Re: bash displays strange characters after base64 decoding

[Dennis Williamson]

On Thu, Aug 6, 2015 at 12:45 PM, Valentin Schmidt <vsch@posteo.org> wrote:

From: vsch@posteo.org
To: bug-bash@gnu.org,bash@packages.debian.org
Subject: bash displays strange characters after base64 decoding

Configuration Information:
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../. -I.././include -I.././lib -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g -O2 -fstack-protector --param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wall
uname output: Linux ongakui 3.13.0-24-generic #47-Ubuntu SMP Fri May 2 23:30:00 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Machine Type: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu

Bash Version: 4.3
Patch Level: 11
Release Status: release

Description:
Bash displays strange characters (including command prompt) (see attached png file) after the execution of the base64 (GNU coreutils 8.21) command like described as follows:
base64 -d base64.txt
The aim was actually to direct the output of the base64 command into a file (would have been a .jpg file) but the ">decoded.jpg" was forgotten.
Accordingly the output was directed to stdout instead. This resulted in the command prompt consisting of strange characters after decoding.
Also any command entered via the keyboard resulted in strange characters being displayed instead of the typed characters.
Also the output of the ls (which seems to be executed) command (as an example) is displayed as strange characters.

Repeat-By:
As described above.

Not a bug. Also not Bash related. You have sent control characters to your terminal which causes it to display alternate characters.

Try entering the reset command (you'll have to do it more or less blindly).

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