This happens on Windows also (and I think there are other GitHub reports here too). The larger Steam team is taking a look but there won't be direct tracking here.
Last night's Steam client beta should have fixed this, please reply as to whether you're still seeing it.
Still had crashes after updating today, crash IDs:
''/tmp/dumps/crash_20130815173342_8.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-29314a42-ec54-419c-925e-cf45d2130815''
Thu Aug 15 17:43:52 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130815204310_8.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-0bc1ad0e-bcd4-48c8-a534-1b8be2130815''
Thu Aug 15 17:44:14 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130815153908_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-affb29ea-207c-4f24-97fb-9508d2130815''
Thu Aug 15 17:45:47 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130815204508_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-1bd1fd1b-6dcf-4439-a6c0-550d92130815''
Thu Aug 15 17:46:08 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130815204544_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-1f3f95ae-86ca-40d6-be19-6c2332130815''
Thanks for trying it, I've passed this on to the larger team.
Are you still seeing this with the latest beta client?
I haven't had any crashes for some days now - although there hasn't been as high frequency of game updates either. I'll report if the crash reoccurs sometime later.
OK, closing for now.
Nothing extracted yet.
Steam client (beta) has been crashing a lot lately, always while a game update is being downloaded. System info (with several crash IDs of this issue):
Steam stdout from startup to crash:
I'll be happy to provide additional information if necessary.