.8.4-9
ii  libblas3 [libblas.so.3]          1.2.20110419-5
ii  libc6                            2.13-37
ii  libcamd2.2.0                     1:3.4.0-3
ii  libccolamd2.7.1                  1:3.4.0-3
ii  libcholmod1.7.1                  1:3.4.0-3
ii  libcolamd2.7.1                   1:3.4.0-3
ii  libcurl3-gnutls                  7.28.0-3
ii  libcxsparse2.2.3                 1:3.4.0-3
ii  libfftw3-3                       3.3.2-3.1
ii  libfltk1.1                       1.1.10-14
ii  libfreetype6                     2.4.9-1
ii  libgcc1                          1:4.7.2-4
ii  libgl1-mesa-glx [libgl1]         8.0.5-3
ii  libglpk0                         4.45-1
ii  libgomp1                         4.7.2-4
ii  libgraphicsmagick++3             1.3.16-1.1
ii  libgraphicsmagick3               1.3.16-1.1
ii  liblapack3 [liblapack.so.3]      3.4.1-6
ii  liboctave1                       3.6.2-5
ii  libpcre3                         1:8.31-1
ii  libqhull5                        2009.1-3
ii  libqrupdate1                     1.1.1-1
ii  libstdc++6                       4.7.2-4
ii  libumfpack5.4.0                  1:3.4.0-3
ii  octave-common                    3.6.2-5
ii  texinfo                          4.13a.dfsg.1-10
ii  zlib1g                           1:1.2.7.dfsg-13

Versions of packages octave recommends:
ii  gnuplot-x11     4.6.0-8
ii  libatlas3-base  3.8.4-9

Versions of packages octave suggests:
pn  octave-doc      <none>
ii  octave-htmldoc  3.6.2-5
ii  octave-info     3.6.2-5

-- no debconf information