"Error: base fee exceeds gas limit" when using the withdrawal pattern

Question

When I am testing the withdraw() method from "WithdrawalContract" from http://solidity.readthedocs.io/en/develop/common-patterns.html using Remix and testrpc, it reported the following error. Testrpc gas limit is set to 0xffffff. Any hint on why does this problem appear?

callback contain no result Error: Error: base fee exceeds gas limit
at runCall (/home/chankh/anaconda3/lib/node_modules/ethereumjs-testrpc/build/cli.node.js:88096:17)
at /home/chankh/anaconda3/lib/node_modules/ethereumjs-testrpc/build/cli.node.js:11855:24
at replenish (/home/chankh/anaconda3/lib/node_modules/ethereumjs-testrpc/build/cli.node.js:8948:17)
at iterateeCallback (/home/chankh/anaconda3/lib/node_modules/ethereumjs-testrpc/build/cli.node.js:8933:17)
at /home/chankh/anaconda3/lib/node_modules/ethereumjs-testrpc/build/cli.node.js:8908:16
at /home/chankh/anaconda3/lib/node_modules/ethereumjs-testrpc/build/cli.node.js:11860:13
at /home/chankh/anaconda3/lib/node_modules/ethereumjs-testrpc/build/cli.node.js:74400:16
at replenish (/home/chankh/anaconda3/lib/node_modules/ethereumjs-testrpc/build/cli.node.js:74347:25)
at /home/chankh/anaconda3/lib/node_modules/ethereumjs-testrpc/build/cli.node.js:74356:9
at eachLimit (/home/chankh/anaconda3/lib/node_modules/ethereumjs-testrpc/build/cli.node.js:74280:36)
at /home/chankh/anaconda3/lib/node_modules/ethereumjs-testrpc/build/cli.node.js:75460:16
at VM.AsyncEventEmitter.emit (/home/chankh/anaconda3/lib/node_modules/ethereumjs-testrpc/build/cli.node.js:74051:3)

FYI The contract code is

pragma solidity ^0.4.11;

contract WithdrawalContract {
    address public richest;
    uint public mostSent;

    mapping (address => uint) pendingWithdrawals;

    function WithdrawalContract() payable {
        richest = msg.sender;
        mostSent = msg.value;
    }

    function becomeRichest() payable returns (bool) {
        if (msg.value > mostSent) {
            pendingWithdrawals[richest] += msg.value;
            richest = msg.sender;
            mostSent = msg.value;
            return true;
        } else {
            return false;
        }
    }

    function withdraw() {
        uint amount = pendingWithdrawals[msg.sender];
        // Remember to zero the pending refund before
        // sending to prevent re-entrancy attacks
        pendingWithdrawals[msg.sender] = 0;
        msg.sender.transfer(amount);
    }
}

Answer 1

Have you read this "callback contain no result Error: Error: base fee exceeds gas limit" when call selfdestruct function (using Remix IDE) ?

I suggest to test your contract using MyEtherWallet. The setup is quite simple:

1. visit https://www.myetherwallet.com/
2. on the top-right corner, select the dropdown menu and choose "Add Custom Node"
3. add the IP address and port number where testrpc is running (tipically is http://127.0.0.1:8545)
4. go to contract tab and insert the contract address (deployed with Remix) and its ABI interface

Now you can interact with your contract.

In your example, I called the witdraw() function with gas limit 30000 and it works.