From: ser@... (Sean Russell)
Date: 2002-09-18T09:08:55+09:00
Subject: Matz, if you're reading, please scan this email

I've found a problem with the Ruby interpreter, wherein the
interpreter seg faults.  I have not found a way to reliably reproduce
this; like the Great White Shark, I've only seen it reproduce in the
wild.  I hesitate, therefore, to submit a formal bug report.

However, I have noticed that certain situations can increase the
possibility of these segfaults occurring.  I believe it has to do with
the actual internal translation of source to execution.  Hmm.  That's
pretty obscure.  Try this:

In cases where Ruby code re-defines the same method several times in a
row, it is more likely that Ruby will segfault at some obscure point
in the program. It also seems to be aggravated by threaded code.

With the same Ruby VM version, and the same version of an application
running on two different machines, one may suddenly exhibit the
problem, and the other won't.  And then the one that was having the
problem may not have the problem the next morning.

I know how frustrating it is to have to track down no-see-ums.  Is
this something you're aware of?  Have observed?

I'm curious, because I get occasional bug reports about seg-faults
that *I* can't reproduce, and I don't know what to tell users.

--- SER