Casting the value to be checked to size_t renders the check useless. If st_size is SIZE_MAX+1, it will be truncated to 0 and the check succeeds. In fact, this check can never be false because every value stored in a size_t is smaller or equal to SIZE_MAX. I think this adjustment was meant to fix a compiler warning for 64 bit systems for which sizeof(off_t) is sizeof(size_t), but the signedness differs. Going unconditionally to the greatest possible unsigned int type if st_size is positive (off_t is signed) will fix this issue. Signed-off-by: Tobias Stoeckmann <tobias@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> --- This should be an easy fix without adding too much boiler-plate code. Your macros also imply that every value would be allowed as upper limit, but in fact it would have to be a 2^x-1 value, otherwise the bit pattern check would turn out to be invalid. --- text-utils/tailf.c | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/text-utils/tailf.c b/text-utils/tailf.c index 6219aa2..5937f73 100644 --- a/text-utils/tailf.c +++ b/text-utils/tailf.c @@ -284,7 +284,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv) errx(EXIT_FAILURE, _("%s: is not a file"), filename); /* mmap is based on size_t */ - if (st.st_size && (size_t) st.st_size <= SIZE_MAX) + if (st.st_size > 0 && (uintmax_t) st.st_size <= (uintmax_t) SIZE_MAX) tailf(filename, lines, &st); #ifdef HAVE_INOTIFY_INIT -- 2.9.1 -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe util-linux" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html