Strange kernel log message

[Bruce Cran]

Giorgos Keramidas wrote:
> On 2007-11-26 09:58, Ceri Davies <ceri at submonkey.net> wrote:
>   
>> So I have this in my security run output:
>> kernel log messages:
>> +++ /tmp/security.hLYJI0kF	Sun Nov 25 03:01:02 2007
>> +<<<<222>2>>>NNNMNMMIII M  III SIISAS SAAA  3 303,020,0 ,,  EE IEIIESSSAIAA S A f ffffff
>> +
>> +
>> +f
>>
>> WTF now?
>>
>> I'm not sure if that's a real kernel message that got garbled or whether
>> I should be worried about naughtiness.
>>     
>
> It looks like multiple messages overlapping each other.  Removing 3
> characters every 4 bytes in the output produces things which seem
> vaguely recognizable:
>
>     <22NNI II A ,,,EISA  fff
>     <<2>NMI  SS 300  ISAAfff
>
> There's a sysctl option which you can tweak to make this less likely to
> happen, but I am not sure about its name.  Our console gurus can help
> you track it down and tune its value :)
>
>   

The kernel option I've seen mentioned before to at least make this less 
common is:

options PRINTF_BUFR_SIZE=128    # Prevent printf output being interspersed.

--
Bruce