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With newer releases of sys-apps/less and sys-apps/baselayout, the default is to
set LESSOPEN, which results in rich processing of files. This means for
example, that some logfiles of which libmagic (erronously) believes that they
are binary are displayed as a hexdump, which is utterly useless. Also,
PostScript files are tried to be interpeted in some way, which is unhelpful,
too (see example below).

This is the result of setting LESSOPEN in /etc/env.d/00basic. While some may
appreciate the comfort of this, it gets in the way of system administration
more often than it is helpful. Additionally, an unsuspecting user might want to
view an attachment he has gotten only to find out that a (potentially
vulnerable) client is used to view it. 

Thus, this behaviour should be *off* by default and a message should be
generated on installation that details how to switch it on.

The security impact isn't that great that I'd tag it accordingly, it's mostly a
matter of inconvenience.

Example of unwated behaviour:

$ less cal.ps 
Error: /undefined in ch-xoff
Operand stack:
   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   0
Execution stack:
   %interp_exit   .runexec2   --nostringval--   --nostringval--  
--nostringval--   2   %stopped_push   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   -
-nostringval--   false   1   %stopped_push   2   3   %oparray_pop   2   3  
%oparray_pop   2   3   %oparray_pop   .runexec2   --nostringval--
   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   2   %stopped_push   --nostringval--  
--nostringval--   --nostringval--   --nostringval--
Dictionary stack:
   --dict:1105/1417(ro)(G)--   --dict:0/20(G)--   --dict:72/200(L)--  
--dict:94/300(L)--
Current allocation mode is local
Last OS error: 2
Current file position is 4402
$ head cal.ps 
%!PS-Adobe-2.0
%%Creator: dvips(k) 5.86 Copyright 1999 Radical Eye Software
%%Title: cal.dvi
%%Pages: 12
%%PageOrder: Ascend
%%BoundingBox: 0 0 596 842
%%EndComments
%DVIPSWebPage: (www.radicaleye.com)
%DVIPSCommandLine: dvips cal.dvi -o cal.ps
%DVIPSParameters: dpi=600, compressed

LESSOPEN has *always* been enabled

if you want it off, just do:
# echo 'LESSOPEN=""' > /etc/env.d/99local
# env-update

Well, if it was always enabled, why haven't I ever noticed this behaviour
before?! Some goes for a colleague who runs his own machine which I don't even
have an account on. I can hardly believe that I never ever triggered this
behaviour before (and neither did he). Maybe the permissions of lesspipe.sh
changed. What does CVS say wrt changes to env.d/00basic?

you're assuming the wrong thing

lesspipe.sh itself has increased in terms of features, read the source

Ah, well, that explains it of course. Thanks for your time.

*** Bug 179411 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***