ports/devel/protobuf: Segmentation fault in mmap in some applications

[Pieter de Goeje]

On Wednesday 06 January 2010 14:14:28 O. Hartmann wrote:
> Dear Sirs,
> We use a software package for scientific imagery processing from USGS,
> ISIS3 (http://isis.astrogeology.usgs.gov/). The most recent version is
> 3.1.21 and since this version, the software intensively uses
> libprotobuf.so.
>
> While we can use ISIS 3.1.20 very well under FreeBSD 8.0/amd64, it is
> impossible to use the software with version no. 3.1.21, which seems to
> have some issues wih libprotobuf.so. Every client out of this ISIS3
> package crashes with a segmentation fault and as far as I can judge the
> situation, there is a problem with libprotobuf.so, against which all
> clients out of ISIS 3.1.21 are linked.

Perhaps the ISIS package was developed using a different (older?) version of 
Google's protocol buffers. Compiling protobuf from source is quite easy on 
FreeBSD. You can find the source here: 
http://code.google.com/p/protobuf/downloads/list
I would start by trying version 2.1.0 and 2.2.0a.

>
> I searched for help on the ISIS3-support forum and realised that some
> Apple OS X guys have had similar problems, but those threads where
> closed immediately or got relative senseless response.
>
> In our case, we compile every necessary library and prerequisite
> software package (mostly Qt4 libs) from ports. This works great with
> some tweaks for FreeBSD in make/config.freebsd (which I derived from
> some linux and/or OS X config files).
>
> Now I'm floating like a dead man i the water. Below I provide q gdb
> output of the qview-client (the same is with all other clients, like
> photrim etc. for those familiar with the software package).

A backtrace ('bt' at the gdb prompt) might contain more useful information.

>
> Additionaly, I provide a truss-output, that stops at mmap issues.
>
> Well, if someone could provide me with some advance debugging hints I
> would appreaciate them. I'm pretty sure he problem is located within the
> libprotobuf library or the way it is treated, but this is a guess of a
> non-developer.
>
> Thanks very much in advance.
> Please reply also to this email address, since I'm not subscriber of the
> list I post to.
>
> Oliver

- Pieter