Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rice!rice!sun-spots-request
From: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu (Charles Hedrick)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun
Subject: Re: SS1+ SCSI disk woes
Keywords: SunOS
Message-ID: <1990Nov2.001907.9901@rice.edu>
Date: 2 Nov 90 00:20:00 GMT
Sender: sun-spots-request@rice.edu
Organization: Sun-Spots
Lines: 10
Approved: Sun-Spots@rice.edu
Originator: spots@titan.rice.edu
X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 9, Issue 352, message 13
X-Original-Date: 13 Oct 90 04:51:56 GMT
X-Refs:  Original: v9n327

>What happens is that some file gets modified.  This usually shows up as an
>executable that starts dumping core.  Comparing it to an identical copy
>from backups or another system shows definite differences.  But the
>strange problem is that eventually the problem goes away, although it may
>require a reboot, and the file is back to normal.

Sounds to me like the dreaded "confused file problem".  One block of the
file, typically the first one, turns into the corresponding block of a
different file.  Typically it happens to files accessed via NFS, but we've
seen it in local files too.  There is supposedly a fix available from Sun.