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GeezerVison is showing github.com — diff: add -L/--label by jayhemnani9910 · Pull Request #314 · uutils/diffutils

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jayhemnani9910 commented Oct 24, 2026

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diff -L LABEL / --label=LABEL is rejected (unrecognized option, exit 2). It names the inputs in the ---/+++ and ***/--- headers instead of the file name and time; git's external diff drivers, make check scripts and patch generators that diff temp files rely on it:

$ diff -u --label a/conf --label b/conf /tmp/x1 /tmp/x2
GNU:  --- a/conf
      +++ b/conf
      @@ -1,2 +1,2 @@ ...
main: unrecognized option '--label'   (exit 2)

-L X, -LX, --label X and --label=X are accepted anywhere among the arguments. The first labels the from-file and the second the to-file; a third is an error (too many file label options, exit 2), as in GNU. A labelled header has no timestamp. -q and -s use the labels in Files A and B differ / are identical. Normal, ed and side-by-side output have no header, so they are unchanged.

Tests: a parse_params test (two labels, and three as an error) and an integration test for -u, -c, -q and a third label; the integration test fails on main. cargo test: 133 unit and 24 integration tests pass (132 and 23 on main), cargo clippy -- -D warnings and fmt clean. Against GNU diff 3.12, 15 label cases give the same output and exit code; only the error text lacks GNU's diff: prefix, like the crate's other errors. The upstream GNU suite gives the same per-test results as main (8 pass, 21 fail, 4 skip).

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sylvestre reviewed

Oct 24, 2026

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src/diff.rs Outdated

		.to_label
		.as_ref()
		.unwrap_or(&params.to)
		.to_string_lossy(),

sylvestre Oct 24, 2026

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same label-or-path expression 4 times here and at line 107, could be a small helper on Params, no?

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jayhemnani9910 Oct 24, 2026

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Done in 8c613e4: Params::names() returns the label or path for both files, and the two messages in diff.rs use it. The context and unified headers keep header_name, since they also print the modification time when there is no label.

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src/params.rs Outdated

		.strip_prefix("--label=")
		.or_else(\|\| p.strip_prefix("-L"))
		.map(OsString::from),
		None => None,

sylvestre Oct 24, 2026

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-L<non-utf8> ends up as "unrecognized option" while -L <non-utf8> works, could you please handle it with the bytes?

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jayhemnani9910 Oct 24, 2026

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Fixed in 8c613e4: -L<label> and --label=<label> are now matched on the argument's bytes, so -L$'\xffold' is read as a label like -L $'\xffold'. Added labels_non_utf8, which fails without the change.

The header still prints a non-UTF-8 label through to_string_lossy, the same as file names today, where GNU writes the raw bytes. I left that for a separate change.

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sylvestre commented Oct 24, 2026

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sorry, needs to be rebased

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jayhemnani9910 force-pushed the diff-label branch from 0345957 to 8c613e4 Compare

October 24, 2026 14:20

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jayhemnani9910 commented Oct 24, 2026

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Rebased on main and moved the test to tests/by-util/test_diff.rs. cargo test passes, and cargo clippy -- -D warnings and cargo fmt --check are clean.

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sylvestre reviewed

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tests/by-util/test_diff.rs Outdated

		(
		vec!["-q", "-L", "old", "-L", "new"],
		"Files old and new differ\n",
		),

sylvestre Oct 25, 2026

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could you please also test -s with labels and a trailing -L with no value (the 'requires an argument' path)?

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jayhemnani9910 Oct 25, 2026

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Added both to labels_replace_file_names in 500b7b3: -s -L old -L new on identical files prints Files old and new are identical with exit 0, and a trailing -L exits 2 with "option '-L' requires an argument". Same exit codes and -s output as GNU diff 3.12 (GNU words the missing-argument message differently).

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jayhemnani9910 commented Nov 3, 2026

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Rebased on main and squashed into one commit. Labels now go through write_file_header and are written as they are, with no quoting, and diff -r uses them in its diff line too, as GNU does. Added a test for each. cargo test passes, and 7 label cases match GNU diff 3.12.

