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

2019-06-23 Thread bitfreak25
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



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

2019-06-23 Thread bitfreak25
On Sun, 23 Jun 2019 06:04:29 -0500
Dennis Williamson  wrote:

> On Sun, Jun 23, 2019, 5:31 AM bitfreak25  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