This is a strange one... I discovered while compiling a few packages for a new RedHat 6.1 (Sparc) system I was setting up that running a 'configure' script on a piece of software that the sed substitutions would fail when it was run on a NFS mounted partition. There was no problem on a local drive. I have found this with all packages I have tried. However, I can read and write with no problems to the NFS mounted partition. There seems to be no issue with the partition. I mount my partitions from a Solaris 2.6 (Sparc) box. Here is the tail end of a failed attempt (using screen-3.9.5 as an example): ----- updating cache ./config.cache creating ./config.status creating Makefile sed: file conftest.s1 line 1: Unknown command: ``^'' creating doc/Makefile sed: file conftest.s1 line 1: Unknown command: ``^'' creating config.h sed: file conftest.frag line 1: Unknown command: ``%'' ----- I am stumped as to why these things should even be related... My system is RedHat 6.1 with all relevent updates applied and my kernel is a 2.2.12-42 stock kernel from the original install.
If your promlem with sed disappears on local storage, but appears on NFS mounts, then the problem is not with sed at all. NFS can and does inject blocks of zeroes into files sometimes. I'm changing the component to knfsd. Supplying a simple, reproducible test case will probably expedite a solution, but don't be surprised if the problem cannot be reproduced in a different environment.
Please apply the sun patchkits to the machine and see if you can still reproduce the problem. There is a problem when certain specific patterns of I/O occur and Solaris corrupts the data. I don't know if that is your sed problem, but its a good first guess
Closed for lack of input.