1. [Usenet] A bug in some now-obsolete versions of the netnews
software that used to eat up to BUFSIZ bytes of the article text. The
bug was triggered by having the text of the article start with a
space or tab. This bug was quickly personified as a mythical creature
called the line eater, and postings often included a dummy line of
line eater food. Ironically, line eater `food' not beginning with a
space or tab wasn't actually eaten, since the bug was avoided; but if
there was a space or tab before it, then the line eater would eat the
food and the beginning of the text it was supposed to be protecting.
The practice of sacrificing to the line eater continued for some time
after the bug had been {nailed to the wall}, and is still humorously
referred to. The bug itself was still occasionally reported to be
lurking in some mail-to-netnews gateways as late as 1991.
2. See {NSA line eater}.
[glossary]