Application crashes: SIGABRT simple case

Today, I was trying to test my application for any localization errors. My application is available in english and french. I test my english version on an iPhone 3GS running in english and my french version on a first generation iPod touch running in french. Much to my surprise, the english version was working perfectly but my french wasn't. What could be the cause?

The symptom was pretty simple: upon startup, the application was crashing after 4-5 seconds. First, I thought it was an adhoc profile issue. I decided to remove the adhoc profile I was using and install the latest one. Same result. The application was crashing just while starting up. Then I remembered: application crashing because of wrong provisioning profiles crashed much faster than what I was experiencing (less than 1 second!).

I decided to give a look at the iPod touch device console with Xcode organizer. What I found out pretty telling. Look at the following crash excerpt.

Exception Type:  EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT)

Exception Codes: 0x00000000, 0x00000000

Crashed Thread:  0

Thread 0 Crashed:

0   libSystem.B.dylib             0x00090b2c __kill + 8

1   libSystem.B.dylib             0x00090b1a kill + 4

2   libSystem.B.dylib             0x00090b0e raise + 10

3   libSystem.B.dylib             0x000a7e34 abort + 36

4   libstdc++.6.dylib             0x00066390 __gnu_cxx::__verbose_terminate_handler() + 588

5   libobjc.A.dylib               0x00008898 _objc_terminate + 160

6   libstdc++.6.dylib             0x00063a84 __cxxabiv1::__terminate(void (*)()) + 76

7   libstdc++.6.dylib             0x00063afc std::terminate() + 16

8   libstdc++.6.dylib             0x00063c24 __cxa_throw + 100

9   libobjc.A.dylib               0x00006e54 objc_exception_throw + 104

10  CoreFoundation                0x00026b2c +[NSException raise:format:arguments:] + 76

11  CoreFoundation                0x00026acc +[NSException raise:format:] + 24

12  UIKit                         0x0006ce64 -[UITabBar setItems:animated:] + 88

13  UIKit                         0x0025a92c -[UITabBar initWithCoder:] + 140

14  Foundation                    0x000566c6 _decodeObjectBinary + 1066

15  Foundation                    0x00056230 _decodeObject + 196

16  Foundation                    0x000560fc -[NSKeyedUnarchiver decodeObjectForKey:] + 60

17  UIKit                         0x00078c90 -[UIRuntimeConnection initWithCoder:] + 152

18  Foundation                    0x000566c6 _decodeObjectBinary + 1066

19  Foundation                    0x000571ec -[NSKeyedUnarchiver _decodeArrayOfObjectsForKey:] + 1128

20  Foundation                    0x0004f486 -[NSArray(NSArray) initWithCoder:] + 334

21  Foundation                    0x000566c6 _decodeObjectBinary + 1066

22  Foundation                    0x00056230 _decodeObject + 196

23  Foundation                    0x000560fc -[NSKeyedUnarchiver decodeObjectForKey:] + 60

24  UIKit                         0x00075954 -[UINib instantiateWithOptions:owner:loadingResourcesFromBundle:] + 636

25  UIKit                         0x00075558 -[NSBundle(NSBundleAdditions) loadNibNamed:owner:options:] + 104

26  UIKit                         0x00004c00 -[UIApplication _loadMainNibFile] + 136

27  UIKit                         0x00004880 -[UIApplication _runWithURL:sourceBundleID:] + 96

28  UIKit                         0x00055df8 -[UIApplication handleEvent:withNewEvent:] + 1516

29  UIKit                         0x00055634 -[UIApplication sendEvent:] + 60

30  UIKit                         0x0005508c _UIApplicationHandleEvent + 4528

31  GraphicsServices              0x000057dc PurpleEventCallback + 1044

32  CoreFoundation                0x00057524 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 2296

33  CoreFoundation                0x00056c18 CFRunLoopRunInMode + 44

34  UIKit                         0x00003c00 -[UIApplication _run] + 512

35  UIKit                         0x00002228 UIApplicationMain + 960

36  uPasswords                    0x00002e04 main (main.m:14)

37  uPasswords                    0x00002dd4 start + 32

What I see is simple: in the call stack, you can see the application crashes in UIKit (line 12), exactly while setting up the Tabbar items. At this stage, my application is still being prepared for execution with NIB loading... my code in app delegate is still not even executing. So, I thought: this could be another cause of having to rebuild the application by cleaning all the targets. 

Cleaning all targets, rebuilding and installing again this adhoc release fixed my problem. The application is working as expected in french just like the english version. 

SIGABRT crashes can be VERY hard to solve but sometimes they can be VERY easy to fix too. This was the case this time. You can read another post that I wrote a few months ago on the subject of application startup crashes: App startup crash: finding the root cause.