Re: That "goto" problem

From: Mud Administrator (absolut@b63740.student.cwru.edu)
Date: 07/22/94


On Fri, 22 Jul 1994, Alexander J Skrabut wrote:

> 
> It seems that you (and alot of coders out there) don't know how to use 
> the debugger utility properly. Here are a few hints:
> 
> When you compile your mud, make sure you use the flag -g.

Right...we do that.

> Make sure that you have limit coredumpsize 1000 in your .login or .cshrc.
> When the mud crashes, it will dump memory into a file called 'core'. To 

Actually, it never did a core dump.

We used gdb to debug it.  Just typed gdb bin/circle and let it go, 
granted, we have never used it before (we usually know the cuase of the 
crash).  When I logged in, and tried to do a goto...it didn't 
"crash"...jsut sort of hung there, as we kept getting that "memory" 
error.  So, not knowing exactly how to use the debugger, we just rebooted 
the machine, assuming that it was something to do with the memory on the 
computer.  This seemed to work fine, as any other Imp could "goto" with 
no problem.  It was only a few hours later (I had to do a radio show) 
that I re-logged in, and noticed that it STILL crashed.  So I let autorun 
reboot the MUD, logged in as Ionic, and everything worked fine.  Then I 
logged in as me (Ace) and then discovered that it was just my character. 

I know exactly what the problem is now, however.  A LONG time ago, I had 
changed poofIn/Out to a specials2 struct form, as I really hated the fact 
that I would have to re-do my poofs everytime I had logged out of the 
MUD.  Putting the poofs in specials2 was a cheap, easy fix.  I never 
really looked at it much...I just changed it.  I assumed it would make no 
difference.  And it never did, until a few days ago.  Everything would 
work fine, and then all of a sudden...crash.  I have since changed the 
code, so that I can re-fix it later.

However, thanks for the info on how to use the debugger.  As I said, I 
never used one before, since I always knew what was crashing the MUD.  
But, if I ever happen to need it again, at least I'll know how to use it...

Ace
AbsolutMUD (b63740.student.cwru.edu 4000)



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