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From: rcodi@yabbie.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: du's "--bad status" message
Message-ID: <434@yabbie.oz>
Date: Sun, 29-Mar-87 00:28:22 EST
Article-I.D.: yabbie.434
Posted: Sun Mar 29 00:28:22 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 31-Mar-87 06:07:33 EST
References: <880@maynard.BSW.COM>
Organization: RMIT Comm & Elec Eng, Melbourne, Australia.
Lines: 11

In article <880@maynard.BSW.COM>, campbell@maynard.BSW.COM (Larry Campbell) writes:
> 	du /usr/spool/news | sort -nr
> 	--bad status < /usr/spool >
> 	--bad status < /usr/spool >

It probably means you don't have permission to access /usr/spool (not root?).

Yet another case where perror(3) should have been used instead of
hiding the real reason for such errors.

Ian D.