awk dies with: * glibc detected * awk: double free or corruption (fasttop):

This document (7003202) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Service Pack 2

Situation

Under certain conditions awk (or gawk) crashes.
Example:

# ls /usr/lib/* | grep -v "/" | awk '{if (length($1) > 14) {print $1}}'
autofs-ldap-auto-master
*** glibc detected *** awk: double free or corruption (fasttop):
0x000000000054cb10 ***
======= Backtrace: =========
/lib64/libc.so.6[0x2b7155cba31e]
/lib64/libc.so.6(__libc_free+0x6c)[0x2b7155cbbd7c]
awk(str2wstr+0x40)[0x427415]
awk(do_length+0x196)[0x412f16]
awk(r_tree_eval+0x390)[0x42c3a0]
awk(r_tree_eval+0x8b)[0x42c09b]
awk[0x42dce2]
[...shortened, real output is much longer...]

Resolution

SUSE Engineering is aware of the problem and the issue is fixed for SLES10 Service Pack 3.
A fix for Service Pack 2 exists as well, release date is currently unknown.

As a workaround for the time until a fixed package is relased set locale to "C" inside the script or the shell awk is running. Example:

# export LC_ALL=C
# ls /usr/lib/* | grep -v "/" | awk '{if (length($1) > 14) {print $1}}'
autofs-ldap-auto-master
master-boot-code
bootloader_entry
browserconfig.properties
libsoftokn3.chk
libxpcom_compat.so
[...output shortened...]

Disclaimer

This Support Knowledgebase provides a valuable tool for SUSE customers and parties interested in our products and solutions to acquire information, ideas and learn from one another. Materials are provided for informational, personal or non-commercial use within your organization and are presented "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND.