-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Package: bsdmainutils Version: 6.1.6 Tags: bsdmainutils hexdump
When piping an echoed string into hexdump the following error message when using the option '-s': "hexdump: stdin: illegal seek" Using a simple 'echo "test" | hexdump -s 1' sometimes raises this error. I was able to figure out that it seems to occur only on systems using more than one CPU (doesn't seem to matter whether they are logical or physical). I made a simple test script which tries to reproduce this error. With that the error rate is somewhat between 5 and 7% (50-70 errors in 1000 runs). So using the tool hexdump is currently strongly discouraged when it comes to reliability. The script also tests the tools xxd and od if available. Those other programs don't raise an error and always produce the same output. The systems I tested where two systems running Debian 4 with the latest stable patches applied: - - Intel Pentium 4 with HyperThreading enabled (2 logical CPUs) - - 2x Intel Xeon Quad-Core (8 logical CPUs) I also ran the test script on two Ubuntu 8.10 systems that have version 6.1.10 of bsdmainutils installed (same as Debian Lenny) and there the problem is exactly the same. Ancoron P.S.: If the attached script doesn't show up in this bug please be so kind and advice me how to attach it appropriately as this is my first time I file a bug against debian. Thanx. :) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iEYEARECAAYFAkm6+TgACgkQHwxOsqv2bG1IgwCgysu0xMOlbyCtUGclVXitwDzj V8EAn0zLETS/6oognTVkio2VpF/fY2dT =9YBz -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
testHexdump.sh
Description: Bourne shell script
