If you run this: {for (i in `{seq 1 70000}) echo '½•α·'} | mc | wc mc will eventually suicide. The error comes from /sys/src/libdraw/font.c:/^agefont which assumes it has a display. Normally, this is set up by geninitdraw (usually via initdraw), but mc.c avoids that to avoid the screen redraws (flicker, at a minimum, but worse in long-running cases). graphics(2) does not prohibit this use, so I made the least intrusive change to make it work.