Heck if I can figure it out. Maybe a candiate for your puzzle posts!
This tr command is a cut and paste from your post just to rule out any weird hidden chars somewhere
Pandora:Downloads frank$ /usr/bin/tr '\000' '\377' < /dev/zero | hexdump
0000000 c3 bf c3 bf c3 bf c3 bf c3 bf c3 bf c3 bf c3 bf
*
^C
Pandora:Downloads frank$ uname -v
Darwin Kernel Version 12.2.0: Sat Aug 25 00:48:52 PDT 2012; root:xnu-2050.18.24~1/RELEASE_X86_64
Pandora:Downloads frank$ strings /usr/bin/tr
$FreeBSD: src/usr.bin/tr/cmap.c,v 1.2 2004/07/14 08:36:09 tjr Exp $
$FreeBSD: src/usr.bin/tr/cset.c,v 1.3 2004/07/14 08:33:14 tjr Exp $
$FreeBSD: src/usr.bin/tr/str.c,v 1.24 2004/11/14 05:15:25 jkh Exp $
$FreeBSD: src/usr.bin/tr/tr.c,v 1.24 2005/04/09 14:31:41 stefanf Exp $
@(#)PROGRAM:tr PROJECT:text_cmds-84
cmap_splay
/SourceCache/text_cmds/text_cmds-84/tr/cmap.c
t != NULL
cset_delete
/SourceCache/text_cmds/text_cmds-84/tr/cset.c
cset_rangecmp(t, ch) == 0
cset_splay
genrange() malloc
misplaced sequence asterisk
illegal sequence count
misplaced equivalence equals sign
unknown class %s
upper
lower
Ccdsu
strdup(argv[1])
empty string2
usage: tr [-Ccsu] string1 string2
tr [-Ccu] -d string1
tr [-Ccu] -s string1
tr [-Ccu] -ds string1 string2
rune
Pandora:Downloads frank$
I'll see your uname and raise you a strings 😕
Message was edited by: Frank Caggiano - BTW you never answered the shell you are using as I said I'm bash Just saw in in your last post
bash --version
GNU bash, version 3.2.48(1)-release (x86_64-apple-darwin12)
Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
[Pandora:~/Downloads] frank%