Subject: Re: bug#59029: Dumping Emacs crashes when buffers have overlays

From: Matt Armstrong <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 08 Nov 2022 07:59:45 -0800

Stefan Monnier <[email-masked]> writes:

>> See the code for dump_interval_node() in pdumper.c below.
>
> This code is indeed incorrect.

I have time to work on this, but I don't have a clear path and would
like to hear opinions.

I see two options.

a) Drop support for dumping overlays in buffers, as if
`delete-all-overlays' were called for all buffers before dumping.  Fix
involves relaxing the abort() calls to merely print warnings.

b) Restore support, and test it.

For (b) I'm not keen on wiring up a single-purpose test under test/*
somewhere just to test pdumping with overlays.  How about hooking in to
loadup.el to populate a dummy buffer with overlays before dumping?
Emacs could delete it early, so it wouldn't be gone before users
noticed.

Or, are there other alternatives I'm missing?