Subject: Re: [bug-diffutils] bug#72274: option to ignore leading white space

From: Vincent Lefevre <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 2024 02:42:16 +0200

On 2024-07-24 16:57:49 -0500, Tim Chase wrote:
> On 2024-07-24 22:21, Vincent Lefevre wrote:
> > $ diff -wus <(printf "ab cd\n") <(printf " abcd \n")
> > Files /proc/self/fd/11 and /proc/self/fd/14 are identical
> 
> Doesn't even require the leading/trailing space:
> 
>  $ echo abcd > nospace
>  $ echo ab cd > space
>  $ diff -wus nospace space
>  Files nospace and space are identical
> 
> FWIW, this happens with diff(1) on FreeBSD & OpenBSD too, so it's
> not just a GNU diff(1) thing.

That's why -w is not the right option.

Contents that have been passed through HTML often get all their
leading white space removed. Hence the usefulness of an option
to ignore leading white space.

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre <[email-masked]> - Web: <https://www.vinc17.net/>
100% accessible validated (X)HTML - Blog: <https://www.vinc17.net/blog/>
Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / AriC project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)