Bug 69519 – less and jless exit with status 1

• Status: RESOLVED INVALID
• Product: Gentoo Linux

[Description Frank Green 2004-10-30 10:28:48 UTC]

When I try to use less or jless, it bails out immediately and returns with status 1. The only time it does work is if I use it by itself ("less" or "jless" at the shell, no pipes or files attached to it), where it prints out "Missing filename ("less --help" for help)". Doing a "less --help", passing it a filename, or piping text to it does not work.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Try "less --help" or "less README" or "echo hello | less"

Actual Results:  
Exited with status 1


Portage 2.0.51-r2 (default-x86-2004.0, gcc-3.3.2, glibc-2.3.4.20040808-r1,
2.6.9-nitro2 i686)
=================================================================
System uname: 2.6.9-nitro2 i686 AMD Athlon(tm) processor
Gentoo Base System version 1.6.2
Autoconf: sys-devel/autoconf-2.59-r4
Automake: sys-devel/automake-1.8.3
Binutils: sys-devel/binutils-2.14.90.0.8-r1
Headers:  sys-kernel/linux26-headers-2.6.8.1
Libtools: sys-devel/libtool-1.4.3-r4
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"
AUTOCLEAN="yes"
CFLAGS="-march=athlon-tbird -Os -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer"
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
COMPILER=""
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb /usr/kde/2/share/config
/usr/kde/3.2/share/config /usr/kde/3.3/env /usr/kde/3.3/share/config
/usr/kde/3.3/shutdown /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/share/config /var/qmail/control"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d"
CXXFLAGS="-O2 -mcpu=i686 -pipe"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="autoaddcvs ccache distlocks sandbox"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://gentoo.osuosl.org/"
MAKEOPTS="-j2"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage /usr/local/bmg-main
/usr/local/fluidportage/trunk /usr/local/bmg-gnome"
SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="X alsa apm arts avi berkdb bitmap-fonts cdr crypt cups encode esd f77
foomaticdb gdbm gif gnome gphoto2 gpm gtk gtk2 guile imlib java jpeg kde libg++
libwww mad mikmod motif mozilla mpeg mysql ncurses nls oggvorbis opengl oss pam
pdflib perl png python qt quicktime readline sdl slang spell ssl svga tcpd
truetype x86 xml2 xmms xv zlib"

[Comment 1 Eric Brown 2004-10-31 07:57:37 UTC]

Have you recently updated glibc or something?
Have you tried emerging less again?

[Comment 2 Mamoru KOMACHI (RETIRED) 2004-11-01 05:21:17 UTC]

What do "echo $LESS" and "echo $LESSOPEN" return?
Also, does /usr/bin/lesspipe.sh exist?

[Comment 3 Frank Green 2004-11-01 17:02:17 UTC]

I believe I have determined this to be a kernel bug. I downgraded from 2.6.9-nitro2 back to 2.6.8.1-nitro6 and it fixed my problem. Will try vanilla 2.6.9 to see whether the problem exists in the kernel itself or in the patchset.

[Comment 4 Olivier Crete (RETIRED) 2004-11-05 17:09:20 UTC]

bad kernel...

[Comment 5 Frank Green 2004-11-24 16:07:15 UTC]

The solution to this problem can be found on the website for less.
http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/#linux269
Apparently, it is definitely a bug in the kernel; upgrading udev supposedly will fix this problem.