Python 2.2.x core dumping

[Jeff Epler]

You could use sys.setrecursionlimit() to lower the recursion limit
(if it's recursion in Python code).  That's the only Python-specific
thing that comes to mind as easily tweakable which might turn the segv
into a debuggable backtrace.

When I ran a simple recursive C program under gdb, the stack was intact
when the program stopped.  Have you tried this?  If you can return to
most any Python API call in the stack trace and return NULL, you may be
able to get a Python exception as a result.

just a few ideas,
Jeff