The attached file is a line which I have within my /var/log/messages of my ThinkPad T400. Unfortunateley that's why less won't show that file as text :-( Probably the linux kernel (2.6.26.4) shouldn't produce such kernel log lines OTOH less shouldn't be confused by it, or ? Reproducible: Always
Created attachment 194811 [details] bad kernel log line
either the kernel needs fixing (to not put non-printable ascii into the log buffer), or your logging process was corrupt (and you should fsck/etc...) either way, this is operating correctly -- non-printable ascii means binary file no matter how you dice it $ file log log: data $ hexdump -C log | grep '^[^|]* 0' 00000040 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 01 20 | . | ^^
