When I access the .error.log file I sometimes get many screens full of ��� before the actual log messages. I looked at the log file with hd. Looks like some zeroes snuck in. Don't ask me how.
00000000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
0003de20 00 00 00 32 30 31 37 2d 30 35 2d 30 31 20 31 38 |...2017-05-01 18|
0003de30 3a 33 36 3a 31 37 2c 34 34 35 20 3a 70 72 6f 63 |:36:17,445 :proc|
0003de40 65 73 73 69 6e 67 20 75 70 6c 69 6e 6b 20 34 63 |essing uplink 4c|