# New to ruby & tk -- seg fault with many buttons

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/new-to-ruby-tk-seg-fault-with-many-buttons/94421>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [May 3, 2006, 7:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/new-to-ruby-tk-seg-fault-with-many-buttons/94421 "2006-05-03T19:02:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2006, 7:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/new-to-ruby-tk-seg-fault-with-many-buttons/94421/1 "2006-05-03T19:02:47Z")

</div>

I’m trying to teach myself ruby/tk, and am getting a seg fault with the  
program below (part of a hangman game). Actually, it only seg faults  
some of the time (if you hit Quit right away, or just one letter, then  
Quit).

I’m seeing the seg fault on a Debian 3.1 machine:

$ ./bb  
You just hit the i button.  
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/tk.rb:1194: [BUG] Segmentation fault  
ruby 1.8.2 (2005-04-11) [i386-linux]

Aborted

I tried it on a Mac, and it did not seg fault (ruby 1.8.1 (2003-12-25)  
[powerpc-darwin]).  
Also, odd things seem to make it work ok (removing the -w, putting  
everything in the top frame, removing a few letter buttons).

I’ve searched the list and FAQ and google a bit, but didn’t see  
anything obvious. Let me know if I’m just doing something stupid.  
And thanks for any help.

jeff

#! /usr/bin/ruby -w

require ‘tk’

def guess(ch)  
print “You just hit the #{ch} button.\n”  
end

root = TkRoot.new { title “buggy buttons” }  
top = TkFrame.new(root)  
bottom = TkFrame.new(root)

quit=TkButton.new(top) { text ’ Quit '; command {exit}; pack }

g=TkButton.new(top) {text ‘g’; command {guess(‘g’)}; pack }  
h=TkButton.new(top) {text ‘h’; command {guess(‘h’)}; pack }  
i=TkButton.new(top) {text ‘i’; command {guess(‘i’)}; pack }  
j=TkButton.new(top) {text ‘j’; command {guess(‘j’)}; pack }  
k=TkButton.new(top) {text ‘k’; command {guess(‘k’)}; pack }  
l=TkButton.new(top) {text ‘l’; command {guess(‘l’)}; pack }  
m=TkButton.new(top) {text ‘m’; command {guess(‘m’)}; pack }  
n=TkButton.new(bottom) {text ‘n’; command {guess(‘n’)}; pack }  
o=TkButton.new(bottom) {text ‘o’; command {guess(‘o’)}; pack }  
p=TkButton.new(bottom) {text ‘p’; command {guess(‘p’)}; pack }  
q=TkButton.new(bottom) {text ‘q’; command {guess(‘q’)}; pack }  
r=TkButton.new(bottom) {text ‘r’; command {guess(‘r’)}; pack }  
s=TkButton.new(bottom) {text ‘s’; command {guess(‘s’)}; pack }  
t=TkButton.new(bottom) {text ‘t’; command {guess(‘t’)}; pack }  
u=TkButton.new(bottom) {text ‘u’; command {guess(‘u’)}; pack }  
v=TkButton.new(bottom) {text ‘v’; command {guess(‘v’)}; pack }  
w=TkButton.new(bottom) {text ‘w’; command {guess(‘w’)}; pack }  
x=TkButton.new(bottom) {text ‘x’; command {guess(‘x’)}; pack }  
y=TkButton.new(bottom) {text ‘y’; command {guess(‘y’)}; pack }  
z=TkButton.new(bottom) {text ‘z’; command {guess(‘z’)}; pack }

top.pack  
bottom.pack  
Tk.mainloop

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2006, 7:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/new-to-ruby-tk-seg-fault-with-many-buttons/94421/2 "2006-05-03T19:05:19Z")

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From: removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid (Jeff Knerr)  
Subject: new to ruby & tk – seg fault with many buttons  
Date: Wed, 3 May 2006 06:01:43 +0900  
Message-ID: [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)

> I’m trying to teach myself ruby/tk, and am getting a seg fault with the  
> program below (part of a hangman game). Actually, it only seg faults  
> some of the time (if you hit Quit right away, or just one letter, then Quit).  
> (snip)  
> $ ./bb  
> You just hit the i button.  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/tk.rb:1194: [BUG] Segmentation fault  
> ruby 1.8.2 (2005-04-11) [i386-linux]

Could you try the latest version ?  
It may be the bug which was fixed at last month.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2006, 7:08pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/new-to-ruby-tk-seg-fault-with-many-buttons/94421/3 "2006-05-03T19:08:07Z")

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> > > $ ./bb  
> > > You just hit the i button.  
> > > /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/tk.rb:1194: [BUG] Segmentation fault  
> > > ruby 1.8.2 (2005-04-11) [i386-linux]
> > 
> > Could you try the latest version ?  
> > It may be the bug which was fixed at last month.

That did it. I get some warnings, but I found some previous posts  
that said they were expected and not a problem.

$ ruby -v  
ruby 1.8.4 (2005-12-24) [i686-linux]  
$ ./bb  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/tk.rb:2313: warning: redefine encoding=  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/tk.rb:2316: warning: redefine encoding  
You just hit the i button.  
$

I should have tried that first…sorry. Thanks for the help!

jeff