[XeTeX] XeTeX segmentation faults

[Jonathan Kew]

On 15 Jun 2004, at 8:42 am, Musa Furber wrote:
> Here is the last entry in the xelatex log:
>
> **********
>
> Host Name:      musafurber.local
> Date/Time:      2004-06-15 10:31:04 +0300
> OS Version:     10.3.3 (Build 7F44)
> Report Version: 2
>
> Command: xelatex
> Path:    /usr/local/teTex/bin/powerpc-apple-darwin6.8/xelatex
> Version: ??? (???)
> PID:     361
> Thread:  0
>
> Exception:  EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
> Codes:      KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS (0x0001) at 0x06842000
>
> Thread 0 Crashed:
> 0   ATS          	0x96c1aa40 FixPostScriptName + 0x128
> 1   ATS          	0x96c195cc FOGetNameInternal + 0x2a4
> 2   ATS          	0x96c0af04 _eFOGetName + 0x288
> 3   ATS          	0x96c0ac58 FOGetName + 0x60
> 4   com.apple.QD 	0x915b7be4 ATSUGetIndFontName + 0xa0
> 5   xelatex      	0x0005275c init_font_dict + 0xc8 (xetexmac.c:61)
> ...etc

OK, that's helpful. I remember you mentioned that the samples using CM 
fonts worked OK, but others crashed; this is consistent with that 
behavior. It looks like there is a font installed in your system that 
is somehow confusing Apple Type Services; possibly a damaged/corrupt 
font file.

What's happening is that the first time you try to load a new font, 
xetex builds an internal table of the fonts installed in your system. 
During that process, it asks each installed font for its name(s), and 
it is within that call into the ATS subsystem that something is 
crashing. Have you possibly installed or activated a new font anywhere? 
If you can't think of any new fonts in your system, you might need to 
experiment with deactivating groups of fonts in order to identify the 
problem file. (Remember that fonts may be installed in several 
.../Library/Fonts locations, as well as the Fonts folder of your 
Classic system.)

I'll take a look at adding some extra error-checking in this area of 
the program; however, given that the crash seems to be occurring deep 
inside a system library, I'm not sure there's much that xetex can do 
about it. If you can isolate which font is triggering the failure, I 
would be glad to take a look at the font file and see if I can tell 
what is wrong; we may be able to file a bug report with Apple and get 
ATS made more robust. I suspect, by the way, that the bad font may lead 
to crashes in other applications as well, if they happen to access it; 
xetex just brings the problem to your attention because of the way it 
pre-caches all the font names.

Hope this helps,

Jonathan