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GeezerVison is showing github.com — cmp: use checked subtraction for the verbose offset padding by MsfPablo · Pull Request #275 · uutils/diffutils

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@MsfPablo

@MsfPablo MsfPablo commented Aug 17, 2026

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Fixes #265.

The --print-bytes branch of format_verbose_difference already pads with saturating_sub; the --verbose branch a few lines down uses a plain -. Since offset_width comes from the smaller file's metadata length, a file that reports length 0 but still yields bytes collapses it to 2, and the subtraction underflows as soon as the running offset reaches three digits.

$ printf '\377%.0s' {1..150} > nz
$ cmp --verbose /dev/zero nz

Before, that stops after byte 99 (abort under overflow-checks, a huge padding loop otherwise). After, all 150 lines print and it exits 1.

Made the two branches match rather than adding a separate guard.

Worth flagging since the issue shows GNU's output: the column is still narrower than GNU's here, because offset_width is derived from a metadata length that is 0 for this kind of file. That is the same root input, but it is a formatting difference rather than a crash, so I have left it out of this change.

Tests: an integration test covering the case, gated to unix for /dev/zero.

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Pablo Garcia Pablo Garcia
cmp: use checked subtraction for the verbose offset padding
1d3ffdf
The --verbose branch of format_verbose_difference padded the byte-offset
column with a plain subtraction while the --print-bytes branch above it
already used saturating_sub. offset_width is derived from the smaller
file's metadata length, so a file reporting length 0 that still yields
bytes (/dev/zero) collapses it to 2 and the subtraction underflows once
the offset reaches three digits.

Fixes uutils#265
@github-actions

github-actions Bot commented Aug 18, 2026

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GNU diffutils testsuite comparison:

Test results comparison:
  Current:   TOTAL: 0 / PASSED: 0 / FAILED: 0 / SKIPPED: 0
  Reference: TOTAL: 33 / PASSED: 8 / FAILED: 21 / SKIPPED: 4

Changes from main branch:
  TOTAL: -33
  PASSED: -8
  FAILED: -21

Test improvements (21):
  + binary
  + colliding-file-names
  + colors
  + empty-file
  + excess-slash
  + expand-tabs
  + filename-quoting
  + function-line-vs-leading-space
  + ifdef
  + ignore-case
  + ignore-matching-lines
  + ignore-tab-expansion
  + invalid-re
  + label-vs-func
  + new-file
  + no-dereference
  + no-newline-at-eof
  + side-by-side
  + side-by-side-seq
  + starting-file
  + stdin
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@sylvestre
sylvestre merged commit 68d0610 into uutils:main Aug 18, 2026
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@BrewTestBot BrewTestBot mentioned this pull request Oct 23, 2026
uutils-diffutils 0.6.0 Homebrew/homebrew-core#320660
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cmp: --verbose on a zero-length-metadata file underflows the offset padding (overflow-checks only)

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2 participants

@MsfPablo @sylvestre
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