short perl script to generate these long device-names:

$agent="nonexistent_agent";
$devices="x" x 65536;
$name="agent_name";

for (my $count=1;$count<=20;$count++) {
$fd=sprintf '<fencedevice agent="%s%s" devices="%s" name="%s%s"/>', $agent, $count, $devices, $name, $count;
print $fd."\n";
}

had to do:
echo 1 > /proc/sys/fs/suid_dumpable 
(see http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/online/pages/man5/proc.5.html)
to be able to produce the core in standard environment.

Created attachment 646331 [details]
ricci core

Thanks, here we go:

#0  0x0000000000416b20 in _M_refdata
    (this=0x7ff088d4b550)
    at /usr/include/c++/4.4.6/bits/basic_string.h:215
#1  _S_construct
    (this=0x7ff088d4b550)
    at /usr/include/c++/4.4.6/bits/basic_string.tcc:158
#2  basic_string    
    (this=0x7ff088d4b550)
    at /usr/include/c++/4.4.6/bits/basic_string.tcc:222
#3  File::shred
    (this=0x7ff088d4b550)
    at File.cpp:201
Cannot access memory at address 0x7ff088c0ab58

re [comment 5]:

for "len" variable at File::shred: len = 2295641392

Jarda, do you have any core dump limits imposed on your system?
I am not sure, but the provided core seems incomplete.
Could you try to recreate the core with unlimited "maximum size of core
files created"?

it's been captured with core unlimited...

OK, I used mismatched version of ricci originally (there should be a big
fat warning for that in debugger or I am blind).

With a proper one:

#0  File::read
    (this=<value optimized out>)
    at File.cpp:144

#1  File::operator String const
    (this=<value optimized out>)
    at File.cpp:215

#2  readXML
    (filename=<value optimized out>)
    at XML.cpp:303

#3  clusterinfo()
    at Ricci.cpp:464

#4  Ricci::ricci_header
    (this=<value optimized out>, authed=true, full=true)
    at Ricci.cpp:82

#5  Ricci::hello
    (this=<value optimized out>, authed=<value optimized out>)
    at Ricci.cpp:103

#6  ClientInstance::run
    (this=0x136bec0)
    at ClientInstance.cpp:113

#7  start_thread
    (thread_obj=<value optimized out>)
    at Thread.cpp:31

#8  start_thread
    (arg=0x7ff088d4c700)
    at pthread_create.c:301

#9  ??()

#10 ??()

This makes this equivalent with [bug 815752 comment 8] backtrace.

I can see that while Jarda puts emphasis on parameter length (Jarda,
could you recheck with longish parameter, but with overall XML size
under 200 kB?), the real issue lays in what [bug bug 815752] describes
+ tries (naively) to fix.

In File::read's frame:

> (gdb) p len
> $1 = 1313179

In other words, Jarda's cluster.conf has more than 1.25 MB.
This corresponds directly to how this file was probably generated
described in [comment 1] (65600 * 20 / 1024.0 / 1024 = 1.251,
which is a bit less than a total size of 1313179 / 1024.0 / 1024 = 1.252
that includes surrounding mandatory tags).

Fix for [bug 815752] just naively increases the stack size per thread,
from 256kB to 1MB, which is still too few in Jarda's case.
BTW. "ulimit -s" in my RHEL 6.3 VM shows me that process can have
up to 10 MB stack size by default, which is equal to what pthread library
uses as the default minimum stack size per thread [*].

Anyway, it is a good practise not abuse stack for clearly heap-ish things
(big objects) as is the case with XML content.  See also [1].


[*]
# cat <<EOF | gcc -xc -lpthread -o test-stack -
> #include <pthread.h>
> #include <stdio.h>
> 
> int main(int argc, char *argv[])
> {
>    size_t stacksize;
>    pthread_attr_t attr;
>    pthread_attr_init(&attr);
>    pthread_attr_getstacksize (&attr, &stacksize);
>    printf("Default stack size = %d\n", stacksize);
>    
> }
> EOF
# ./test-stack
Default stack size = 10485760


[1] http://stackoverflow.com/a/8650249

Created attachment 648116 [details]
This should be a proper patch for ricci side instead of pthread_attr_setstacksize change as in [attachment 579845 [details]].

See also [bug 815752].

as as confirmed now, just single long 64k parameter does not crash ricci, so it must have been the overall size limit mentioned earlier.

Since the problem described in this bug report should be
resolved in a recent advisory, it has been closed with a
resolution of ERRATA.

For information on the advisory, and where to find the updated
files, follow the link below.

If the solution does not work for you, open a new bug report.

http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2013-0453.html