Bug 16962 – cat *directory* -> prompt switches to binary

• Product: Gentoo Linux
• Status: RESOLVED INVALID

[Description Manuzhai 2003-03-06 09:47:53 UTC]

When in /usr/share/zoneinfo, I accidentally issued "cat Europe". I got 
binary/weird output (as might be expected), but after that, the prompt 
continued to have weird character output, even after "clear".

Reproducible: Didn't try
Steps to Reproduce:
1. cd /usr/share/zoneinfo
2. cat Europe

Actual Results:  
- Binary output
- Prompt with weird chars
- Anything I typed in weird chars

Expected Results:  
- Binary output
- Normal prompt

[Comment 1 Jon Portnoy (RETIRED) 2003-03-06 11:55:50 UTC]

This is typical behavior. When this happens, use the "reset" command to eliminate corruption.

I recommend marking this bug INVALID or CANTFIX.

[Comment 2 Jon Portnoy (RETIRED) 2003-03-06 11:59:12 UTC]

Actually, I'm going to reopen this: 'cat' shouldn't work on a directory. It should return 'cat: <directoryname>: Is a directory' instead of producing binary output.

[avenj@cerberus zoneinfo]$ cat Europe
cat: Europe: Is a directory
[avenj@cerberus zoneinfo]$

Can you reproduce this?

[Comment 3 Jon Portnoy (RETIRED) 2003-03-06 12:10:31 UTC]

Closed again - if you're actually able to cat directories, file a separate bug under a more relevant subject.

Catting a binary file will always corrupt your terminal, "reset" fixes that. Cat won't open directories by default, though.