emacs crashing with rmail

[Art Werschulz <agw@cs.columbia.edu>]

Hi.

I'm running emacs 21.3.1 on an i686 Fedora Linux box.  The Linux kernel RPM
is 2.6.11-1.14_FC3smp, and the emacs RPM is emacs-21.3-21.FC3.

As of a couple of days ago, the command "M-x rmail" causes emacs to crash,
producing the error msg
        Fatal error (6).Aborted (core dumped)
The gdb backtrace on the core file is as follows:
  #0  0x00bdf7a2 in _dl_sysinfo_int80 () from /lib/ld-linux.so.2
  #1  0x00c20c76 in kill () from /lib/tls/libc.so.6
  #2  0x080db899 in abort ()
  #3  <signal handler called>
  #4  0x00bdf7a2 in _dl_sysinfo_int80 () from /lib/ld-linux.so.2
  #5  0x00c20c76 in kill () from /lib/tls/libc.so.6
  #6  0x080db3ea in abort ()
  #7  0x08128b2f in re_compile_pattern ()
  #8  0x08123e24 in re_compile_pattern ()
  #9  0x08123e48 in re_compile_pattern ()
  #10 0x0808e6c3 in ?? ()
  #11 0xffffffff in ?? ()
  #12 0xbfffe570 in ?? ()
  #13 0x00000000 in ?? ()

Here are some data points:

(1) This only happens to me.  Other people can read mail with emacs without
    any problems.

(2) This behavior persists even if I rename my RMAIL file (so RMAIL file
    corruption doesn't appear to be an issue).

(3) This behavior persists even if I use the -q, -u, or --no-site-file
    command line options.

(4) I tried this on several machines on our network; this behavior occurs
    on all the machines I tested.

(5) I *can* visit the RMAIL file (using C-x C-f RMAIL), after which I can
    run commands to delete messages, reply to messages and the like.
    However, if I issue the rmail-get-new-mail command (bound to the "g"
    key in RMAIL mode), emacs crashes.

If anybody has any suggestions as to how I can fix this problem, I would be
greatly obliged.

Thanks.

-- 
Art Werschulz (8-{)}   "Metaphors be with you."  -- bumper sticker
GCS/M (GAT): d? -p+ c++ l u+(-) e--- m* s n+ h f g+ w+ t++ r- y? 
Internet: agw STRUDEL cs.columbia.edu
ATTnet:   Columbia U. (212) 939-7060, Fordham U. (212) 636-6325