nvi gets conversion error, truncates file

[LukeKendall]

Binary package hint: nvi

I have a large text file (that contains some non-ascii characters). The same problem occurs on a much shorter file, of the problem lines, which I'll attach. My Ubuntu version:

Description: Ubuntu 8.10
Release: 8.10

If I search within my file, it says: Conversion error on line 53320
If I creep up on line 53320, I see it contains:

Dear Felicity and Patrick,
.sp
.P
~
risen to the top of the pile of
~
~
also going to be short as I am doing this at work during my lunch break!

In contrast, vim shows these lines as:

Dear Felicity and Patrick,
.sp
.P
This is a quick note because your last, very welcome sheet, hasn'<92>t
risen to the top of the pile of
\fILetters to Be Answered\fR yet, but it<92>s been so long that I am getting a bad
conscience about it \*(EM<97> it is
also going to be short as I am doing this at work during my lunch break!

If I try to write it out, it says:
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
Error: zzz: Invalid or incomplete multibyte or wide character.
zzz: WARNING: FILE TRUNCATED.

I fetched nvi-1.81.6 and applied nvi_1.81.6-7.diff and built it.
The problem is unchanged.

I also noticed that the make install didn't run ldconfig.
Worse, I noticed that it installs nvi as vi.

luke

[LukeKendall (luke-zeta)]

The file nvi-prob can be edited with nvi to reproduce the problem.

[lichray (lichray)]

Nvi should be able to run in 8bit mode if you set LC_CTYPE=C, which shows the nonconvertible bytes as hex. However, this process can not be automated yet.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.