RE: gdb shows segfault on reading passwd.db

Ben Collins-Sussman wrote:
> Thanks for the backtrace. Whatever the problem is, it looks like
> something wrong with with your system libraries, not Subversion.
>
> Working backwards: Subversion is trying to read your ~/.subversion/
> run-time config files -- that's call #7 there. In order to do that, it
> needs to find your username, so it can find the path to your home
> directory.
>
> So it calls #6, apr_uid_name_get(), which is supposed to portably return
> your username. On unix-y/posix-y systems, that calls getpwuid(), a
> standard system call to get user/password information from the system
> password database (usually /etc/passwd). In this case, it's
> __getpwuid_r(), call #5.
>
> From there, it's all a mystery. That system call is calling functions
> in /lib/libnss_db.so, and I have no idea what that is. Whatever it is,
> it looks like it's trying to open a specific password database and
> segfaulting.
>
> Honestly, it looks like there's something wrong with your system
> libraries. Why would a getpwuid() call *possibly* cause a segfault?
> Bad OS install? Bad OS libs? Misconfigured system?

I believe that nss_db is the nsswitch(5) library for "pwdb", a scheme
that uses a flat-file binary database for the data that is traditionally
stored in /etc/passwd (and /etc/group).

Furthermore, I believe the format for this password database is...
Our friend, the Berkeley DB.

As to quite what's going on, I couldn't say; I would look at library
versions (libdb) compared with database versions.

-- 
Robert Hunter
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