This only appeared by mistake. i was generating large numbers with Python, and accidentally hit CTRL-V, pasting the large line of numerical data into my terminal window. Trying to exit out of the data, i hit ENTER, where i thought i'd get a "Argument too long" or some other error, it failed miserably trying to parse the code.
Output from lsb_release -rd:
Description: Ubuntu 15.04
Release: 15.04
Gnome-terminal version
gnome-terminal:
Installed: 3.14.2-0ubuntu3
Candidate: 3.14.2-0ubuntu3
Version table:
*** 3.14.2-0ubuntu3 0
500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ vivid/main amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
What i expected to happen: not have Terminal parse that big of a string. I had to generate a second example to record it, sine my desktop hanged the first time. This new string was trimmed to 1/3rd of it's size. Current size is 8205 Bytes. i t was generated using the "Break Basic" While loop.
What happened: Terminal parsed the string, hung ubuntu. it's not like i have little ram. i have 8 gigs and memtest checked out ok.
the data in question:
3272973471441111142765931618563958903043804881849168808369381269342237089821345250731847775075054672507924637116206963723698674675984661012062549461364582878982525093626025426924
4209142032135149111401825236948828709869286266048815220994216720935844325754048615330121139508687421576481362860209932853196702574941643703973571152980749763025232111208912912842
1303197378198752590786139159972448373116810055264000611464546696371660310366233399444117543702811511906199818165128100730460751511178936466180790498709896934060548144085844696010
6787994833120133918443981924129535654646997429472480722523306091252343465920084669798256991621927009372861133876986776314085463612523613726380801417914684379957400854435345342269
3686947240980156901499053255978758068907039854282449546577824870398014070516500456497073066277194394427021796216806213335110135668436374117720868672506429343937229414585979749624
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0866483988637114340356551174991055949195831992293483949568224601913840310709434653719544447090169358032693271316697448532852024015861129057616576444372719106539022655475180683117
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4419001984318619002354690128394599613742477432441096053586848019393520015789124628744694695360010792140389734740208018515048022389196773619060299287652741177044950283366473637119
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i'm fairly certain this can happen with any alpha numeric sting that long, not just random numbers
Just to clarify: the command should be pasted without the newlines. That is, a command of about 8kB size. For me it was the command-not-found script spinning the CPU at 100% for about a minute or two, but otherwise not causing any harm to the rest of the system. Yet, it's indeed undesirable.