Re: Segmentation fault (man & apropos)
tmalloy@escape.com wrote:
>
> Since last evening I have been getting segmention faults in man and
> in apropos. Can anyone explain to me what that means and how I fix
> it? Do I have to reinstall?
No need to reinstall.
One of your database files (indeb.bt on each subdir in /var/catman) went
corrupted (you can see the timestamp different from the others:
find /var/catman -name index.bt -ls ).
The right fix is to run as root:
mandb -c /usr/man if the index corrupted was /var/catman/index.bt,
or
mandb -c /usr/X11R6/man if the corrupted was in /var/catman/X11R6,
To be sure you can run simply
mandb -c
to build _all_ the databases. (On my system 486/120 it takes 15-20
minutes).
Scott Ellis wrote:
>
> find /var/catman -type f -name index.bt | xargs rm -f
>
Although this apparently stops the segfault, it is the _wrong_
suggestion: the user was executing apropos, and removing the database
makes apropos tell "nothing appropriate" for every request.
tmalloy@escape.com wrote:
>
> Before the errors started I had been fiddling around trying to figure
> out how to send a fax from debian.
Did you insatalled new packages for that (and therefor new manpages)?
I am having big troubles trying to figure out _how_ actually this
corruprtion appens (although I have some theories), and any information
on strange things appened before the segfault (maybe involving package
installation or removal, or man interuption) may help.
> All of the actions described were proformed
> while logged in as root. I don't know if my prior actions have any
> relation to the errors, but have included them just in case.
No, in this case I don't think that they were involved.
Thanks,
fabrizio
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