Summary
When diff's standard output is a pipe whose reader closes early (e.g. diff … | head), uutils diff aborts with a panic (exit 134, core dump)
instead of dying cleanly to SIGPIPE like GNU (exit 141). The output is written with a bare .unwrap() on the write_all/push_output result; the BrokenPipe error is unwrapped and, under panic="abort", aborts the process. This affects every output mode: the normal/context/unified/ed path writes the buffered result in src/diff.rs:94, and the side-by-side (-y) path writes each line in src/side_diff.rs:353-356.
Steps to reproduce
$ seq 1 100000 > b1; seq 1 100000 | sed 's/5/X/' > b2
$ diffutils diff b1 b2 | head -1
thread 'main' panicked at src/diff.rs:94:41:
called `Result::unwrap()` on an `Err` value: Os { code: 32, kind: BrokenPipe, message: "Broken pipe" }
$ echo "${PIPESTATUS[0]}"
134
Side-by-side mode hits the sibling site src/side_diff.rs:353:
$ diffutils diff -y b1 b2 | head -1
thread 'main' panicked at src/side_diff.rs:353:87:
called `Result::unwrap()` on an `Err` value: Os { code: 32, kind: BrokenPipe, message: "Broken pipe" }
$ echo "${PIPESTATUS[0]}"
134
Expected behavior
Match GNU: a closed output pipe terminates the program via SIGPIPE (exit 141) with no error message and no core dump.
$ /usr/bin/diff b1 b2 | head -1
1c1
$ echo "${PIPESTATUS[0]}"
141
$ /usr/bin/diff -y b1 b2 | head -1
1 < 1
$ echo "${PIPESTATUS[0]}"
141
Root cause
The full diff output (normal/context/unified/ed) is buffered and written once:
// src/diff.rs:94
io::stdout().write_all(&result).unwrap();
Side-by-side writes each line straight to the locked stdout and unwraps every
write:
// src/side_diff.rs:353-356
push_output(...).unwrap(); // and the sibling unwraps at :354, :356
Any write_all/push_output error — BrokenPipe in the common pipe-closed case — is unwrapped and aborts.
Found by our static analysis tooling.
Summary
When
diff's standard output is a pipe whose reader closes early (e.g.diff … | head), uutilsdiffaborts with a panic (exit 134, core dump)instead of dying cleanly to
SIGPIPElike GNU (exit 141). The output is written with a bare.unwrap()on thewrite_all/push_outputresult; theBrokenPipeerror is unwrapped and, underpanic="abort", aborts the process. This affects every output mode: the normal/context/unified/ed path writes the buffered result insrc/diff.rs:94, and the side-by-side (-y) path writes each line insrc/side_diff.rs:353-356.Steps to reproduce
Side-by-side mode hits the sibling site
src/side_diff.rs:353:Expected behavior
Match GNU: a closed output pipe terminates the program via
SIGPIPE(exit 141) with no error message and no core dump.Root cause
The full diff output (normal/context/unified/ed) is buffered and written once:
Side-by-side writes each line straight to the locked stdout and unwraps every
write:
Any
write_all/push_outputerror —BrokenPipein the common pipe-closed case — is unwrapped and aborts.Found by our static analysis tooling.