This problem is fixed in rev. 1.84 of sys/miscfs/kernfs/kernfs_vnops.c
on -current. The fix will be pulled up to 1.6 branch, and will
appear in eventual minor release for 1.6.X.

Thanks for report (and sorry for breaking it)

Jaromir

Dave Tyson wrote:
> Under 1.5.x if you use 'less /kern/msgbuf' to view kernel messages
> everything works OK and after a few pages of ^@ null characters the
> text is displayed. If you try the same thing under 1.6 or current I
> find that you get the same pages of ^@ null characters and nothing
> else. Doing a 'cat /kern/msgbuf|less' provides a workaround, but it
> would be nice if the original behaviour could be restored. A quick test
> with the 1.5.3 less under current shows the problems still exists and
> points to a change in the behavior of /kern filesystem. Anyone else seen
> (annoyed?) by this. Is it worth a PR?
> 
> Dave
> 
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-- 
Jaromir Dolecek <jdolecek@NetBSD.org>            http://www.NetBSD.org/
-=- We should be mindful of the potential goal, but as the tantric    -=-
-=- Buddhist masters say, ``You may notice during meditation that you -=-
-=- sometimes levitate or glow.   Do not let this distract you.''     -=-