try e.g.
$ export LC_ALL=C $ echo å | apertium/apertium-transfer -b tests/data/apertium-nno-nob.nno-nob.t3x tests/data/nno-nob.t3x.bin # watch it eat memory, then ctrl-c ^C $ echo å | apertium/apertium-interchunk tests/data/apertium-nno-nob.nno-nob.t3x tests/data/nno-nob.t3x.bin ^C $ echo å | apertium/apertium-postchunk tests/data/apertium-nno-nob.nno-nob.t3x tests/data/nno-nob.t3x.bin ^C
The failure could be more informative.