Bug 274257

Summary:	sys-apps/less-429: recognize text as binary
Product:	Gentoo Linux	Reporter:	Toralf Förster <toralf>
Component:	Current packages	Assignee:	Gentoo Linux bug wranglers <bug-wranglers>
Status:	RESOLVED WORKSFORME
Severity:	normal
Priority:	High
Version:	unspecified
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Package list:		Runtime testing required:	---
Attachments:	bad kernel log line

Description Toralf Förster gentoo-dev

2009-06-15 17:35:52 UTC

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

Comment 1 Toralf Förster gentoo-dev

2009-06-15 17:36:17 UTC

Created attachment 194811 [details]
bad kernel log line

Comment 2 SpanKY gentoo-dev

2009-06-19 11:15:51 UTC

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  |              . |
                                                     ^^