Fatal error (6).Aborted (core dumped)

[Anthony Goreham]

Emacs dies with the above message every time I run it on the console.
It still works OK under X.  I am using Emacs 21.2 on RedHat Linux
(version 7.0 with some updates).

I have found the problem goes away in either of the following cases:

1.  If I comment out anything in my .emacs that might cause emacs to
    use highlighting (font-lock-mode, show-paren-mode, transient-mark-mode).
2.  If I reset the $TERM variable to something other than "linux" or
    "ansi".  That is, I don't get a crash when TERM="vt420" or "xterm".

Is this a bug in emacs, or a problem in my system setup?
Can anyone give me a clue about what needs fixing?

In case it helps, here's what I get when I run "gdb emacs core":

Program terminated with signal 6, Aborted.
Reading symbols from /usr/X11R6/lib/libXaw.so.7...done.
Loaded symbols for /usr/X11R6/lib/libXaw.so.7
Reading symbols from /usr/X11R6/lib/libXmu.so.6...done.
Loaded symbols for /usr/X11R6/lib/libXmu.so.6
Reading symbols from /usr/X11R6/lib/libXt.so.6...done.
Loaded symbols for /usr/X11R6/lib/libXt.so.6
Reading symbols from /usr/X11R6/lib/libSM.so.6...done.
Loaded symbols for /usr/X11R6/lib/libSM.so.6
Reading symbols from /usr/X11R6/lib/libICE.so.6...done.
Loaded symbols for /usr/X11R6/lib/libICE.so.6
Reading symbols from /usr/X11R6/lib/libXext.so.6...done.
Loaded symbols for /usr/X11R6/lib/libXext.so.6
Reading symbols from /usr/X11R6/lib/libXpm.so.4...done.
Loaded symbols for /usr/X11R6/lib/libXpm.so.4
Reading symbols from /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6...done.
Loaded symbols for /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6
Reading symbols from /lib/i686/libm.so.6...done.
Loaded symbols for /lib/i686/libm.so.6
Reading symbols from /lib/i686/libc.so.6...done.
Loaded symbols for /lib/i686/libc.so.6
Reading symbols from /lib/ld-linux.so.2...done.
Loaded symbols for /lib/ld-linux.so.2
Reading symbols from /lib/libnss_files.so.2...done.
Loaded symbols for /lib/libnss_files.so.2
#0  0x40249a01 in __kill () from /lib/i686/libc.so.6
(gdb) quit

-- 
Anthony Goreham       The Queen's College, Oxford OX1 4AW, UK