GNU bug report logs - #7483
Tail claims bad file descriptor when following

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Johan Pretorius <pretoriusjf <at> gmail.com>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: Tail claims bad file descriptor when following
Date: Fri, 26 Nov 2010 10:44:28 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Hi there,

I use tail 5.3.0 in Windows 7.  It works fine unless I try to follow a file.

Here is my --version output:

C:\>tail --version
tail (GNU coreutils) 5.3.0
Written by Paul Rubin, David MacKenzie, Ian Lance Taylor, and Jim Meyering.

Copyright (C) 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.


The following works as expected with no error messages.

tail \\ssb-batman\logs\batman\build.log


However, if I try to follow, it gives output as follows.

C:\>tail -f \\ssb-batman\logs\batman\build.log
[INFO] Unpacking
C:\p4ws\depot_cfg\ssb\trunk\postilion\ssb\postgen\target\postgen-izpack.zip
to

  C:\p4ws\depot_cfg\ssb\trunk\postilion\ssb_installer\target\staging
   with includes null and excludes:null
[INFO] Unpacking
C:\p4ws\depot_cfg\ssb\trunk\postilion\ssb\scheduleinjector\target\scheduleinjector-izpack.zip
to
  C:\p4ws\depot_cfg\ssb\trunk\postilion\ssb_installer\target\staging
   with includes null and excludes:null
[INFO] Unpacking
C:\p4ws\depot_cfg\ssb\trunk\postilion\ssb\services\target\services-izpack.zip
to
  C:\p4ws\depot_cfg\ssb\trunk\postilion\ssb_installer\target\staging
   with includes null and excludes:null
tail: \\ssb-batman\logs\batman\build.log: Bad file descriptor
tail: no files remaining

Why is tail suddenly claiming that the file descriptor is bad, when clearly
it works just fine?

So I tried some different things to see if I could get it to work.

I tried

tail --follow=\\ssb-batman\logs\batman\build.log

but that just gives an even stranger error:

tail: invalid argument `\\\\ssb-batman\\logs\\batman\\build.log' for
`--follow'
Valid arguments are:
  - `descriptor'
  - `name'
Try `tail --help' for more information.


I thought at first that maybe tail does not like the UNC path, but that is
not the case - it does exactly the same when I use a local file.

If I add --retry to the mix, I get the following very interesting reaction:
 It prints out the last few lines, throws out the same error as before, then
prints out the entire file!  This is what it looks like:

C:\>tail -f "\\ssb-batman\logs\batman\build.log" --retry
tail: warning: --retry is useful only when following by name
[INFO] CfgSystemInfoExt ...................................... SUCCESS
[4.328s]
[INFO] SSB Installer ......................................... SUCCESS
[1:28.422s]
[INFO]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESSFUL
[INFO]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 22 minutes 54 seconds
[INFO] Finished at: Fri Nov 26 10:11:17 GMT+02:00 2010
[INFO] Final Memory: 66M/1016M
[INFO]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
tail: \\ssb-batman\logs\batman\build.log: Bad file descriptor
tail: `\\ssb-batman\logs\batman\build.log' has become accessible
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO] Reactor build order:
[INFO]   Postilion Parent POM

<snip snip...>


In the interests of brevity I cut out the rest of my 250KB log file :-)

Regards,
Johan

-- 
Johan Pretorius
Cell: 0829268327
pretoriusjf <at> gmail.com

[Message part 2 (text/html, inline)]

Message #8 received at 7483 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: Johan Pretorius <pretoriusjf <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 7483 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#7483: Tail claims bad file descriptor when following
Date: Fri, 26 Nov 2010 10:48:48 -0800

On 11/26/2010 12:44 AM, Johan Pretorius wrote:
> I use tail 5.3.0 in Windows 7.

Hmm, that's rather old.  I suggest upgrading to a more-recent
version before investigating further.  The current version is 8.7.

Also, you might try reporting the bug to whoever built it on Windows
rather than to bug-coreutils, as it could well be a property
of the Windows port rather than a bug in coreutils itself.

Message #13 received at 7483-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Jim Meyering <jim <at> meyering.net>
To: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
Cc: 7483-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Johan Pretorius <pretoriusjf <at> gmail.com>
Subject: Re: bug#7483: Tail claims bad file descriptor when following
Date: Sat, 23 Jul 2011 00:21:35 +0200

tags 7483 + notabug
close 7483
thanks

Paul Eggert wrote:
> On 11/26/2010 12:44 AM, Johan Pretorius wrote:
>> I use tail 5.3.0 in Windows 7.
>
> Hmm, that's rather old.  I suggest upgrading to a more-recent
> version before investigating further.  The current version is 8.7.
>
> Also, you might try reporting the bug to whoever built it on Windows
> rather than to bug-coreutils, as it could well be a property
> of the Windows port rather than a bug in coreutils itself.

Thanks for the report.
I'm closing this as "not a bug".
If you find evidence of a bug using the latest,
you might want to report it to whomever wrote packaged
coreutils for windows 7.

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