This is slon 1.2.18 running on against pg 8.4.1 on a CentOS 5.4 system. 
During the initial data population of this new slave server slon got 
into a state where it keeps crashing, trying to start again, and 
crashing again.

I get a lot of this in my log:
2009-12-09 00:53:48 EST DEBUG2 remoteListenThread_1: queue event 
1,313687 SYNC
2009-12-09 00:53:48 EST DEBUG2 remoteListenThread_1: queue event 
1,313688 SYNC
2009-12-09 00:53:48 EST DEBUG2 remoteListenThread_1: queue event 
1,313689 SYNC
2009-12-09 00:53:48 EST DEBUG2 remoteListenThread_1: queue event 
1,313690 SYNC
2009-12-09 00:53:48 EST DEBUG2 remoteListenThread_1: queue event 
1,313691 SYNC
2009-12-09 00:53:48 EST DEBUG2 remoteListenThread_1: queue event 
1,313692 SYNC
2009-12-09 00:53:48 EST DEBUG2 remoteListenThread_1: queue event 
1,313693 SYNC
2009-12-09 00:53:48 EST DEBUG2 remoteListenThread_1: queue event 
1,313694 SYNC
2009-12-09 00:53:48 EST DEBUG2 remoteWorkerThread_1: syncing set 1 with 
5 table(s) from provider 1
2009-12-09 00:53:48 EST DEBUG2 slon: child terminated status: 139; pid: 
3972, current worker pid: 3972

... which repeats 10 seconds later.

The core file is no help. I built slony with debug symbols but gdb isn't 
telling me anything useful:


(gdb) bt
#0  0x000000367ae796d0 in ?? ()
#1  0x000000367ae46b69 in ?? ()
#2  0x0000000a00000000 in ?? ()
#3  0x00000000427cee60 in ?? ()
#4  0x0000000000000001 in ?? ()
#5  0x00000000427ce980 in ?? ()
#6  0x0000000000000000 in ?? ()


(gdb) thread apply all bt

Thread 9 (process 4051):
#0  0x000000367ba077e5 in ?? ()
#1  0x000000367ba076a0 in ?? ()
#2  0x00000000413e1d28 in ?? ()
#3  0x0000000000000000 in ?? ()

Thread 8 (process 4053):
#0  0x000000367aecced2 in ?? ()
#1  0x0000000000000000 in ?? ()

Thread 7 (process 4054):
#0  0x000000367ba0ab99 in ?? ()
#1  0x0000000000000000 in ?? ()

Thread 6 (process 4057):
#0  0x000000367ba0ab99 in ?? ()
#1  0x0000000000000000 in ?? ()

Thread 5 (process 4058):
#0  0x000000367ba0ab99 in ?? ()
#1  0x0000000000000000 in ?? ()

Thread 4 (process 4059):
#0  0x000000367ba0ab99 in ?? ()
---Type <return> to continue, or q <return> to quit---
#1  0x0000000000000000 in ?? ()

Thread 3 (process 4060):
#0  0x000000367ba0ab99 in ?? ()
#1  0x0000000000000000 in ?? ()

Thread 2 (process 4065):
#0  0x000000367ba0ab99 in ?? ()
#1  0x0000000000000000 in ?? ()

Thread 1 (process 4056):
#0  0x000000367ae796d0 in ?? ()
#1  0x000000367ae46b69 in ?? ()
#2  0x0000000a00000000 in ?? ()
#3  0x00000000427cee60 in ?? ()
#4  0x0000000000000001 in ?? ()
#5  0x00000000427ce980 in ?? ()
#6  0x0000000000000000 in ?? ()
(gdb)

]$ file core.4051
core.4051: ELF 64-bit LSB core file AMD x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), 
SVR4-style, from 'slon'
]$ file `which slon`
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/slon: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, AMD x86-64, 
version 1 (SYSV), for GNU/Linux 2.6.9, dynamically linked (uses shared 
libs), for GNU/Linux 2.6.9, not stripped