Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 1243650
If we execute the file command against /var/log/messages then we see "/var/log/messages: ASCII Pascal program text" ?
Last modified: 2016-05-10 15:47:57 EDT
Description of problem: For some servers, when we execute the file command against /var/log/messages , we get the below results :- [root@server ~]# file /var/log/messages /var/log/messages: ASCII Pascal program text Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): On RHEL6 file-5.04-21.el6.x86_64 On RHEL7 file-5.11-21.el7.x86_64 On How reproducible: Always/Consistently Steps to Reproduce: Actually, the issue is observed if we have PASCAL related words in /var/log/messages however, I have demonstrated below for a general testfile and the test results hold good for /var/log/messages in RHEL6 and RHEL7. RHEL5 does not seem to be affected. [root@RHEL6-server ~]# echo hello from localhost > testfile [root@RHEL6-server ~]# cat testfile hello from localhost [root@RHEL6-server ~]# file testfile testfile: ASCII text [root@RHEL6-server ~]# echo record >> testfile [root@RHEL6-server ~]# cat testfile hello from localhost record [root@RHEL6-server ~]# file testfile testfile: ASCII Pascal program text ==> Issue reproduced [root@RHEL7-server ~]# echo hello from localhost > testfile [root@RHEL7-server ~]# cat testfile hello from localhost [root@RHEL7-server ~]# file testfile testfile: ASCII text [root@RHEL7-server ~]# echo record >> testfile [root@RHEL7-server ~]# cat testfile hello from localhost record [root@RHEL7-server ~]# file testfile testfile: Pascal source, ASCII text ==> Issue reproduced Actual results: After the record word insertion (which is a PASCAL related word) , we see this :- [root@RHEL6-server ~]# echo record >> testfile [root@RHEL6-server ~]# cat testfile hello from localhost record [root@RHEL6-server ~]# file testfile testfile: ASCII Pascal program text [root@RHEL7-server ~]# echo record >> testfile [root@RHEL7-server ~]# cat testfile hello from localhost record [root@RHEL7-server ~]# file testfile testfile: Pascal source, ASCII text Expected results: [root@RHEL6-server ~]# echo record >> testfile [root@RHEL6-server ~]# cat testfile hello from localhost record [root@RHEL6-server ~]# file testfile testfile: ASCII text [root@RHEL7-server ~]# echo record >> testfile [root@RHEL7-server ~]# cat testfile hello from localhost record [root@RHEL7-server ~]# file testfile testfile: ASCII text Additional info: Just an insignificant note, I observed this for the packages I am on currently, some older or newer packages might be affected too.
This is caused by File magic entry for Pascal: 0 regex \^program Pascal source text !:mime text/x-pascal 0 regex \^record Pascal source text !:mime text/x-pascal If line is file is starting with "program" and "record", the file is identified as Pascal source. Upstream has removed these weak patterns recently, we could do the same in RHEL6.
Since the problem described in this bug report should be resolved in a recent advisory, it has been closed with a resolution of ERRATA. For information on the advisory, and where to find the updated files, follow the link below. If the solution does not work for you, open a new bug report. https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016-0760.html