bagira:~/python-svn/patches> cat simple
 print 123

 bagira:~/python-svn/patches> ../python/trunk/python -m
pdb simple

 (Pdb) b f(                   #crashes your program
 Traceback (most recent call last):
 ...
  File "/home/ilya/python-svn/python/trunk/Lib/sre.py",  
  line 233, in _compile
    raise error, v # invalid expression
 error: unbalanced parenthesis
 Uncaught exception. Entering post mortem debugging

 (Pdb) b f(   # doing it post-mortem fully crashes pdb
 Traceback (most recent call last):
 ..
    raise error, v # invalid expression
 sre_constants.error: unbalanced parenthesis

 bagira:~/python-svn/patches>

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Easily fixed by adding a re.escape() call, but this means
that 'b f()', if you've been doing that, will no longer work
to set a breakpoint.  The documentation doesn't claim that
'b f()' should work, but people may be used to typing this.

I've asked the 2.5 release manager about this issue.

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user_id=971153

I don't think supporting 
"b f()"

is needed...

And as a catch-all argument, gdb does not support "b f()"
either

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user_id=11375

Fix applied in rev. 51745.