The 25-Year-Old BSD Bug

The 25-Year-Old BSD Bug 213

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday May 11, 2008 @11:05AM from the better-late-than-never dept.

sproketboy writes with news that a developer named Marc Balmer has recently fixed a bug in a bit of BSD code which is roughly 25 years old. In addition to the OSnews summary, you can read Balmer's comments and a technical description of the bug. "This code will not work as expected when seeking to the second entry of a block where the first has been deleted: seekdir() calls readdir() which happily skips the first entry (it has inode set to zero), and advance to the second entry. When the user now calls readdir() to read the directory entry to which he just seekdir()ed, he does not get the second entry but the third. Much to my surprise I not only found this problem in all other BSDs or BSD derived systems like Mac OS X, but also in very old BSD versions. I first checked 4.4BSD Lite 2, and Otto confirmed it is also in 4.2BSD. The bug has been around for roughly 25 years or more."

The 25-Year-Old BSD Bug

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more proof (Score:5, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Sunday May 11, 2008 @11:13AM (#23369210)

...of the superiority of Microsoft.

the developers probably knew about it (Score:5, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Sunday May 11, 2008 @11:15AM (#23369214)

but they had more important things to do. At least until Balmer started throwing chairs.

Re:more proof (Score:4, Funny)

by rubycodez ( 864176 ) writes: on Sunday May 11, 2008 @11:15AM (#23369222)

that's funny, since Microsoft has used gobs of BSD code over the years

Re:Wait... Would you ever hit this? (Score:5, Funny)

by ivan256 ( 17499 ) writes: on Sunday May 11, 2008 @11:16AM (#23369230)

Of course, now that I've R'd the FA, I understand that it's the first entry in the block (of which a directory with a sufficient number of files would have multiple), and not the first entry in the directory. Kindly ignore my previous response... Nothing to see here...

Re:Wait... Would you ever hit this? (Score:2, Funny)

by youthoftoday ( 975074 ) writes: on Sunday May 11, 2008 @11:20AM (#23369268) Homepage Journal

an existential philosopher turned empiricist perhaps?

See? SEE? (Score:5, Funny)

by Frosty Piss ( 770223 ) writes: on Sunday May 11, 2008 @11:21AM (#23369274)

See? See?
This is the power of Open Source!
With all those eyes looking at the code, stuff like this gets ID'd and fixed LICKITY SPLIT!
(runs and hides)

Trac (Score:5, Funny)

by extirpater ( 132500 ) writes: on Sunday May 11, 2008 @11:31AM (#23369348)

Bug tracking software missed this because it's bug #1. lol.

Would this be a "Critical" or "Important?" (Score:3, Funny)

by FurtiveGlancer ( 1274746 ) writes: <.AdHocTechGuy. .at. .aol.com.> on Sunday May 11, 2008 @11:34AM (#23369368) Journal

If no one has cared enough to fix it for 25 years, I'm guessing this should be rated as "inconsequential."

Must have been a really slow news day at OSNews.

BSD is Dying! (Score:5, Funny)

by Doc Ruby ( 173196 ) writes: on Sunday May 11, 2008 @11:44AM (#23369420) Homepage Journal

If you define BSD as a collection of bugs, this story proves that BSD is dying.

After this long (Score:4, Funny)

by Hawkeye477 ( 163893 ) writes: on Sunday May 11, 2008 @11:57AM (#23369486) Homepage

After this long would this not be considered a feature? :)

bug blassification, side effects and Insults! (Score:5, Funny)

by JonTurner ( 178845 ) writes: on Sunday May 11, 2008 @12:20PM (#23369634) Journal

3 thoughts on this:

1. I think this bug would be classified "archeological".

2. The question now is what happens to the Samba work-around patches. Now that the bug is fixed, do the patches cause a side-effect (i.e. "a new bug")?

3. This gives rise to a new meme of nerd insults. "You call yourself a programmer? Why I've fixed bugs older than you!" Of course, only one man is entitled to use that line.

Re:BSD is Dying! (Score:4, Funny)

by MillionthMonkey ( 240664 ) writes: on Sunday May 11, 2008 @12:47PM (#23369796)

No, this story proves that BSD is dying because there was a bug in it and no complaints were heard for 25 years.

