Re: Binary-cat Console Junkedness... [(Sort of) OFF-TOPIC]

[Havoc Pennington <rhpennin@midway.uchicago.edu>]

On Wed, 30 Dec 1998, Ryan King wrote:
> Why does a VC go bonkies when you cat a binary file from it? 

Terminals can be modified in various ways by sending them special command
sequences ("control characters"). You can tell the terminal to use
boldface, change size, and lots of more arcane things. Most programs do
this in a controlled way.

When you cat a binary file, it often happens to contain some random
control sequences that don't make any sense, so the terminal ends up in a
broken state. The problem isn't limited to virtual consoles, it happens to
all terminals, including xterm, etc.

Havoc