GNU bug report logs - #36488
diffutils 3.7 make check failure ppc64le opensuse on colors test

Previous Next

Full log

View this message in rfc822 format

From: help-debbugs <at> gnu.org (GNU bug Tracking System)
To: Santiago Vila <sanvila <at> unex.es>
Subject: bug#25402: closed (Re: [bug-diffutils] bug#36488: diffutils 3.7
 make check failure ppc64le opensuse on colors test)
Date: Sun, 29 Aug 2021 07:23:02 +0000

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Your bug report

#36488: Race condition in "colors" test

which was filed against the diffutils package, has been closed.

The explanation is attached below, along with your original report.
If you require more details, please reply to 25402 <at> debbugs.gnu.org.

-- 
36488: http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=36488
GNU Bug Tracking System
Contact help-debbugs <at> gnu.org with problems

[Message part 2 (message/rfc822, inline)]

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: Thiago Jung Bauermann <bauermann <at> kolabnow.com>
Cc: Frédéric Bonnard <frediz <at> debian.org>,
 922552 <at> bugs.debian.org, Santiago Vila <sanvila <at> unex.es>,
 36488-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Normand <normand <at> linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Subject: Re: [bug-diffutils] bug#36488: diffutils 3.7 make check failure
 ppc64le opensuse on colors test
Date: Sun, 29 Aug 2021 00:22:27 -0700

[Message part 3 (text/plain, inline)]

On 8/28/21 8:40 AM, Thiago Jung Bauermann via bug-diffutils via All 
diffutils discussion. wrote:

> I believe this is the same problem reported in bug 34519.
> The Debian build also fails with "diff: standard output: Broken pipe".

Thanks for tracking that down. Frédéric's analysis in 
<https://bugs.debian.org/922552#19> was helpful.

I found some time to look into this bug, and installed into 
Savannah.gnu.org diffutils the attached patch, which I hope fixes the 
bug although I don't have the relevant platform to test it. Please give 
it a try.

Once this patch is part of a release, Debian shouldn't need any patches 
for diffutils.

For now I am closing the diffutils bug report 
<https://bugs.gnu.org/36488>; if I was too optimistic and the patch 
doesn't fix things we can always reopen it.

[0001-diff-cleanup-signal-handling-just-before-exit.patch (text/x-patch, attachment)]

[Message part 5 (message/rfc822, inline)]

From: Santiago Vila <sanvila <at> unex.es>
To: bug-diffutils <at> gnu.org
Cc: debian.axhn <at> manchmal.in-ulm.de
Subject: Race condition in "colors" test
Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2017 23:35:08 +0100 (CET)

Hello.

The test suite for diffutils 3.5 has a tendency to fail in our ppc64el
architecture:

https://buildd.debian.org/status/logs.php?pkg=diffutils&ver=1%3A3.5-2&arch=ppc64el

According to Christoph Biedl (Cc:ed), there is a race condition here:

| mkfifo fifo
| printf '%*s-a' 1000000 > a
| head -c 10 < fifo > /dev/null &
+ diff --color=always ---presume-output-tty a b > fifo
| test $? = 141 || fail=1

Quoting Christoph:

> There is a race condition involved, it fails in about three of
> four attempts - but not at all if the test is run under strace.

> A "sleep 0.1" before the diff made the test pass in ten of ten
> attempts. So the reason might indeed be the head command hasn't opened
> fifo yet by the time diff tries to write to it.

For the Debian package, I am going to add a "sleep 1"
(slightly more portable), but Christoph points out that this
should not really be architecture specific.

Thanks.

Previous Next

GNU bug tracking system
Copyright (C) 1999 Darren O. Benham, 1997,2003 nCipher Corporation Ltd, 1994-97 Ian Jackson.