Segmentation fault during rpm upgrade/re-install

[Panu Matilainen]

On 10/03/2012 01:44 AM, gaurav salia wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I looked through the archives till Jan 2011 but could not find a thread
> similar to this issue, so I hope this is not a repost.
>
> System configuration: I am running 32-bit RHEL 6 basic server
> with rpm-4.8.0-27.el6.i686
> Rpm package: Let's call it myApp.rpm
>
> Before I go into the details, I am able to install/upgrade/erase myApp.rpm
> on RHEL 5 without any problems. This has been working for more than a year.
> I had to move to RHEL 6 because myApp now requires a glibc version which is
> newer than the one on RHEL 5.
>
> The Problem: After I install myApp.rpm and start the application, I am not
> able to upgrade or re-install myApp.rpm. I have been using -vv option and
> the output looks like:
> Success case: Fresh install
> D:         60 /usr/libexec/hostd/
> D:         61 /usr/sbin/
> D:         62 /vmfs/devices/char/vmkdriver/
> D:         63 /vmfs/volumes/sdrsLoadDef/
> D: ==========
> D: fini      120777  1 (   0,   0)        15 /bin/python;506a01b8
> D: fini      100555  1 (   0,   0)   1093280 /bin/rhttpproxy;506a01b8
> D: fini      100500  1 (   0,   0)      4891 /etc/init.d/mgmt-vmware;506a01
>
> Failure case: Upgrade/re-install after running the application
> D:         60 /usr/libexec/hostd/
> D:         61 /usr/sbin/
> D:         62 /vmfs/devices/char/vmkdriver/
> D:         63 /vmfs/volumes/sdrsLoadDef/
> D: ==========
> Segmentation fault (core dumped)    <----------------------------------
> Failure
>
> I tried a lot of different scenarios and below is the list of what works:
> 1. Fresh install works fine - rpm -ivvf
> 2. Delete works fine - rpm -evv
> 3. Re-insall after deleting rpm in step (2) works fine as long as myApp was
> not started after installation: rpm -ivvf
> 4. Upgrade after step (1) works fine  as long as myApp was not started
> after installation: rpm -Uvvf
>
> Scenarios that don't work:
> 5. Upgrade after step (1) after starting myApp: rpm -Uvvf
> 6. Re-insall after deleting rpm in step (2) after starting myApp: rpm -ivvf
> 7. I see the crash even if stop myApp and then do upgrade/re-install
>
> So basically after the app is started, I can only do erase. Upgrade or
> re-install fails with Seg fault. The crash is after rpm has done processing
> ''Directories not explicitly included in package:'' I can upload the
> complete output of -vv for success(install, upgrade, erase) and
> failure(upgrade, re-install).
>
> Any help about how to find the root cause of the crash would be highly
> appreciated!

Rpm segfaulting typically means a bug in rpm... and if it worked in RHEL 
5 and crashes in 6, its a regression.

Since you're apparently a RHEL customer, you should report this through 
the official support channels (note that bugzilla is NOT an official 
support channel, although an additional bugzilla report wont hurt 
either) to get it fixed.

 > D:         62 /vmfs/devices/char/vmkdriver/
 > D:         63 /vmfs/volumes/sdrsLoadDef/

This smells like some kind of virtual filesystem (Vmware?), which 
probably has some special characteristics when accessed, and would be my 
primary initial suspect for the cause of the crash. A strace of the 
failure case might provide the necessary clues, gdb backtrace for added 
bonus. The -vv output of rpm might be helpful too.

	- Panu -