RHBA-2011:1024 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

An updated gdb package that fixes various bugs is now available for Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 5.

Description

The GNU Debugger, GDB, allows the debugging of programs written in C, C++, and
other languages by executing them in a controlled fashion and printing the debug
data.

This updated gdb package includes fixes for the following bugs:

• Previously, a change to the list of shared libraries could have corrupted the

internal "bpstat" structure. Consequent to this, typing the "info program"
command at a GDB prompt could have caused the utility to terminate unexpectedly
with a segmentation fault. This update ensures that the "bpstat" structure
always contains the correct data, and running the "info program" command no
longer causes the debugger to terminate unexpectedly. (BZ#660197)

• A multithreaded program can be dumped into a core file. GDB can load the core

file and display the list of its threads. Previously, GDB displayed for the
threads found in the core file only their LWP (light-weight process)
identifiers, which match the Linux TID (Thread Identifier) values. With this
update, GDB initializes the libthread_db threads debugging library when
accessing a core file and now displays the pthread_t identifier in addition to
the LWP identifier. (BZ#673697)

• The Fortran programming language is case-insensitive. When compiling Fortran

programs with the Intel Fortran Compiler, the compiler records some debug info
symbols in uppercase. The gfortran compiler writes case-insensitive symbols in
lowercase. Because of this, GDB could have terminated unexpectedly while
accessing uppercase characters in the debug information from the Intel Fortran
Compiler. With this update, GDB properly implements case insensitivity and
ignores the symbols case in the symbol files. (BZ#645773)

• GDB crashed when reading a kernel core dump file because the value of the

temporary current inferior process was set to minus_one_ptid (all processes).
The value is now set to null_ptid (no processes) and GDB displays the vmcore
file correctly. (BZ#696464)

All users of gdb are advised to upgrade to this updated package, which resolves
these issues.

Solution

Before applying this update, make sure that all previously-released errata
relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via Red Hat Network. Details on how to use the Red Hat
Network to apply this update are available at
https://access.redhat.com/kb/docs/DOC-11259

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 5 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 5 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 i386

Fixes

• BZ - 645773 - internal-error: print_frame_args: Assertion `nsym != NULL' failed
• BZ - 660197 - [5.6] Using call subcommand to the functions handling DSOs causes info program to behave abnormally
• BZ - 673697 - gdb: Linux core files should use linux-thread-db.c

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)