[GRASS-dev] Re: grass-dev Digest, Vol 23, Issue 3

[Glynn Clements]

Michael Barton wrote:

> >> From startpanel, define new location with epsg codes
> > Used 4326 for WGS84
> > Returned the following message:
> >
> > g.proj returned the following informational message: child killed:  
> > SIGABRT
> 
> Ahha, the SIGABRT problem. I have no idea what it means, but have  
> encountered it before. What that has meant when I've run into it is  
> that something wasn't installed right. If you try to drag-and-drop  
> the contents of the compressed WinGRASS distribution file, sometimes  
> something gets missed. I assume that it's some kind of hidden (to  
> Windows) file, but don't know what it is. The result is kind of  
> random SIGABRT errors. I suspect that it is a problem with some  
> Windows unzip applications but not others, though it may be a  
> function of Windows copy I suppose.
> 
> My solution is to EXTRACT the files to C:/ instead of doing a drag- 
> and-drop.
> 
> Try it and see if this fixes your problem. It's kind of black magic  
> and I wish I knew exactly what caused it. But the error is  
> inscrutable, at least to me.

I'm not sure about Windows, but on Unix the most common reason for
SIGABRT is due to assert() (which calls abort(), which raises
SIGABRT).

A failed assert() should print the actual test to stderr, but the GUI
might be discarding that.

As for why drag-and-drop may not work, it's important to extract
archives in binary mode, not text mode or "autodetect" (i.e. don't
perform LF->CRLF conversion).

-- 
Glynn Clements <glynn at gclements.plus.com>