Re: GDB cannot access memory after Emacs abort

[Dan Nicolaescu <dann@ics.uci.edu>]

Michael Snyder <msnyder@specifix.com> writes:

  > On Tue, 2007-11-13 at 23:28 +0100, Stephen Berman wrote:
  > > On Sun, 11 Nov 2007 21:15:55 -0800 Michael Snyder <msnyder@specifix.com> wrote:
  > > 
  > > > On Mon, 2007-11-12 at 00:01 +0100, Stephen Berman wrote:
  > > >> On Sun, 11 Nov 2007 09:44:23 +0200 Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:
  > > >> 
  > > >> >                         the upshot of all this is that `bt' doesn't
  > > >> > work, as shown below:
  > > >> >
  > > >> >> > >   (gdb) bt
  > > >> >> > >   #0  abort () at emacs.c:431
  > > >> >> > >   Cannot access memory at address 0xbfd6836c
  > > >> >> > >   Cannot access memory at address 0x8321b6c
  > > >> >
  > > [...]
  > > > I wonder -- after the above happens, what do you get if you 
  > > > type the following at the (gdb) prompt:
  > > >
  > > >   x /i $eip
  > > 
  > > After the abort occurs, the desktop locks up, I switch to a virtual tty
  > > and kill -9 the emacs process, releasing the desktop, then type what you
  > > said at the gdb prompt and get this:
  > > 
  > > 0x80f9e56 <abort+6>:    Cannot access memory at address 0x80f9e56
  > 
  > Oh yes.  I understand that now, thanks.
  > 
  > What we need, I guess, is to get back into control of 
  > the gdb without killing the emacs.  Otherwise it is
  > kind of hard to debug this gdb problem further.

You can do that by using the power of emacs :-)

Run emacs from CVS
M-x server-start RET
M-x gdb
from this gdb start another emacs session and do whatever you need to
induce the crash (just make sure that in the second instance of emacs
you don't run `server-start')

switch to a console and run 
emacsclient -t 

this should connect to the first emacs instance and give you access to
gdb, you can run all the gdb commands there ... 

Hope this helps.