Re: pg_dump fails to dump database

pgsql-bugs(at)postgresql(dot)org writes:
> pg_dump in postgreSQL 7.0.3 fails to dump database. Problem is
> becomeUser procedure in which lastusername stores pointer to name of
> username which is currently connected. becomeUser is called for the
> first time in dumpSchema, which allocated memory, calls becomeUser and
> then frees memory. Then becomeUser is called again during dumping of
> table data, but lastusername points to deallocated memory, so it
> receives SIGSEGV (in strcmp).

Hm. This is clearly erroneous code, but the odds of a coredump seem
*extremely* remote --- as borne out by the fact that this bug has been
in there for a good long while, and hasn't been noticed before.
strcmp as such isn't going to care whether the string it's pointed
at has been freed and/or overwritten. It could only coredump if it
scanned past the end of physically allocated memory before hitting a
null, and that seems pretty unlikely, especially given that the other
input string is likely to be short. What sort of platform are you
running on?

Philip, I see that becomeUser is toast in current sources, but it
seems like _reconnectAsUser might still have the same logic flaw;
wouldn't it be a good idea to make it strdup the value it saves in
currUser?

regards, tom lane