GNU coreutils 9.11: remaining test failures - August 2026

[sylvestre]

This catalogues the remaining GNU coreutils 9.11 test-suite failures so
they can be tracked and worked on individually. It replaces #12584, with all the
entries that have been fixed in the meantime removed.

Tests that cannot pass for structural reasons (they intercept glibc calls via
LD_PRELOAD, or drive uutils through gdb breakpoints) are separated into the
INCOMPATIBLE section, since they depend on internal implementation details we
do not match. A few entries are marked (intermittent) - they are listed in
.github/workflows/ignore-intermittent.txt and fail only sporadically.

---

FAILED Tests

• cat/splice.sh: cat splice() syscall code paths
• cut/cut.pl - PR cut: fix more compat issues #13194 : general cut behavior
• date/date.pl: comprehensive date parsing
• date/date-debug.sh: date --debug output
• date/date-locale-hour.sh: date uses the 12- or 24-hour clock depending on the locale
• dd/partial-write.sh: partial writes are properly diagnosed (PR dd: report transfer statistics when the copy fails #13856)
• env/env-signal-handler.sh - PR env: support real-time signals and drop the nix dependency  #13006: env --default-signal=PIPE
• ls/stat-free-symlinks.sh: ls should not stat a symlink in this unusual case (PR ls: only track listed directories when recursing #13855)
• misc/close-stdout.sh: programs run with stdout initially closed
• misc/getopt_vs_usage.sh: every supported option is mentioned in usage
• misc/read-errors.sh: programs diagnose read errors
• misc/responsive.sh: programs stay responsive to input
• misc/selinux.sh: SELinux-related options
• misc/stdbuf.sh: stdbuf line/block buffering (intermittent)
• misc/usage_vs_refs.sh - PR Removing usage_vs_refs from comparison gnu test suite #10896: every supported option has references in docs
• misc/warning-errors.sh: failure to write warnings is handled gracefully
• misc/write-errors.sh: programs promptly diagnose write errors
• mkdir/smack-no-root.sh: SMACK labels for mkdir/mknod/mkfifo
• mktemp/write-error.sh: mktemp when it fails to write the name to stdout (PR mktemp: remove the temp file when its name cannot be printed #13853)
• mv/mv-special-2.sh: mv non-standard copies across file systems
• nl/multibyte.sh: nl with multibyte section delimiters (PR nl: support multibyte one-char section delimiters #13848)
• od/od-float.sh: od on floating-point values
• pr/bounded-memory.sh: pr on files larger than memory (intermittent)
• pr/pr-tests.pl: comprehensive pr page-formatting tests
• ptx/ptx-overrun.sh: ptx buffer-overrun regression - PR ptx: accept invalid UTF-8 input and trailing backslash regexps #14032
• sort/sort-merge-fdlimit.sh - PR sort: deduplicate file descriptors in merge mode #11961: sort avoids exceeding its fd limit when merging
• tail/debug.sh: tail --debug output
• tail/follow-name.sh: --follow=name must not imply --retry (intermittent)
• tail/inotify-rotate-resources.sh: tail -F must not leak inotify resources
• tail/tail-n0f.sh: tail -n0 -f / tail -c0 -f must sleep rather than busy-wait

---

SKIPPED Tests

• dd/nocache_fail.sh: diagnose failure to drop caches (posix_fadvise return value)
• id/gnu-zero-uids.sh: id must fail for processes with zero UIDs
• mv/i-3.sh: mv file unwritable-file prompts, mv -f does not
• printf/printf-surprise.sh: detect printf(3) failure even without a stream error indicator (PR printf: diagnose a failed write of unterminated output #13854)
• sort/sort-locale.sh: locale-aware sort ordering
• stty/bad-speed.sh: stty rejects invalid baud rates
• stty/stty.sh: stty settings round-trip
• stty/stty-invalid.sh: stty rejects invalid arguments
• stty/stty-pairs.sh: stty mutually-exclusive setting pairs
• stty/stty-row-col.sh: stty rows/columns

The stty/* entries are most likely skipped because the runner has no
controlling tty, rather than being real gaps.

---

INCOMPATIBLE Tests

Tests using LD_PRELOAD or gdb breakpoints cannot be fixed without matching
internal implementation details:

• cp/nfs-removal-race.sh (LD_PRELOAD): NFS client removal race during cp S D
• dd/fail-ftruncate-fstat.sh (LD_PRELOAD): dd must stop copying when ftruncate/fstat fail
• df/skip-duplicates.sh (LD_PRELOAD): duplicate mount-list entry injection
• nproc/nproc-quota.sh (LD_PRELOAD): cgroup-quota injection for nproc
• rm/r-root.sh (LD_PRELOAD + gdb): tries to remove / recursively
• rm/rm-readdir-fail.sh (LD_PRELOAD) - PR rm: overriding the libc call when implementation does not match gnu coreutils exactly #9604: simulates readdir failures
• tail/inotify-race.sh (gdb): append-during-initial-read race
• tail/inotify-race2.sh (gdb): file-replaced-during-initial-read race

---

ERROR Tests

• cp/cp-a-selinux.sh: cp -Z, -a and --preserve=context on a writable NFS partition