The problem was in incorrect handling of predicates involving 
NULL as a constant value by the range optimizer. 
 
For example, when creating a SEL_ARG node from a condition of 
the form "field < const" (which would normally result in the 
"NULL < field < const" SEL_ARG),  the special case when "const" 
is NULL was not taken into account, so "NULL < field < NULL" 
was produced for the "field < NULL" condition. 
 
As a result, SEL_ARG structures of this form could not be 
further optimized which in turn could lead to incorrectly 
constructed SEL_ARG trees. In particular, code assuming SEL_ARG 
structures to always form a sequence of ordered disjoint 
intervals could enter an infinite loop under some 
circumstances. 
 
Fixed by changing get_mm_leaf() so that for any sargable 
predicate except "<=>" involving NULL as a constant, "empty" 
SEL_ARG is returned, since such a predicate is always false.