Re:Trac (Score:4, Funny)

by chooks ( 71012 ) writes: on Sunday May 11, 2008 @12:48PM (#23369802)

I program in FORTRAN, you insensitive clod!

Re:more proof (Score:3, Funny)

by kabloom ( 755503 ) writes: on Sunday May 11, 2008 @01:28PM (#23370028) Homepage

Of course. Because they keep 25 year old bugs as compatibility features, while we break compatibility and fix them.

Re:Old Code (Score:3, Funny)

by gweihir ( 88907 ) writes: on Sunday May 11, 2008 @01:43PM (#23370132)

Indeed. Not surptisingly nobody was really interessted.

Re:the developers probably knew about it (Score:5, Funny)

by Cheapy ( 809643 ) writes: on Sunday May 11, 2008 @01:44PM (#23370138)

At that point they had far more important things to do.

Such as dodging chairs.

Re:Many eyes make bugs shallow... (Score:2, Funny)

by ahem ( 174666 ) writes: on Sunday May 11, 2008 @02:00PM (#23370208) Homepage Journal

My parent said:

(In other words, I believe in all things moderation and think zealotry is absurd and I probably shouldn't be confused with an open source zealot or even an advocate.)

Sounds like you're a bit of a moderation zealot...

Re:This couldn't have happened with Linux... (Score:3, Funny)

by AlgorithMan ( 937244 ) writes: on Sunday May 11, 2008 @02:04PM (#23370232) Homepage

except for the code parts from Xenix (which is 28 years old) that was renamed to "SCO Unix" in 1989, which was - as we all know - stolen and illegally put completely into linux... (we have a suitcase full of evidence!!!)

Re:See? SEE? (Score:3, Funny)

by driftingwalrus ( 203255 ) writes: on Sunday May 11, 2008 @02:39PM (#23370448) Homepage

In comparison, Microsoft has been around for what... 20 years? And who knows what bugs in Windows are there, lurking, just waiting to bite us?
Microsoft was founded in 1988?!

Re:This couldn't have happened with Linux... (Score:3, Funny)

by driftingwalrus ( 203255 ) writes: on Sunday May 11, 2008 @02:45PM (#23370476) Homepage

except for the code parts from Xenix (which is 28 years old) that was renamed to "SCO Unix" in 1989, which was - as we all know - stolen and illegally put completely into linux... (we have a suitcase full of evidence!!!)
And, no, you may not look within the Evidentiary Suitcase!

Re:Many eyes make bugs shallow... (Score:4, Funny)

by auric_dude ( 610172 ) writes: on Sunday May 11, 2008 @03:06PM (#23370608)

Surly a bug this old should be reclassified as a scrab beetle?

Re:Many eyes make bugs shallow... (Score:5, Funny)

by joshv ( 13017 ) writes: on Sunday May 11, 2008 @11:25PM (#23374096)

That's "scarab" beetle, and don't call me Surly.

Re:BSD is Dying! (Score:1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Monday May 12, 2008 @12:21AM (#23374442)

But complaints are heard NOW !
What does this mean ?
Resurrection ?

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The 25-Year-Old BSD Bug 213

The 25-Year-Old BSD Bug More Login

The 25-Year-Old BSD Bug

more proof (Score:5, Funny)

the developers probably knew about it (Score:5, Funny)

Re:more proof (Score:4, Funny)

Re:Wait... Would you ever hit this? (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Wait... Would you ever hit this? (Score:2, Funny)

See? SEE? (Score:5, Funny)

Trac (Score:5, Funny)

Would this be a "Critical" or "Important?" (Score:3, Funny)

BSD is Dying! (Score:5, Funny)

After this long (Score:4, Funny)

bug blassification, side effects and Insults! (Score:5, Funny)

Re:BSD is Dying! (Score:4, Funny)

Re:Trac (Score:4, Funny)

Re:more proof (Score:3, Funny)

Re:Old Code (Score:3, Funny)

Re:the developers probably knew about it (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Many eyes make bugs shallow... (Score:2, Funny)

Re:This couldn't have happened with Linux... (Score:3, Funny)

Re:See? SEE? (Score:3, Funny)

Re:This couldn't have happened with Linux... (Score:3, Funny)

Re:Many eyes make bugs shallow... (Score:4, Funny)

Re:Many eyes make bugs shallow... (Score:5, Funny)

Re:BSD is Dying! (Score:1, Funny)

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