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bug#17384: "bug" in the Unix "cat" command
From: |
Peter Rowat |
Subject: |
bug#17384: "bug" in the Unix "cat" command |
Date: |
Thu, 1 May 2014 11:50:38 -0700 |
Hello Gnu folks,
I had 3 files matching “isi.*.02p0:
wc -l isi.*.02p0
20000 isi.R.0400.02p0
15500 isi.Ra.0400.02p0
15600 isi.Rb.0400.02p0
51100 total
I wanted to combine them into one big file, while knowing *not* to cat into a
file with same name as an original file,
I did this:
cat isi.*.02p0 >isi.Rall.0400.02p0
But it never returned!!
By the time I hit Ctrl-C, the file isi.Rall.0400.02p0 was already 3000 times
bigger than the biggest of the original files.
A hidden loop was made.
Because the destination file was created before concatenation started, it
became a match for the
pattern "isi.*.02p0”.
It might be worth adding a warning about this on the cat man-page ??
Cheers,
— Peter Rowat
- bug#17384: "bug" in the Unix "cat" command,
Peter Rowat <=