Importing zbar causes python to exit with exit code 139 - what could cause this on a mac running 10.9?

Question

I am trying to get QR code recognition going in my opencv workflow but the program immediately exits with code 139.

import zbar causes the problem because when i delete it my subsequent opencv code executes.

How do I go about diagnosing this? It appears to be finding zbar python package in /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/ (i.e. doesn't claim the package doesn't exist), but then it exits with code 139. Any idea what code 139 is? Is the problem likely in the python bindings, zlib.h, or someplace else?

The python bindings package is in /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/:

zbar-0.10-py2.7.egg-info
zbar.so

Answer 1

Fatal errors are indicated by 128 + error code. In your case, this is 128 + 11 = 139, where 11 refers to SIGSEGV, i.e. invalid memory access. See also:

• http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/10844
• http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/signal.7.html

If you run your code through gdb, valgrind or Instruments, you may be able to find the exact location where this occurs.