freebsd stable - Sep 2006 - malloc(): warning: recursive call

Just got this while running a script that uses mail(1) to send mail:

mail in malloc(): warning: recursive call
mail: Out of memory: Programming error

$ uname -a
FreeBSD schoner 6.1-STABLE FreeBSD 6.1-STABLE #11: Tue Aug 29  
09:46:29 CEST 2006     root@:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/EISENBOOT  i386
$ ls -l /etc/malloc.conf
ls: /etc/malloc.conf: No such file or directory

Running the script again did not produce the message again.

Cosmic rays? Anything I could try to find the cause?


Stefan

-- 
Stefan Bethke <stb@lassitu.de>   Fon +49 170 346 0140

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()?).

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.