SIGSEGV in cgo-wrapped mysql produces the following report which is completely
misleading:

panic: runtime error: invalid memory address or nil pointer dereference
[signal 0xb code=0x1 addr=0x0 pc=0x7fc8c17948c2]
goroutine 1 [chan receive]:
net.(*pollServer).WaitRead(0xf840143c80, 0xf8401486c0, 0xf8400d5c30,
0xb, 0xf8400d5c01, ...)
        /usr/local/google/home/msolomon/dev/go/src/pkg/net/fd.go:268 +0x73
net.(*netFD).accept(0xf8401486c0, 0x504ed0, 0x0, 0xf84009c210,
0xf8400aa040, ...)

gdb reveals the real cause:

(gdb) bt
#0  my_stat (path=0x7f38aa7fac50 "vt-mysql/share/mysql/charsets/Index.xml",
stat_area=0x7f38aa7fab90, my_flags=0)
   at my_lib.c:540
#1  0x00007f38c4dea70f in my_read_charset_file (filename=0x2 <Address 0x2 out of
bounds>, myflags=0) at charset.c:338
#2  0x00007f38c4deb51e in init_available_charsets () at charset.c:431
#3  0x00007f38c540e400 in pthread_once () at
../nptl/sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/x86_64/pthread_once.S:104
#4  0x00007f38c4deb144 in get_charset_by_csname (cs_name=0x7f3890006ff0
"utf8", cs_flags=32, flags=-1434465744) at charset.c:572
#5  0x00007f38c4dfdc46 in mysql_init_character_set (mysql=0x7f38900009e0) at
client.c:1807
#6  0x00007f38c4dff8ed in mysql_real_connect (mysql=0x7f38900009e0, host=0x7f38c4e03fb0
"localhost", user=0x7f38900008c0 "vt_dba", 
   passwd=<optimized out>, db=0x0, port=<optimized out>, unix_socket=0x7f38900008e0 "/vt/vt_0000041983/mysql.sock", client_flag=0) at client.c:2224
#7  0x0000000000527e05 in _cgo_a45dcd6e4066_Cfunc_mysql_real_connect ()

I can understand if Go can't unwind C stack, but at least it can show the correct
goroutine that executes cgo call and show status [cgo call].

Mike may provide more details.