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jayhemnani9910 force-pushed the diff-label branch from 500b7b3 to 4f2d455 Compare

November 3, 2026 13:54

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sylvestre commented Nov 10, 2026

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sorry but it needs to be rebased

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jayhemnani9910 force-pushed the diff-label branch from 4f2d455 to 9c40848 Compare

November 11, 2026 07:40

jayhemnani9910 commented Nov 11, 2026

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Rebased on main (bb44ff5), still one commit. The conflict was in Params, next to the new from_missing/to_missing fields, and both are kept. cargo test passes, and cargo fmt --check and cargo clippy -- -D warnings are clean. -u, -c, -s, -q and -N with -L old -L new match GNU diff 3.12, including a missing file with -N.

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          diff: add -L/--label

7c9ca07

jayhemnani9910 force-pushed the diff-label branch from 9c40848 to 7c9ca07 Compare

November 12, 2026 19:01

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codspeed Bot commented Nov 12, 2026

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Merging this PR will improve performance by 10.48%

3 warnings

⚠️ 24 benchmarks are dominated by system calls

System calls cannot be simulated consistently and are left out of the measure. The reported value understates the real cost. Switch to the Walltime instrument to measure them.

Learn more about system calls

See affected benchmarks

⚠️ 16 benchmarks with a significant change ran on different hardware

Their base and head results were measured on machines with a different CPU, core count or memory, so the changes might not come from the code. Run base and head on the same runner type.

Learn more about Macro Runners

See affected benchmarks

⚠️ 16 benchmarks with a significant change ran in a different software environment

Their base and head results were measured with a different OS or toolchain, such as compiler, runtime or library versions, so the changes might come from this difference rather than from the code. Open an affected benchmark to see what changed.

See affected benchmarks

⚡ 16 improved benchmarks
✅ 10 untouched benchmarks

Performance Changes

	Benchmark	`BASE`	`HEAD`	Efficiency
⚡	`cmd_cmp_release_equal[25000]`	27.3 µs	24 µs	+13.7%
⚡	`cmd_diff_release_equal[25000]`	27.8 µs	24.5 µs	+13.43%
⚡	`cmd_cmp_release_equal[1000]`	27.4 µs	24.1 µs	+13.33%
⚡	`cmd_cmp_release_equal[10000]`	27.3 µs	24.2 µs	+12.9%
⚡	`cmd_cmp_release_equal[100]`	27.2 µs	24.1 µs	+12.81%
⚡	`cmd_cmp_gnu_equal[25000]`	25.8 µs	23 µs	+12.21%
⚡	`cmd_cmp_gnu_equal[10000]`	25.8 µs	23 µs	+12.21%
⚡	`cmd_diff_release_equal[1000]`	27.5 µs	24.6 µs	+11.76%
⚡	`cmd_diff_release_equal[10000]`	26.9 µs	24.5 µs	+9.95%
⚡	`cmd_diff_gnu_equal[10000]`	26 µs	24 µs	+8.55%
⚡	`cmd_diff_gnu_equal[25000]`	26.1 µs	24 µs	+8.53%
⚡	`cmd_cmp_gnu_equal[100]`	24.6 µs	22.8 µs	+7.86%
⚡	`cmd_cmp_gnu_equal[1000]`	24.5 µs	22.7 µs	+7.85%
⚡	`cmd_diff_gnu_equal[100]`	25.2 µs	23.4 µs	+7.81%
⚡	`cmd_diff_release_equal[100]`	27.1 µs	25.2 µs	+7.68%
⚡	`cmd_diff_gnu_equal[1000]`	25.2 µs	23.4 µs	+7.53%

Tip

Curious why performance improved? Comment @codspeedbot explain why performance improved on this PR, or directly use the CodSpeed MCP with your agent.

_{Comparing jayhemnani9910:diff-label (7c9ca07) with main (82a5d8f)}

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