Configuration Information [Automatically generated, do not change]: Machine: x86_64 OS: linux-gnu Compiler: gcc Compilation CFLAGS: -DPROGRAM='bash' -DCONF_HOSTTYPE='x86_64' -DCONF_OSTYPE='linux-gnu' -DCONF_MACHTYPE='x86_64-pc-linux-gnu' -DCONF_VENDOR='pc' -DLOCALEDIR='/usr/share/locale' -DPACKAGE='bash' -DSHELL -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I../bash -I../bash/include -I../bash/lib -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g -O2 -fstack-protector --param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wall uname output: Linux sc 3.10-2-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 3.10.5-1 (2013-08-07) x86_64 GNU/Linux Machine Type: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
Bash Version: 4.2 Patch Level: 45 Release Status: release When called with the -N option, "read" seems to consider the byte 0xFF as meaning EOF (well, not exactly since it doesn't set the exit status to non-zero): OK$ printf '\376' | LC_ALL=C bash -c 'IFS= read -rN1 a; printf %s "$a"' | od -tx1 0000000 fe 0000001 NOK$ printf '\377' | LC_ALL=C bash -c 'IFS= read -rN1 a; printf %s "$a"' | od -tx1 0000000 NOK$ printf 'xx\377xx' | LC_ALL=C bash -c 'IFS= read -rN5 a; printf %s "$a"' | od -tc 0000000 x x 0000002 The problem doesn't occur with -n instead. -- Stephane
