Re: stack overflow in regexp matcher with gdb

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>]

> error in process filter: gdb-stack-list-locals-handler: Stack overflow in regexp matcher
> error in process filter: Stack overflow in regexp matcher

Please try to enable "Options => Enter Debugger on Error", and if that
fails to give you a backtrace, then try M-: (setq debug-on-signal t) RET
[ But note that this latter option will make your Emacs session
  "inconvenient" because the debugger will be triggered too often.  ]

That should hopefully give you a backtrace which can help fix the problem.
Of course, M-x report-emacs-bug is also a good idea.
In any case, you'll probably want to try Emacs-24.3 first, to see if
this bug hasn't been fixed already.

> I don't know where it comes from, I've been searching on the web and
> found a bug report was entered some years ago but it seems it ended here.

It means that the backtracking-based regexp-matcher recursed too deep
(probably because some "*" repetition matched many more times than
normally expected).  The best fix usually is to change the regexp so it
backtracks less (i.e. uses less stack space) or so the match fails
much earlier.

> Is there any way to turn that thing off (whatever it is doing) so I can at
> least continue debugging in a normal way ?

Not sure:  using M-x gud-gdb RET instead of M-x gdb would be a way, but
that requires re-starting the GDB session (and it gives you a much more
barebones UI, tho that's what I use personally).


        Stefan