[Users] crash on Windows 8.1 caused by libcairo-2.dll

[Andrej Kacian]

On Tue, 13 Jun 2017 12:00:05 +0300
Cristian Secară <liste at secarica.ro> wrote:

> I used Claws Mail (3.15.0, x64) on Windows 7 on my laptop for the last
> two months or so without problems. Now on same laptop I installed
> Windows 8.1 clean (also 64 bit) and then the same Claws Mail crashed
> every 3-5 minutes. I could not identify any pattern before crash, I
> also disabled all plugins but there was no difference.
> 
> The crash report involved libcairo-2.dll.
> I took this file from a gtk+bundle package as found here
> http://win32builder.gnome.org/
> (which then asked for libpng16-16.dll, also found in that package) and
> so the crashes no longer occurred. Later I replaced the same files
> from Inkscape package (also 64 bit install) and so Claws Mail appears
> now to be well and stable.
> 
> Sounds familiar ?

Hi,

yes, this sounds familiar, as multiple Windows 8 and Windows 10 users
have reported such crashes. However, since nobody on the dev team has
been able to reproduce them, it is hard to do anything about it.

One possible solution would be to upgrade to a newer version of cairo.
We're using an older version deliberately, due to a performance
regression[1] that AFAIK has not yet been addressed upstream. But maybe
it's time to bite the bullet, since a slow application that runs
reliably is better than a fast application that crashes regularly.

Another thing to consider is that it might not solve the issue. The
fact that mentioned DLLs from Gnome are working is a new fact for me. I
will go over their build system[2] to see if they're applying any
interesting patches or using any special build options, and I can have
a test build out in a few days, if you or other affected users are
willing to test them.

I know that Gerard has some random crashes related to the webkit HTML
plugin even on Windows 7, and I vaguely remember them also being
related to the cairo library. Maybe we can kill both bugs with one
slap. :)


1. https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=71833
2. https://git.gnome.org/browse/gtk3-build-system/tree/

Regards,
-- 
Andrej