UTF-8 corruption bug with diff -y

Sjur Nørstebø Moshagen <[email protected]> Thu, 8 Nov 2018 08:47:57 +0000
Newsgroups gmane.comp.gnu.utils.bugs
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Hello

Using diff on text files with long lines risk corrupting UTF-8 enocded files when used with the default column width of 130 columns, if a multibyte char happens to be on the border of that limit. The diff command will truncate the resulting diff output in the middle of the byte sequence, producing malformed UTF-8 text.

To reproduce:

diff -y Input-text-1.txt Input-text-2.txt

The bug can be circumvented by setting the column width to a randomly high number, as long as it is higher than the longest diff line produced:

diff -y -W 200 Input-text-1.txt Input-text-2.txt

The files Input-text-1.txt and Input-text-2.txt (UTF-8 encoded) are attached. The text (excluding --------) is also reproduced below in case the attachments are removed during e-mail transfer.

Regards,
Sjur Moshagen


Input-text-1.txt:
--------
"<ja>"
        "ja" CC
"<iešguđet>"
        "iešguhtet" Pron Indef Acc
        "iešguhtet" Pron Indef Attr
        "iešguhtet" Pron Indef Gen
"<lágan>"
        "lága" N Sem/Dummytag Ess
        "lága" N Sem/Dummytag Sg Loc South Err/Orth
        "lágan" A Sem/Hum Attr
        "lágan" A Sem/Hum Sg Acc Err/Orth-nom-acc
        "lágan" A Sem/Hum Sg Gen Err/Orth-nom-gen
        "lágan" A Sem/Hum Sg Nom
        "láhka" N Sem/Rule Sg Loc South Err/Orth
"<borramušat>"
        "borramuš" N Sem/Food Pl Nom
        "borramuš" N Sem/Food Sg Acc PxSg2
        "borramuš" N Sem/Food Sg Gen PxSg2
        "borrat" Ex/V TV Der/muš N Pl Nom
--------

Input-text-2.txt
--------
"<ja>"
        "ja" CC
"<iešguđet lágan>"
        "iešguđetlágan" A Sem/Dummytag Attr Err/SpaceCmpágan
        "iešguđetlágan" A Sem/Dummytag Sg Acc Err/Orthacc Err/SpaceCmpágan
        "iešguđetlágan" A Sem/Dummytag Sg Gen Err/Orthgen Err/SpaceCmpágan
        "iešguđetlágan" A Sem/Dummytag Sg Nom Err/SpaceCmpágan
"<borramušat>"
        "borramuš" N Sem/Food Pl Nom
        "borramuš" N Sem/Food Sg Acc PxSg2
        "borramuš" N Sem/Food Sg Gen PxSg2
        "borrat" Ex/V TV Der/muš N Pl Nom
--------
Input-text-1.txt (text/plain, 563 B)
"<ja>"
	"ja" CC
"<iešguđet>"
	"iešguhtet" Pron Indef Acc
	"iešguhtet" Pron Indef Attr
	"iešguhtet" Pron Indef Gen
"<lágan>"
	"lága" N Sem/Dummytag Ess
	"lága" N Sem/Dummytag Sg Loc South Err/Orth
	"lágan" A Sem/Hum Attr
	"lágan" A Sem/Hum Sg Acc Err/Orth-nom-acc
	"lágan" A Sem/Hum Sg Gen Err/Orth-nom-gen
	"lágan" A Sem/Hum Sg Nom
	"láhka" N Sem/Rule Sg Loc South Err/Orth
"<borramušat>"
	"borramuš" N Sem/Food Pl Nom
	"borramuš" N Sem/Food Sg Acc PxSg2
	"borramuš" N Sem/Food Sg Gen PxSg2
	"borrat" Ex/V TV Der/muš N Pl Nom
Input-text-2.txt (text/plain, 469 B)
"<ja>"
	"ja" CC
"<iešguđet lágan>"
	"iešguđetlágan" A Sem/Dummytag Attr Err/SpaceCmpágan
	"iešguđetlágan" A Sem/Dummytag Sg Acc Err/Orthacc Err/SpaceCmpágan
	"iešguđetlágan" A Sem/Dummytag Sg Gen Err/Orthgen Err/SpaceCmpágan
	"iešguđetlágan" A Sem/Dummytag Sg Nom Err/SpaceCmpágan
"<borramušat>"
	"borramuš" N Sem/Food Pl Nom
	"borramuš" N Sem/Food Sg Acc PxSg2
	"borramuš" N Sem/Food Sg Gen PxSg2
	"borrat" Ex/V TV Der/muš N Pl Nom