Hi there,
I am experiencing bird throwing a <FATAL> Unknown character error on my
configuration files.
I suspect this might be related to CRLF vs LF, as all the positions it
reports unknown character seems to be EOL or blank spaces. I should
mention I am currently writing my configuration on a Windows machine,
but it has passed between Linux and Windows a couple times.
As an example, trying to start BIRD 3.1.0 on an Alpine Linux edge box
gives the following:
ns2:~# bird
bird: 2025-05-20 18:39:55.659 [0001] <FATAL>
/etc/bird.d/defines/constants.def:2:31 Unknown character
ns2:~# head /etc/bird.d/defines/constants.def
# Local preference values
define LP_UPSTREAM = 100;
define LP_PEER = 200;
define LP_DOWNSTREAM = 300;
define LP_OTHER = 150;
# ASNs
define AS_SELF = 209718;
define AS_BOGON = [
0,
ns2:~#
if I merge the second line with the first line to look like this:
define LP_UPSTREAM = 100;define LP_PEER = 200;
I get
ns2:~# bird
bird: 2025-05-20 18:41:02.547 [0001] <FATAL>
/etc/bird.d/defines/constants.def:2:61 Unknown character
Similarly, on another box running Debian 12 with the pkg.labs.nic.cz
repository, on BIRD 3.1.1:
bird3:~# bird
bird: 2025-05-20 18:42:01.451 [0001] <FATAL> /etc/bird/bird.conf:1:26 Unknown
character
bird3:~# head /etc/bird/bird.conf
router id 172.30.187.148;
log "/var/log/bird.log" { error };
ipv6 table master6;
ipv4 table master4;
include "filters/netlist/*.list";
include "filters/AS.list";
include "define/*.def";
bird3~#
Any suggestions would be welcome, as I am currently in the process of
refractoring my routers from BIRD1 to BIRD3, and this has put me at a bit of a
standstill. :)
Kind regards, and thank you in advance for any response,
Jori Vanneste / Tyrasuki
