C++, debugging symbols and GDB - c++

Question

We developed a dynamic library L.so and an executable X which uses it. Both compiled with debugging info. While running gdb X:
Reading symbols from X...Segmentation fault (core dumped)
The X contains from 4 objects and I found out which one causes the crash. Lets say, if S.cpp is compiled, it crashes in gdb. S.cpp:
class Service {
private:
...
private:
...
LongTaskService longTaskService_; // Implementation is in L.so
If I remove this method from S.cpp, the crash disappears:
bool Service::downloadFile(const string &mapName, int &taskId) {
Properties dProps;
if(!config_.get("downloadService", dProps)) {
LOGG(Logger::ERROR) << "Failed to get config props for downloadService" << Logger::FLUSH;
return false;
}
string url = dProps.get("downloadUrl");
if(url == "") {
LOGG(Logger::ERROR) << "Failed to get url for downloadService" << Logger::FLUSH;
return false;
}
if(url[url.size()-1] != "/")
url += "/";
LOGG(Logger::DEBUG) << "Initializing download from "<< url << mapName << Logger::FLUSH;
URL dUrl(url+mapName);
vector<string> outPath = {workDir_, mapName};
URL outFile(FsUtil::makePath(outPath));
taskId = longTaskService_.submit(DownloadTask::run, dUrl, outFile); // This line causes problems
return true;
}
I wonder why is it like this and can I avoid the crash while debugging?

Answer 1

The usual thing to do here is run "gdb gdb" and then file a bug report with the stack trace.
Another possibility is that you could try updating to a newer version of gdb. That might help.
Anyway it is just a bug. Very new versions of gdb have a bit of protection against some crashes of this sort; but protecting against all crashes is hard.