Self-referential playlist kills Winamp 5.08d

[ettlz]

Winamp 5.08d
Windows XP SP2
HP zx5030EA notebook (P4 2.8 GHz, 512 Mb RAM)

Create a M3U playlist file (e.g., playlist.m3u) and put that playlist's own filename in as an entry. Attempting to load the playlist [by drag and drop onto the playlist window] results in Winamp closing instantly.

There is no "application error" box or entry in the system event log.

[DJ Egg]

Good. Rather it close than loop eternally and bring the whole system down :/

[ettlz]

Ideally, it should point the self-reference out or just ignore the entry (a la XMMS). Can Winamp be instructed to NOT dereference playlists from within playlists? (I should probably clarify that this happens in Winamp even if there are other legitimate entries in the list.)

This problem also shows up with a self-referential M3U stored at a URL. Clicking on such a playlist as a link in a browser (when Winamp is running and is the default handler) or giving the URL to the playlist in (Menu), Play, URL... generates the same result.

Furthermore, if you close Winamp in the few seconds it ponders the playlist before aborting, it leaves lost winamp.exe processes which have to be manually killed before Winamp will start again (if one doesn't allow multiple instances).

As such, one can at least annoy users by killing their pre-existing Winamp sessions with a specially-constructed link.