From debbugs-submit-bounces@debbugs.gnu.org Sat Mar 04 14:15:41 2023 Received: (at submit) by debbugs.gnu.org; 4 Mar 2023 19:15:41 +0000 Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:37747 helo=debbugs.gnu.org) by debbugs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1pYXM4-0001WX-Ta for submit@debbugs.gnu.org; Sat, 04 Mar 2023 14:15:41 -0500 Received: from lists.gnu.org ([209.51.188.17]:47620) by debbugs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1pYV9R-00061K-P0 for submit@debbugs.gnu.org; Sat, 04 Mar 2023 11:54:30 -0500 Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1pYV9R-0000vU-IY for bug-diffutils@gnu.org; Sat, 04 Mar 2023 11:54:29 -0500 Received: from mail.svario.it ([2a02:2770:13::112:0:1]) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_128_GCM_SHA256:128) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1pYV9P-00058u-PS for bug-diffutils@gnu.org; Sat, 04 Mar 2023 11:54:29 -0500 Received: from [IPV6:2a01:c22:bc7a:b500:c4d:8462:3bee:6ce2] (dynamic-2a01-0c22-bc7a-b500-0c4d-8462-3bee-6ce2.c22.pool.telefonica.de [IPv6:2a01:c22:bc7a:b500:c4d:8462:3bee:6ce2]) by mail.svario.it (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id D7749D2372 for ; Sat, 4 Mar 2023 17:54:22 +0100 (CET) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=svario.it; s=201710; t=1677948862; bh=f928D/dg9MWFlPQuZOv4SXV48ROaZm9MBuUyDaQ6+jY=; h=Date:From:To:Subject:From; b=ZWwK/B872h58FUtRHAxvXR7Ftx5MtX9dhiWvbBdyJhzyWPghvqpsG3T2QvMldOGoq Z3togr6gPYvnMiXe6MJS8kmmaXl8GcIWbIHkUKRxP91LNeHspIzvt0na1uoNc6RL3f EyjT3Az8alIu+QwomK7TkSMtpPfZSahsVVuzPanxSggVz4VE4sxCAl65NtDdmMXSwW 4VWeCFVVzYN5w5uNp1Cnj5DqvRB2ZJ+7p1Fr9GYxpodGR5RNtYQDU6/TcQG03KFcWq VDDyByzaEzcneCPjnvfaU0uJe+Fi9Ifeb6+MesiRbwBGH6Tr9LCrxxoPbpexM3NJNc Klkn5bR+V5jtw== Message-ID: <1e8d9e5a-f1c0-d90b-d9e9-aa691eab36e1@svario.it> Date: Sat, 4 Mar 2023 17:54:20 +0100 MIME-Version: 1.0 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:102.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/102.7.1 Content-Language: en-US From: Gioele Barabucci To: bug-diffutils@gnu.org Subject: diff -r reports identical devices nodes (maj/min) as different Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Received-SPF: pass client-ip=2a02:2770:13::112:0:1; envelope-from=gioele@svario.it; helo=mail.svario.it X-Spam_score_int: -20 X-Spam_score: -2.1 X-Spam_bar: -- X-Spam_report: (-2.1 / 5.0 requ) BAYES_00=-1.9, DKIM_SIGNED=0.1, DKIM_VALID=-0.1, DKIM_VALID_AU=-0.1, DKIM_VALID_EF=-0.1, SPF_HELO_PASS=-0.001, SPF_PASS=-0.001 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no X-Spam_action: no action X-Spam-Score: -1.3 (-) X-Debbugs-Envelope-To: submit X-Mailman-Approved-At: Sat, 04 Mar 2023 14:15:38 -0500 X-BeenThere: debbugs-submit@debbugs.gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18 Precedence: list List-Id: List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: debbugs-submit-bounces@debbugs.gnu.org Sender: "Debbugs-submit" X-Spam-Score: -2.3 (--) Dear diff developers, an issue related to the way diff compares directories that contain device nodes has been reported in . In a nutshell, identical device nodes are reported as different, but only during recursive comparisons (`-r`). The following steps can reproduce this issue: $ mkdir a; sudo mknod a/null c 1 3 $ sleep 1 $ mkdir b; sudo mknod b/null c 1 3 $ diff a/null b/null ; echo $? 0 $ diff -r a b ; echo $? File a/null is a character special file while file b/null is a character special file 1 (Device 1/3 is the null character device, i.e. `/dev/null`.) Removing the `sleep 1` command reduces (but does not eliminate) the probability of getting this faulty behavior. Regards, -- Gioele Barabucci