gzip segmentation fault - but only some times

[Chris]

Hi all,

I have a daily backup script where I backup a database and later in the 
process, compress the backup files using

for i in /home/tmp/*dbk
do
         j=${i##/home/tmp/}.gz
         gzip -v < ${i} > /home/public/backup/stage/${j}
done

This usually works just fine (the compressed files are getting created 
in a different filesystem from the uncompressed backup files). But 
every few days, gzip crashes during the process and I get this output 
in the email cron sends:

  73.6%
  72.8%
  72.6%
  73.0%
  72.5%
/home/root/bin/backup: line 32: 27749 Segmentation fault      gzip -v 
<${i} >/home/public/backup/stage/${j}
  42.4%
  46.6%
  76.5%

Has anybody seen this before? As you can see, 7 of the files are 
getting compressed just fine, one doesn't want to. It still outputs the 
compression percentage (42.4%) - but the output file is garbage:

gunzip < phone-6-20041219.odbk.gz > /tmp/x.odbk

gunzip: stdin: unexpected end of file

Each of the input files (except the last one) is 2 GB (minus 1 byte) in 
size.

Machine specs: FC2 with all the latest updates, X not running on the 
console, AMD 3200+ CPU, 1.5 GB memory, ASUS motherboard

Any help would be appreciated.