Description of problem:
Gnus has been entering infinite loops for me while splitting mail.  Today I got a chance to look into it.  The problem is in boyer_moore(), in search.c:

		  /* Use signed comparison if appropriate
		     to make cursor+infinity sure to be > p_limit.
		     Assuming that the buffer lies in a range of addresses
		     that are all "positive" (as ints) or all "negative",
		     either kind of comparison will work as long
		     as we don't step by infinity.  So pick the kind
		     that works when we do step by infinity.  */
		  if ((EMACS_INT) (p_limit + infinity) > (EMACS_INT) p_limit)
		    while ((EMACS_INT) cursor <= (EMACS_INT) p_limit)
		      cursor += BM_tab[*cursor];
		  else
		    while ((EMACS_UINT) cursor <= (EMACS_UINT) p_limit)
		      cursor += BM_tab[*cursor];

it takes the signed (EMACS_INT) loop, but that fails because cursor is (unsigned char *) 0x7fffc440, whereas p_limit is (unsigned char *) 0x80001260.

infinity, computed earlier in that function, is 0x37dac21, but I don't see how a positive value would have helped.  It seems to me that we have to check that we won't be crossing this boundary starting at cursor rather than p_limit, or maybe both.  I haven't thought much about it.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
emacs-22.3-4.fc10.i386

How reproducible:
Not much.  It happens at random, because of address space randomization.  Most often it hits when splitting a lot of email.