We've had mhttpd aborting regularly since upgrading from midas-1.9.3.  This
happens during elog queries, and is due to an elog file that was incorrectly
modified by hand.  The modification to the file occurred 6 months ago.
   el_retrieve(midas.c:15683) now has several assert statements, one of which
aborts the program on reading the bad entry.

   Why is assert used, instead of an error return from the function (if
necessary), and maybe an error message in the log file?  Assert statements are
often removed, using NDEBUG, for normal use.

Chris

   The problem elog entry had one character removed, so end-of-file came before
the end of the message.  This could probably occur without the file being
altered, if the disk containing the elog fills.