From: Ariff Abdullah <skywizard@...>
Date: 2002-12-29T05:21:43+09:00
Subject: string.c (str_alloc) ruby 1.8 + ruby-gtk crash

str = ARGV[0] || ""
str_dup = str.dup()
require 'gtk'
style = Gtk::Style.new()
style.font.string_width(str)
style.font.string_width(str_dup)

[sky@wizard build]# ./ruby /tmp/bla.rb ''
Gdk-CRITICAL **: file gdkfont.c: line 319 (gdk_string_width):
assertion `string != NULL' failed.

[sky@wizard build]# ./ruby -w /tmp/bla.rb ''
/tmp/bla.rb:6: [BUG] Segmentation fault
ruby 1.8.0 (2002-12-28) [i386-freebsd4]
Abort trap (core dumped)

But...

[sky@wizard build]# ./ruby -w /tmp/bla.rb   
[sky@wizard build]# ./ruby /tmp/bla.rb

looks like bad interaction between zero-length ARGV and
String::dup() (or incomplete String object setup/initialization?
or verbosity -w setup?)

Fix (perhaps just workaround?)
string.c , function str_alloc()

--- string.c.orig       Sun Dec 29 04:21:06 2002
+++ string.c    Sun Dec 29 04:16:17 2002
@@ -45,8 +45,8 @@
     OBJSETUP(str, klass, T_STRING);
 
     str->ptr = 0;
-    str->len = 0;
-    str->aux.capa = 0;
+    str->len = -1;
+    str->aux.capa = -1;
 
     return (VALUE)str;
 }


[sky@wizard build]# ./ruby /tmp/bla.rb ''
[sky@wizard build]# ./ruby -w /tmp/bla.rb ''
[sky@wizard build]# ./ruby /tmp/bla.rb   
[sky@wizard build]# ./ruby -w /tmp/bla.rb ''

all test runs fine.