If TeX or Metafont get a segmentation fault or otherwise fail while running a normal input file, the problem is usually a compiler bug (unlikely as that may sound). Even if the trip and trap tests are passed, problems may lurk. Optimization occasionally causes trouble in programs other than TeX and Metafont themselves, too.
Insufficient swap space may also cause core dumps or other erratic behavior.
For a workaround, if you enabled any optimization flags, it's best to omit optimization entirely. In any case, the way to find the facts is to run the program under the debugger and see where it's failing.
Also, if you have trouble with a system C compiler, I advise trying the GNU C compiler. And vice versa, unfortunately; but in that case I also recommend reporting a bug to the GCC mailing list; see section `Bugs' in Using and Porting GNU CC.
To report compiler bugs effectively requires perseverance and perspicacity: you must find the miscompiled line, and that usually involves delving backwards in time from the point of error, checking through TeX's (or whatever program's) data structures. Things are not helped by all-too-common bugs in the debugger itself. Good luck.
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