I don't have a Karmic install handy to check the OP's reported behavior, but I can confirm that I *don't* get a segfault in Jaunty:
$ python
Python 2.6.2 (release26-maint, Apr 19 2009, 01:56:41)
[GCC 4.3.3] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import os
>>> os.execlp('true')
$
I don't have a Karmic install handy to check the OP's reported behavior, but I can confirm that I *don't* get a segfault in Jaunty:
$ python
Python 2.6.2 (release26-maint, Apr 19 2009, 01:56:41)
[GCC 4.3.3] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import os
>>> os.execlp('true')
$