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Date: Sat, 8 Jun 1996 15:57:00 +0200 (MET DST)
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From: Joakim Fogelberg <jofog@ifm.liu.se>
To: questions@freebsd.org
Subject: Arrg!! sig 11
In-Reply-To: <52498945@toto.iv>
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Gary Chrysler writes:
 > Signal 11's are really getting on my nerves! I'm starting to
 > wish I didn't upgrade to 2.1r..
 > 
 > /kernel: pid 261: man: uid 0: exited on signal 11
 > 
 > I can duplicate it everytime on _TWO_ totally different
 > systems! Even completly different installations/configurations.
 > I even installed _new_ simms! Of different brands/vendors.
 > With no success!
 > 
 > Somebody else try this and see if yours works please?
 > 
 > cd to?? I used /usr/local/bin
 > man -a * |& col -b > /tmp/junk.test
 > 
 > The `*` is very important! It seems to work ok modified!
 > ie: man -a f* ... ... seems to work ok!
 >     man -a * ... ... does not!
 > 
 > I have used this sequence hundreds of times in 2.0r and _NEVER_
 > had a problem on either of these machines!
 > 2.0r ran flawlesly. As far as I know, For what that means!
 > I never saw any errors that were not produced by
 > my Lack of Knowledge!
 > 
 > I did do a search on the archives and read awhole bunch of
 > related messages! But failed to find any clues for a fix!
 > Is there one??
 > Other then _YOU HAVE FAULTY HARDWARE_!
 > 

This happens to me. The manpages are from the ports collection.

slaine:jofog:/usr/local/man/man1 {136} # pwd
/usr/local/man/man1
slaine:jofog:/usr/local/man/man1 {137} # ls -lg
total 144
-r--r--r--  1 bin  bin  24746 May 22 14:16 zip.1
-r--r--r--  1 bin  bin  46684 May 22 14:18 zoo.1
slaine:jofog:/usr/local/man/man1 {138} # man -a zip zoo | & col -b > /tmp/junk
Segmentation fault 
slaine:jofog:/usr/local/man/man1 {139} # gzip *
slaine:jofog:/usr/local/man/man1 {140} # ls -lg
total 52
-r--r--r--  1 bin  bin   9094 May 22 14:16 zip.1.gz
-r--r--r--  1 bin  bin  15735 May 22 14:18 zoo.1.gz
slaine:jofog:/usr/local/man/man1 {141} # man -a zip zoo | & col -b > /tmp/junk
slaine:jofog:/usr/local/man/man1 {142} # gunzip zip.1.gz
slaine:jofog:/usr/local/man/man1 {143} # ls -lg
total 84
-r--r--r--  1 bin  bin  24746 May 22 14:16 zip.1
-r--r--r--  1 bin  bin  15735 May 22 14:18 zoo.1.gz
slaine:jofog:/usr/local/man/man1 {144} # man -a zip zoo | & col -b > /tmp/junk
slaine:jofog:/usr/local/man/man1 {145} # gzip zip.1
slaine:jofog:/usr/local/man/man1 {146} # gunzip zoo.1.gz
slaine:jofog:/usr/local/man/man1 {147} # ls -lg
total 112
-r--r--r--  1 bin  bin   9094 May 22 14:16 zip.1.gz
-r--r--r--  1 bin  bin  46684 May 22 14:18 zoo.1
slaine:jofog:/usr/local/man/man1 {148} # man -a zip zoo | & col -b > /tmp/junk
slaine:jofog:/usr/local/man/man1 {149} # gunzip zip.1.gz
slaine:jofog:/usr/local/man/man1 {150} # man -a zip zoo | & col -b > /tmp/junk
Segmentation fault 
slaine:jofog:/usr/local/man/man1 {151} # man zip zoo | & col -b > /tmp/junk
slaine:jofog:/usr/local/man/man1 {152} # 

It's more complicated with more manpages, some combinations trigger
this bug (hardware or software), others don't. If all the manpages are
compressed, the bug is never triggered.