bash 3.0 problem report - "assertion botched" abort if TERM is invalid on login

[Lund, Nathan]

Dear Sirs:

 

This problem was seen in version:

 

GNU bash, version 3.00.0(1)-release (powerpc-wrs-linux-gnu)

 

Problem statement:

 

When telnetting to a target that will open a bash shell, if TERM is set
to a non-recognized terminal type, bash exits with a cryptic message,
closing the telnet session.

 

Example:

 

remote_system> setenv TERM no_term

tcsh: using dumb terminal settings.

remote_system> telnet bash_system

[...]

bash_system login: root

[...]

malloc: unknown:0: assertion botched

free: called with unallocated block argument

last command: exit

Aborting...Connection closed by foreign host.

remote_system> _

 

It is my understanding that in earlier versions of bash, the lack of a
valid TERM setting would result in defaulting to dumb terminal settings
on login.  At the least, it seems that a better error message might be
appropriate.  As an example of preferable behavior, logging into a
machine/account which will invoke tcsh, we get:

 

[...]

tcsh: No entry for terminal type "no_term"

tcsh: using dumb terminal settings.

[...]

 

This is easily re-creatable, and seems to have been seen by others, for
example see the following case observed when messing around with TERM in
bash 2.04:

http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bash/2005-05/msg00052.html

 

Please feel free to contact me should you require any further specifics
regarding my environment.

 

Nathan Lund

Software Engineer

Xerox Corporation

1350 Jefferson Road

M/S 0801-80A

Rochester, NY  14623