[cs631apue] `ls | more` hangs unless stderr is redirected

Jan Schaumann jschauma at stevens.edu
Wed Oct 12 21:32:16 EDT 2016


Jan Schaumann <jschauma at stevens.edu> wrote:
 
> This is due to the timeout(1) utility.  If you pass "--foreground" to
> timeout(1) in the ls-test script, then it should work as expected.

As discussed in class, this appears to be due to a bug in more(1).

Just as we have access to the source code, we also have the means to fix
such bugs, and when we encounter them, we should report them to the
maintainers of the tools.

I've filed a bug for this version of more(1) in particular.  You can
follow it here:
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=840586

Note: doing this often leads you to a wild goose chase around all sorts
of the code base.  The same issue exists in other tools, notably
less(1).  I haven't had time to track that down yet, however.  Consider
this an invitation for you to make an open source contribution and
report a bug to the maintainers of the tools that are similarly
affected, should you come across them.

-Jan


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