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Date:      Fri, 25 Feb 2005 23:42:48 -0500
From:      Parv <parv@pair.com>
To:        "Loren M. Lang" <lorenl@alzatex.com>
Cc:        Ramiro Aceves <ea1abz@wanadoo.es>
Subject:   Re: I killed my system with grep
Message-ID:  <20050226044248.GA2467@holestein.holy.cow>
In-Reply-To: <20050225135707.GC18789@alzatex.com>
References:  <003801c51b2b$1deecc60$04cf589d@simula.eis.uva.es> <20050225135707.GC18789@alzatex.com>

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in message <20050225135707.GC18789@alzatex.com>,
wrote Loren M. Lang thusly...
>
> On Fri, Feb 25, 2005 at 12:14:04PM +0100, Ramiro Aceves wrote:
> > 
> > I am running a FreeBSD 5.3 system with 64MB RAM and 150 MB swap.
> > 
> > Yesterday I entered the command:
> > 
> > # grep -R something /
> 
> You probably hit a file under /dev/ and caused grep to hang.  It's
> possible that as root, certain device files might hang the system,
> but nothing comes to mind at the moment unless /dev/io could do
> it.  Also, think about what happens when grep hit's /dev/zero.  It
> will never finish.

Would using -I option (not search text-like files) help to avoid
above described hang ups in /dev?


  - Parv

-- 



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