1480: "bad address" instead of "argument list too"

1480: "bad address" instead of "argument list too"

[Martin Michlmayr]

I get the following in a directory which has many files in it on a
Braodcom 1480:

2179:tbm@bigsur: ~/build/logs] grep foo *
zsh: bad address: grep

Normally, I'd expect an "zsh: argument list too long: grep" error.

I get this with different shells.  Hmm, that's interesting.  "echo *"
works.  I assume shell built-in commands work but others don't.

Any idea?
-- 
Martin Michlmayr
http://www.cyrius.com/

Re: 1480: "bad address" instead of "argument list too"

[Ralf Baechle]

On Fri, Mar 17, 2006 at 04:56:29PM +0000, Martin Michlmayr wrote:

> I get the following in a directory which has many files in it on a
> Braodcom 1480:
> 
> 2179:tbm@bigsur: ~/build/logs] grep foo *
> zsh: bad address: grep
> 
> Normally, I'd expect an "zsh: argument list too long: grep" error.
> 
> I get this with different shells.  Hmm, that's interesting.  "echo *"
> works.  I assume shell built-in commands work but others don't.

Chances are this is caused by the return value of some syscall.  Can you
use strace on a shell to isolate it?  Is this 32-bit software on a 64-bit
kernel?

  Ralf

Re: 1480: "bad address" instead of "argument list too"

[Martin Michlmayr]

* Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org> [2006-03-17 17:02]:
> Chances are this is caused by the return value of some syscall.  Can you
> use strace on a shell to isolate it?

I tried, but I don't know how.  "strace echo *" immediately gives a
"bad address" because the wildcard is evaluated before strace is
invoked.  How can I call strace in this case?

> Is this 32-bit software on a 64-bit kernel?

Yes.
-- 
Martin Michlmayr
http://www.cyrius.com/

Re: 1480: "bad address" instead of "argument list too"

[Ralf Baechle]

On Fri, Mar 17, 2006 at 05:21:27PM +0000, Martin Michlmayr wrote:

> * Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org> [2006-03-17 17:02]:
> > Chances are this is caused by the return value of some syscall.  Can you
> > use strace on a shell to isolate it?
> 
> I tried, but I don't know how.  "strace echo *" immediately gives a
> "bad address" because the wildcard is evaluated before strace is
> invoked.  How can I call strace in this case?

Log into a second shell from another tty, find out the PID of the first
shell.  Then do an strace -ff -v -p <PID of first shell> in the second
shell, go back to the first shell and do your echo *.  You now should
have the interesting bits of the log in the second window.

> > Is this 32-bit software on a 64-bit kernel?

There remain corner cases to be fixed in that emulation layer even though
it's good enough for general use since a long time.

  Ralf

Re: 1480: "bad address" instead of "argument list too"

[Martin Michlmayr]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 447 bytes --]

* Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org> [2006-03-17 17:35]:
> Log into a second shell from another tty, find out the PID of the first
> shell.  Then do an strace -ff -v -p <PID of first shell> in the second
> shell, go back to the first shell and do your echo *.  You now should
> have the interesting bits of the log in the second window.

Doh, I could've thought of that myself.  The strace is attached.
-- 
Martin Michlmayr
http://www.cyrius.com/

[-- Attachment #2: strace.bz2 --]
[-- Type: application/octet-stream, Size: 86761 bytes --]

Re: 1480: "bad address" instead of "argument list too"

[Ralf Baechle]

On Fri, Mar 17, 2006 at 06:11:53PM +0000, Martin Michlmayr wrote:

> * Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org> [2006-03-17 17:35]:
> > Log into a second shell from another tty, find out the PID of the first
> > shell.  Then do an strace -ff -v -p <PID of first shell> in the second
> > shell, go back to the first shell and do your echo *.  You now should
> > have the interesting bits of the log in the second window.
> 
> Doh, I could've thought of that myself.  The strace is attached.

No smoking gun in that trace, I'm afraid.

  Ralf