Bug report: diff

[Brian Inglis]

On 2025-06-24 19:46, Eliot Moss via Cygwin wrote:
> The following used to work, but now does not:
> diff -q --to-file=old foo.tex bar.tex
> where old is a sub-directory of the current directory.
> This always reports:
> diff: old: No such file or directory
> It's ok when only one file is listed:
> diff -q --to-file=old foo.tex

Do you have entries ./old/{foo,bar}.tex, do each differ from respective
./{foo,bar}.tex, and are there any other entries or directories under ./old/?

Are there are any file name case differences or symlinks in paths?

It is often more useful to ls -l (-gG) and diff (-q) actual directories
./{,old/} so we can see all relevant information (maybe sanitize info if 
necessary).

> cygcheck -c diffutils
> indicates version 3.12-1.
> cygwin is 3.6.3-1
> Let me know if there is more info I can offer.
Any reason why you chose --to-file option for your old directory rather than the 
more conventional --from-file option?

Note: 3.11 update was huge with ~250 commits, compared to normal ~50 commits per 
release, and right now getting (frequent 502 Bad Gateway) problems accessing 
source repo, but noticing that same file tests get a lot of optimizations, which 
may cause problems in our environment as we support, for example, birth time.

If you could check whether the issue appeared in 3.11 and worked okay in 3.10 or 
point to the failing version that would be useful.

-- 
Take care. Thanks, Brian Inglis              Calgary, Alberta, Canada

La perfection est atteinte                   Perfection is achieved
non pas lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à ajouter  not when there is no more to add
mais lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à retrancher  but when there is no more to cut
                                 -- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry