Yelp crashes regularly or keeps loading indefinitely.

[KIAaze]

Binary package hint: yelp

Yelp crashes regularly or keeps loading indefinitely.
I managed to identify three reproducible crashes.

It is possible that these crashes are due to bad links in the documentation since unlike the other links, the ones which cause crashes seem to be of the form "file://...".

Link examples:
==============
1)Non-working links:
"Learning how to program" link:
file://///usr/share/gnome/help/programming/C/programming.xml#_auto-gen-id-1

Note: Running it from command-line works:
$yelp file://///usr/share/gnome/help/programming/C/programming.xml#_auto-gen-id-1

2)Working link, but causes "double free or corruption" crash if clicked after copying link address:
"Advanced topics" link:
file:///usr/share/gnome/help/advanced-topics/C/advanced-topics.xml

3)Working link example:
"Writing your own programs" link:
ghelp:programming

Crash #1:
=========
1)Start yelp:
$yelp
2)Click on "advanced topics"
3)Click on "Writing your own programs"
4)Click on "Learning how to program"
Now it keeps "loading..." indefinitely for me.
5)Click on "Learning how to program" again (or any other link actually, even the home button), while it is still loading.
That's where it crashes for me with the following message:
"**
** Yelp:ERROR:(yelp-document.c:275):yelp_document_cancel_page: assertion failed: (document != NULL && YELP_IS_DOCUMENT (document))
Aborted"

Crash #2:
=========
1)Start yelp:
$yelp
2)Click on "advanced topics"
3)Click on "Writing your own programs"
4)Right-click on "Learning how to program" and select "copy link address"
5)Click on "Learning how to program" again (left or right)
That's where it crashes with the following message:
"*** glibc detected *** yelp: double free or corruption (!prev): 0x09a29080 ***"
I attached the full backtrace in backtrace_crash2.log.

Crash #3 (similar to crash #2):
===============================
1)Start yelp:
$yelp
2)Right-click on "advanced topics" and select "copy link address"
3)Click on "advanced topics" again (left or right)
That's where it crashes with the following message:
"*** glibc detected *** yelp: double free or corruption (fasttop): 0x08868aa8 ***"
I attached the full backtrace in backtrace_crash3.log.

Yelp version info:
==================
$yelp --version
GNOME yelp 2.22.1

[KIAaze (zohn-joidberg)]

And the second backtrace...

[Duncan Lithgow (duncan-lithgow)]

I can reproduce all three crashes just as you've described them

[mbrierst (mbrierst)]

I've come across the same bug in the help a couple times. It was enough that I just wrote off the help app at first, but I gave it another try with some success on other help terms later, so I didn't quite give up on it, and now I'm confirming your bug.

One of many ways to reproduce:
1. Open help
2. Search for "startup"
3. Click the first link (it's file:///usr/share/gnome/help/users-admin/C/users-admin.xml#goscustsession-5)
4. It won't load, so click it again or any other link.
5. Window disappears.

[Bill Filler (bfiller)]

As described, there are actually 2 different crashes happening in this bug. I'm attaching patches to fix both (patches against jaunty version yelp_2.24.0-0ubuntu2).
10_fix_free_crash.patch - fixes crash #2 described above (double free problem)
11_fix_cancel_page_crash.patch - fixes crash #1 (trying to load another page after loading a non-working link)

[Liu shu (shu-liu)]

Bill

I supposed the above two patchs as final frozen work around to fix the sudden crash issue
So please kindly inform how to make the patch available
Install method , or any independence needed...