UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello guys,

We had to move from a DC to another, and we are now facing an "issue" with some text files.

Looks like that some of our log files are set as binary:

file TuxConnectorURA.20121012
TuxConnectorURA.20121012: data or International Language text


less TuxConnectorURA.20121012
"TuxConnectorURA.20121012" may be a binary file. See it anyway?

but I can see it normally after pressing "y"


My question is... is there a way to correct it? Will it causing any impact? (I'm afraid that non-log files are with such problem).


Thanks a lot!

Unix file recognition is steered by a file called "/etc/magic". It contains rules for what has to be in a file to make it a file of type x. It works like "if a file has an 'x' as the 12th byte and a 'y' as one of the first 3 bytes than it is ...". As this is ultimately best-guess its outcome can be wrong sometimes. This may be the case with your file for reasons unknown.

Issue "file /path/to/your/logfile" to find out which type the system thinks it is (the "file" utility bases its outcome on the same mechanism). You can even correct the type database in "/etc/magic" by putting in new entries - see "man /etc/magic" for details how to do so.

It is also possible that your file contains some unprintable characters "less" filters out, which make "file" think it is binary. In this case you probably should correct your logging mechanism because writing hex characters in a log file is wrong.

I hope this helps.

bakunin

Sorry for the long delay to respond.

Looks like after the logs rotated, they went back to normal. It's happening only after the server boot, but get to work properly after it rotates.

Thanks!