> $ while true;do echo -n .;./cat</dev/null|./cat|./cat|./cat|./cat|./cat|./cat|./cat|./cat|./cat|./cat|./cat|./cat|./cat|./cat|./cat|./cat|./cat|./cat;done
> ...................................bash: ./cat: No such file or directory
> .....................................................bash: ./cat: No such file or directory
> .................................bash: ./cat: No such file or directory
> ..................................................................................bash: ./cat: No such file or directory
> .............................................................................bash: ./cat: No such file or directory
> ........^C

Sorry for being too certain about symlinks and pointing in the wrong
direction! I have got the same behaviour even with a statically linked
cat binary, no symlinks at all...

No, I cannot reproduce that on a local file system. But it reliably breaks
on coda.

Regards,
--
Ivan