Re: Mac OS X, PostgreSQL, PL/Tcl - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

Found the problem. If I have a very long environment variable exported  
and I start PG, PG crashes when I try to load PG/Tcl. In my case I use  
color ls and I have a very long LS_COLORS environment variable set.

I have duplicated the problem by renaming my .bashrc and logging back  
in. With this clean environment, I started PG and loaded PG/Tcl without  
any problems. I then created the following environment variable on the  
command line:

LONG_VAR=aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa:bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb:cccccccccccccccccc: 
ddddddddddddddddddd:eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee:fffffffffffffff: 
ggggggggggggggggg:hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh:iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii: 
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj:kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk:llllllllllllllllllll: 
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm:nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn: 
ooooooooooooooooooooooo:pppppppppppppppppppppp:qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq: 
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr:ssssssssssssssssssssssssss: 
ttttttttttttttttttttttttttt:uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu: 
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv:wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww: 
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy: 
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

and exported it. (Obviously the line above is going to be broken into  
multiple lines by the mailer...).

Then I stopped and restarted PG, loaded PG/Tcl and PG crashed. You  
*must* stop and restart PG for the problem to exhibit itself, otherwise  
it won't pick up the change in the environment. I suspect I'm running  
into a buffer overflow situation.

Ok, it fails consistently when LONG_VAR is 523 characters or greater;  
works consistently when LONG_VAR is 522 characters or smaller. Might  
not fail at the same number for others.

/s.



 To prove that this was the problem, I cleaned out my environment by  
moving my .bashrc file to another name, logged out, logged in, start
On Feb 21, 2004, at 1:51 AM, Tom Lane wrote:

> Scott Goodwin <scott@scottg.net> writes:
>> Hoping someone can help me figure out why I can't get PL/Tcl to load
>> without crashing the backend on Mac OS 10.3.2.
>
> FWIW, pltcl seems to work for me.  Using up-to-date Darwin 10.3.2
> and PG CVS tip, I did
>     configure --with-tcl --without-tk
> then make, make install, etc.  pltcl installs and passes its regression
> test.
>
>> psql:/Users/scott/pgtest/add_languages.sql:12: server closed the
>> connection unexpectedly
>>          This probably means the server terminated abnormally
>>          before or while processing the request.
>
> Can you provide a stack trace for this?
>
>             regards, tom lane
>