[PR44627] templates with class and pointer error cause bailing out and crash

Binary package hint: gcc-4.4

With this file as the only input:
==============
class A
{
    A * get_a_pointer();
};

template <class T>
void function()
{
    A::get_a_pointer().anything;
}
==============

The g++ crashes with this output:

==============
‘
crashy_test.cpp:9: confused by earlier errors, bailing out
Preprocessed source stored into /tmp/ccWR7fhP.out file, please attach this to your bugreport.
==============

A box pops up with the message "Sorry, the program cc1plus closed unexpectedly". Here is the preprocessed source it saved:

==============
// /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/4.4.1/cc1plus -quiet -D_GNU_SOURCE crashy_test.cpp -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -quiet -dumpbase crashy_test.cpp -mtune=generic -auxbase crashy_test -fstack-protector -o - -frandom-seed=0
# 1 "crashy_test.cpp"
# 1 "<built-in>"
# 1 "<command-line>"
# 1 "crashy_test.cpp"
class A
{
    A * get_a_pointer();
};

template <class T>
void function()
{
    A::get_a_pointer().anything;
}
==============

Other info:

It doesn't seem to matter that 'anything' doesn't exist. Replacing it with a member (variable or function) that does exist doesn't make a difference.
You get a similar error even if you remove the last '}'.
This bug should be low priority, since it only occurs if your code has two errors g++ should be reporting (in the second to last line):
-You cannot call A::get_a_pointer() without an object, and
-You cannot request members from the non-class type A*.
I don't mind it reporting one of these errors, then bailing out without crashing.
The problem goes away if you make A::get_a_pointer static, or if you replace the . with ->. It also goes away if you make function not a template function. It can be reproduced if you make function a member function of a templated class instead.

$ g++ -v
Using built-in specs.
Target: x86_64-linux-gnu
Configured with: ../src/configure -v --with-pkgversion='Ubuntu 4.4.1-4ubuntu8' --with-bugurl=file:///usr/share/doc/gcc-4.4/README.Bugs --enable-languages=c,c++,fortran,objc,obj-c++ --prefix=/usr --enable-shared --enable-multiarch --enable-linker-build-id --with-system-zlib --libexecdir=/usr/lib --without-included-gettext --enable-threads=posix --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.4 --program-suffix=-4.4 --enable-nls --enable-clocale=gnu --enable-libstdcxx-debug --enable-objc-gc --disable-werror --with-arch-32=i486 --with-tune=generic --enable-checking=release --build=x86_64-linux-gnu --host=x86_64-linux-gnu --target=x86_64-linux-gnu
Thread model: posix
gcc version 4.4.1 (Ubuntu 4.4.1-4ubuntu8)

$ apt-cache policy gcc-4.4
gcc-4.4:
  Installed: 4.4.1-4ubuntu8
  Candidate: 4.4.1-4ubuntu8
  Version table:
 *** 4.4.1-4ubuntu8 0
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

$ uname -a
Linux ubuntu 2.6.31-16-generic #53-Ubuntu SMP Tue Dec 8 04:02:15 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 9.10
Release: 9.10