cat: [file]: Invalid argument

[pieterverberne]

Hola,

$ cat winxp1.8.ova > /dev/null
cat: winxp1.8.ova: Invalid argument

What could cause this? This 3GB file is not entirely readable anymore. When I cat/copy/md5/rsync it I always get errors. It happens to more big files, and to big files only.

rsync says:
rsync: read errors mapping "[snip]/winxp1.8.ova": Invalid argument (22)
ERROR: [snip]/winxp1.8.ova failed verification -- update discarded.

Dmesg doesn't say a thing. This same file is on multiple volumes, and all volumes give this fault. I just upgraded to OpenBSD Current (OpenBSD lilium.garden 5.0 GENERIC#90 i386) This is the first time I see this error, and I backup almost daily with rsnapshot/rsync.

The filesystem is not corrupt. I don't think a file on itself can become corrupt so that cat(1) cannot read it anymore.

Ow, and the ova file is still usable by VirtualBox :-)

Could this be an OpenBSD bug?

Update: I transferred the ova file to another computer via NFS. There, the ova file is usable. So, the file is actually readable. Maybe NFS is not very picky about errors?

[jggimi]

Could this be an OpenBSD bug?

Of course.

Since these files of yours are used by virtual machines, is it possible these are "sparse files" with unallocated sectors reserved? FFS filesystems support them, but cat(1) does not, it expects to access files sequentially, because it is used to concatenate files to standard output.

You might find cp(1) works where cat does not.

---

A dd(1) of the raw drive (or the raw partition) would indicate I/O errors isolated from any cat, rsync, or filesystem problem. Raw device nodes are significantly faster than cooked, and you can use high block sizes, though anything over 32KB isn't going to be any faster.

Use fsck_ffs(8) to determine if there is a filesystem structure problem.

If you dump(8) your .ova files, you may discover additional diagnostic messages if there are problems with the individual files.

[pieterverberne]

Originally Posted by jggimi

Of course.

Since these files of yours are used by virtual machines, is it possible these are "sparse files" with unallocated sectors reserved? FFS filesystems support them, but cat(1) does not, it expects to access files sequentially, because it is used to concatenate files to standard output.

You might find cp(1) works where cat does not.

I read about that. However, some mpeg(video) and ISO (cd image) files have the same problem. cp doesn't work either on these files.

Maybe ova file was not a good example.

Another example as root:

# dd if=winxp1.8.ova of=/dev/null
dd: winxp1.8.ova: Invalid argument
4194303+0 records in
4194303+0 records out
2147483136 bytes transferred in 116.564 secs (18423057 bytes/sec)

Diagnostic tips (hints) are also welcome.

Update: Ok, bit dumb to use an ova-file example again. But other files had the same problem anyway.

[pieterverberne]

Looks like it is fixed by downgrading to OpenBSD 5.0 stable release.

[ocicat]

Originally Posted by pieterverberne

Looks like it is fixed by downgrading to OpenBSD 5.0 stable release.

You may want to pass this information on to the developers so this can be fixed. Information on how to submit a problem report can be found at the following:

http://www.openbsd.org/report.html

Taking the time to provide a thorough, detailed, & complete report will help the developers resolve the issue faster. Providing complete outputs of dmesg(8) for both configurations will certainly help.

[pieterverberne]

Sorry (to the OpenBSD developers), but I'm not really planning to upgrade, make a bug report and downgrade again. I did sent a mail to bugs@openbsd.org but never find a copy on http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-bugs&r=1&b=201111&w=2 . (I thought bugs@openbsd.org was a public list?)

[jggimi]

Your report was published to bugs@. Unfortunately, marc.info has had problems with regular updates since September, sometimes going many days, or even weeks, without recording incoming Email. Use Gmane.