Thanks for the helpful reply; knowing how Cygwin programs die (with SEGV etc.) may be the key. Perhaps I can catch the problem in a signal handler; getting the PID of the failed program would be the next hurdle. As far as the 2 contradictory paragraphs, the first refers to behavior in a good old reliable DOS console window; the latter refers to a Cygwin shell. The scenario going on in the kernel was enlighting Thanks again.

In reply to Re^2: Can't trigger system debugger to dump core when Cygwin's Perl launches program with backticks by jimcant
in thread Can't trigger system debugger to dump core when Cygwin's Perl launches program with backticks by jimcant

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