GSL-1.2 gsl_eigen_symmv() Problem

[Adam Johansen <amj26 at hermes dot cam dot ac dot uk>]

Hello,

I'm rather new to this list, so I hope you'll forgive me if this is
outside it's normal scope or has been answered before (although I can't
find any reference to anything similar in the archive).

When calling gsl_eigen_symmv within a loop in the heart of a C program
(which is still very much in the development stage, but is over 1000 lines
long and hence not easy to include here) the program halts with an
apparently infinite (certainly happy to continue running for 16hrs) loop
within the symmv function (although gdb indicates that it switches between
symmv and symm quite frequently).

The problem is not a simple one, as I tried using the gsl_matrix_fwrite
and gsl_matrix_fread functions to record the matrices being used in this
program and then wrote a quick test program which loaded the matrices from
disk and then ran gsl_eigen_symmv on them. This program ran quite happily
and found the eigenvalues of these matrices.

My question, I suppose, is whether there is any known interaction between
this function and any other elements of the gsl or standard libraries (no
nonstandard libraries are being used, although I am using electricfence
for debuggin) which could lead to this sort of behaviour. I'm reasonably
sure that there are no incorrect memory accesses within the loop (I've
used MALLOC_CHECK_=2 and electric fence to check this...) although
something like that is always possible, I suppose.

Many thanks, in advance,
Adam Johansen