I have the exact same problem, with debtags ver 0.99.4 Happens every time I run debtags. However, I did an apt-build install debtags, and the problem dissappeared. Attached is the log from gdb. I hope it is useful.
System: Version: testing/unstable, apt prefers testing Kernel: 2.6.8-2-k7 Shell: bash -- Felipe Sateler
Script started on Sat Aug 6 17:54:06 2005 GNU gdb 6.3-debian Copyright 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc. GDB is free software, covered by the GNU General Public License, and you are welcome to change it and/or distribute copies of it under certain conditions. Type "show copying" to see the conditions. There is absolutely no warranty for GDB. Type "show warranty" for details. This GDB was configured as "i386-linux"...(no debugging symbols found) Using host libthread_db library "/lib/tls/i686/cmov/libthread_db.so.1". (gdb) run Starting program: /usr/bin/debtags update (no debugging symbols found) (no debugging symbols found) (no debugging symbols found) (no debugging symbols found) (no debugging symbols found) (no debugging symbols found) (no debugging symbols found) (no debugging symbols found) (no debugging symbols found) (no debugging symbols found) (no debugging symbols found) (no debugging symbols found) (no debugging symbols found) (no debugging symbols found) 0% [Working] 0% [Connecting to people.debian.org] 0% [Connecting to people.debian.org] 0% [Connecting to people.debian.org] Get:1 http://people.debian.org/~enrico/tags/tags-current.gz [157kB] 0% [1 Tag database 0/157kB 0%] 78% [1 Tag database 122450/157kB 78%] 83% [1 Tag database 130634/157kB 83%] Get:2 http://people.debian.org/~enrico/tags/vocabulary.gz [8073B] 96% [2 Tag vocabulary 2090/8073B 25%] 96% [1 Tag database gzip 0] [2 Tag vocabulary 3113/8073B 38%] 99% [1 Tag database gzip 139264] 99% [Working] 99% [2 Tag vocabulary gzip 0] 100% [Working] Fetched 165kB in 3s (54.6kB/s) Reading tag data and vocabulary for http://people.debian.org/~enrico/tags/... Writing system vocabulary... Writing merged tag database... Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault. 0x4b2ef2ed in mallopt () from /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6 (gdb) where #0 0x4b2ef2ed in mallopt () from /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6 #1 0x4b2eeb1d in mallopt () from /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6 #2 0x4b2ede83 in malloc () from /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6 #3 0x43a5450e in operator new () from /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.5 #4 0x43a40c7b in std::__default_alloc_template<true, 0>::_S_chunk_alloc () from /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.5 #5 0x43a40b8d in std::__default_alloc_template<true, 0>::_S_refill () from /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.5 #6 0x43a40888 in std::__default_alloc_template<true, 0>::allocate () from /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.5 #7 0x080649c4 in std::_Rb_tree<std::string, std::string, std::_Identity<std::string>, std::less<std::string>, std::allocator<std::string> >::_Rb_tree () #8 0x08065425 in std::_Rb_tree<Tagcoll::OpSet<std::string>, std::pair<Tagcoll::OpSet<std::string> const, Tagcoll::OpSet<std::string> >, std::_Select1st<std::pair<Tagcoll::OpSet<std::string> const, Tagcoll::OpSet<std::string> > >, std::less<Tagcoll::OpSet<std::string> >, std::allocator<std::pair<Tagcoll::OpSet<std::string> const, Tagcoll::OpSet<std::string> > > >::_M_create_node () #9 0x080653cb in std::_Rb_tree<Tagcoll::OpSet<std::string>, std::pair<Tagcoll::OpSet<std::string> const, Tagcoll::OpSet<std::string> >, std::_Select1st<std::pair<Tagcoll::OpSet<std::string> const, Tagcoll::OpSet<std::string> > >, std::less<Tagcoll::OpSet<std::string> >, std::allocator<std::pair<Tagcoll::OpSet<std::string> const, Tagcoll::OpSet<std::string> > > >::_M_insert () #10 0x080650d8 in std::_Rb_tree<Tagcoll::OpSet<std::string>, std::pair<Tagcoll:---Type <return> to continue, or q <return> to quit--- :OpSet<std::string> const, Tagcoll::OpSet<std::string> >, std::_Select1st<std::pair<Tagcoll::OpSet<std::string> const, Tagcoll::OpSet<std::string> > >, std::less<Tagcoll::OpSet<std::string> >, std::allocator<std::pair<Tagcoll::OpSet<std::string> const, Tagcoll::OpSet<std::string> > > >::insert_unique () #11 0x08064447 in Tagcoll::ItemGrouper<std::string, std::string>::consume () #12 0x4003d9f3 in Tagcoll::InputMerger<std::string, std::string>::output () from /usr/lib/libtagcoll.so.0 #13 0x400b7f59 in DebtagsUpdate::updateDebtagsDatabase () from /usr/lib/libdebtags.so.0 #14 0x400b3d9f in Debtags::StandardEnvironment::updateDebtagsDatabase () from /usr/lib/libdebtags.so.0 #15 0x08059574 in std::_Rb_tree_rotate_right () #16 0x4b291970 in __libc_start_main () from /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6 #17 0x0804da41 in ?? () (gdb) quit The program is running. Exit anyway? (y or n) y Script done on Sat Aug 6 17:54:30 2005