debugging a c module?

[Agent Drek]

I've made a loadable module to speed up a portion of a python program
that I'm working on. Once in awhile (1 time out of 10) I get a core
dump on exit from the interpreter "Abort (core dumped)". I'm pretty sure
that this is because I've screwed up a reference count somewhere in the
module.

How do I go about debugging this? I'm using Python-2.1.1 on FreeBSD4.x.

Recompile python and the module with debugging? gdb?

This small problem aside, the C/API is great to work with! There are
lots of useful docs explaining how to write the modules I just haven't
found any that talk about the debugging process.

cheers,

--
   Derek Marshall
 
Smash and Pow Inc > 'digital plumber'
http://www.smashpow.net