grep aborts when using perl regexps on some binary file

Solution Verified - Updated -

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.6

Issue

  • When running:
"grep -qP "[\x80-\xFF]" config_21.SYB031.QUAD0009.FILTER.dat.nascii"

Output is:
Aborted (core dumped)
You have mail in /var/spool/mail/root

Resolution

Root Cause

  • The problem happens because grep-2.6.3 in rhel6 will abort if pcre_exec returns <=0 and a value other than PCRE_ERROR_NOMATCH or PCRE_ERROR_NOMEMORY.

Diagnostic Steps

  • bt pattern 

Core was generated by `grep -P Warning server.20160224.000000.log.gz server.20160301.000000.log.gz ser'.
Program terminated with signal 6, Aborted.
#0  0x000000347c032625 in raise (sig=<value optimized out>) at ../nptl/sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/raise.c:64
64    return INLINE_SYSCALL (tgkill, 3, pid, selftid, sig);
(gdb) bt
#0  0x000000347c032625 in raise (sig=<value optimized out>) at ../nptl/sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/raise.c:64
#1  0x000000347c033e05 in abort () at abort.c:92
#2  0x0000000000403855 in Pexecute (buf=0x158d000 "\037\213\b\b\303\022\314V", size=<value optimized out>, match_size=0x7fff01e12510, start_ptr=0x0) at pcresearch.c:160
#3  0x0000000000405211 in do_execute (beg=<value optimized out>, 
    lim=0x1590e95 "\360\017\225\203\251\304_8Y\261zVG@\177\356\257?&4x\206\267\321\b~\324ǹY\360\275=\372D\373\354ձA\275\243\021\066\203\214\204\177\357'\377\367^\334r{\273\067G\276\024\036\321kd\275\362%\227(^\230\251\320H#^\273 ^j,^\322\356\230/]A\371\222\032\371\332~\371\322:\032\227/5\177\260\343k\345\253\064\361\"*̎0\336F\274\026\210\227\"i\212\256U*^:s\177!44\326l\276\214\022\305ː\025\030o#^\333f\275\376\006=\021\067`P\246\002") at main.c:973
#4  grepbuf (beg=<value optimized out>, 
    lim=0x1590e95 "\360\017\225\203\251\304_8Y\261zVG@\177\356\257?&4x\206\267\321\b~\324ǹY\360\275=\372D\373\354ձA\275\243\021\066\203\214\204\177\357'\377\367^\334r{\273\067G\276\024\036\321kd\275\362%\227(^\230\251\320H#^\273 ^j,^\322\356\230/]A\371\222\032\371\332~\371\322:\032\227/5\177\260\343k\345\253\064\361\"*̎0\336F\274\026\210\227\"i\212\256U*^:s\177!44\326l\276\214\022\305ː\025\030o#^\333f\275\376\006=\021\067`P\246\002") at main.c:1008
#5  0x00000000004059f1 in grep (file=0x7fff01e13954 "server.20160224.000000.log.gz", stats=0x619a40) at main.c:1128
#6  grepfile (file=0x7fff01e13954 "server.20160224.000000.log.gz", stats=0x619a40) at main.c:1258
#7  0x0000000000405fe9 in main (argc=<value optimized out>, argv=<value optimized out>) at main.c:2187

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