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Re: command "cat /etc/localtime" breaks output on tty-terminal

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On Sun, Jun 23, 2019, 7:18 AM bitfreak25 <bitfreak25@gmx.de> wrote:

> On Sun, 23 Jun 2019 06:04:29 -0500
> Dennis Williamson <dennistwilliamson@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Sun, Jun 23, 2019, 5:31 AM bitfreak25 <bitfreak25@gmx.de> wrote:
> >
> > > OS: Arch Linux 5.1.12-arch1-1-ARCH (tty1)
> > > Bash-Version: 5.0.7(1)-release
> > > localization: de_DE.UTF-8 UTF-8
> > > keymap: de-latin1-nodeadkeys
> > >
> > > Description:
> > > The command "cat /etc/localtime" was called in a tty-terminal. After
> that
> > > some characters will be printed incorrectly (mostly "cyrillic" chars
> > > instead of the correct ones). The typed chars seems to be handled
> correctly
> > > (e.g. calling "exit") but the output is broken at this point. This
> > > behaviour is reproducible on my other PC with Debian Stable
> (Bash-Version
> > > in Debian: 4.4-5), so it seems to be a old bug. Changing to another
> tty or
> > > rebooting the OS will fix this behaviour until the command is called
> again.
> > >
> > > Kind regards,
> > > bitfreak
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> > /etc/localtime is symlinked to a file that contains time zone data. If
> you
> > enter the command
> >
> > file -L /etc/localtime
> >
> > you'll see that that's the case. It contains data that's not meant to be
> > displayed including control characters which cause the effect you
> observed.
> > If you cat any so-called binary file such as this you are likely to see
> the
> > same kind of thing happen. Entering the
> >
> > reset
> >
> > command in the affected terminal will correct the problem after it
> occurs.
>
> I kind of thought that this could be the reason. It also happens with
> "cat /dev/urandom" which is stopped by [STRG] + [C].
>
> It seems to be a very small bug thats only breaks the output with an
> unusual command and there are already 3 workarounds. But in my opinion
> it should be fixed some time as it isn't the correct behaviour like
> doing it with a gui-terminal e.g. xfce4-terminal.
>
> Kind regards,
> bitfreak
>


It's not a bug. It's expected behavior. If a useful sequence of control
characters is output - useful things happen. If you take that away then
lots of stuff doesn't work.

Solution? Don't cat non-text files to the terminal.

>

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Re: command "cat /etc/localtime" breaks output on tty-terminal Dennis Williamson <dennistwilliamson@gmail.com> - 2019-06-23 07:29 -0500

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