[SOLVED] Android native application running even after segmentation fault with same PID

Android native application running even after segmentation fault with same PID

I'm running custom android on i.MX51 board and observed a strange issue with an application.

I got logs in n logcat of segmentation fault of an application (native, written using NDK) :

03-19 15:26:46.763 I/DEBUG   ( 2234): pid: 2257, tid: 2257  >>> /usr/bin/powerMgr <<<
03-19 15:26:46.763 I/DEBUG   ( 2234): signal 8 (SIGFPE), code 0 (?), fault addr 000008d1

Even after this the application continued to run with same PID (2257) which I confirmed from both logcat and ps command. Is this possible ? If yes, how ??

Solution

That's not a segmentation fault (SIGSEGV, signal 11). You got a SIGFPE, signal 8, possibly as the result of an integer divide-by-zero. The signal handling didn't kill the process, so it just continued executing.

Many ARM CPUs lack hardware division instructions, so the SIGFPEis thrown explicitly from the software divide function. As a result you don't get a meaningful value in "fault addr".

The treatment of this has changed over time; newer versions of Android are a bit better about it.