malloc(): warning: recursive call

[Sean Winn]

On 04/09/2006, at 10:51 AM, Ivan Voras wrote:

> Stefan Bethke wrote:
>
>> mail in malloc(): warning: recursive call
>> Cosmic rays? Anything I could try to find the cause?
>
> I know what it is, but you won't going to like it. As far as I
> understand this happens when a process gets a signal in the middle of
> using malloc(), and the signal handler also uses malloc(). The  
> solution
> would be not to use malloc() in a signal handler, but this is tricky
> since unknown code can use malloc() (e.g. printf()?).
>

It's not tricky. man sigaction documents the functions that are async- 
signal safe. Anything not listed there (such as printf) and you're on  
your own.

There's some FreeBSD extensions, but most of this list is specified  
by the ANSI C standard, or POSIX standards.

> This appears to be "undefined" by standards, but GNU libc allows it
> because it makes sense, while phkmalloc dissallows it, causing (me)
> considerable problems with certain applications. I hope jemalloc is
> better in this respect :)
>
> I don't know how it happened in mail(1) if mail(1) is the FreeBSD  
> version.
>
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