GNU bug report logs - #70699
Possible bug in /usr/bin/paste

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Art Shelest <ashelest <at> browarddefender.org>
To: "bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org" <bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org>
Subject: Possible bug in /usr/bin/paste
Date: Wed, 1 May 2024 14:28:18 +0000

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Good morning,

I am seeing an aberrant behavior from the /usr/bin/paste utility when working with Windows-style CR/LF text files.
The repro is for Mint Mate (Virginia).

If I change the line endings in the first file to Unix format (LF), it works as expected.
If I change the line endings to Max (CR), it breaks even worse.

$ hexdump -C letters.txt
00000000  61 61 09 41 41 0d 0a 62  62 09 42 42 0d 0a        |aa.AA..bb.BB..|

$ cat letters.txt
aa   AA
bb   BB
$ cat numbers.txt
1
2
$ paste letters.txt numbers.txt
aa   1A
bb   2B
$


Expected:
$ paste letters.txt numbers.txt
aa   AA   1
bb   BB   2

Thank you.

[Message part 2 (text/html, inline)]

Message #8 received at 70699 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>
To: Art Shelest <ashelest <at> browarddefender.org>, 70699 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#70699: Possible bug in /usr/bin/paste
Date: Wed, 1 May 2024 17:24:46 +0100

On 01/05/2024 15:28, Art Shelest via GNU coreutils Bug Reports wrote:
> Good morning,
> 
> I am seeing an aberrant behavior from the /usr/bin/paste utility when working with Windows-style CR/LF text files.
> The repro is for Mint Mate (Virginia).
> 
> If I change the line endings in the first file to Unix format (LF), it works as expected.
> If I change the line endings to Max (CR), it breaks even worse.
> 
> $ hexdump -C letters.txt
> 00000000  61 61 09 41 41 0d 0a 62  62 09 42 42 0d 0a        |aa.AA..bb.BB..|
> 
> $ cat letters.txt
> aa   AA
> bb   BB
> $ cat numbers.txt
> 1
> 2
> $ paste letters.txt numbers.txt
> aa   1A
> bb   2B
> $
> 
> 
> Expected:
> $ paste letters.txt numbers.txt
> aa   AA   1
> bb   BB   2
> 
> Thank you.
> 

paste(1) is treating the CR like a standard character,
and when outputting that back to the terminal it "messes up" the expected output.
I suggest you convert any such files to unix format before processing.

thanks,
Pádraig

Message #11 received at 70699 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Art Shelest <ashelest <at> browarddefender.org>
To: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>,
 "70699 <at> debbugs.gnu.org" <70699 <at> debbugs.gnu.org>
Subject: RE: [External] Re: bug#70699: Possible bug in /usr/bin/paste
Date: Wed, 1 May 2024 16:32:46 +0000

Yes, this is the bug.

Will you please fix it?


-----Original Message-----
From: Pádraig Brady <pixelbeat <at> gmail.com> On Behalf Of Pádraig Brady
Sent: Wednesday, May 1, 2024 12:25 PM
To: Art Shelest <ashelest <at> browarddefender.org>; 70699 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: [External] Re: bug#70699: Possible bug in /usr/bin/paste

On 01/05/2024 15:28, Art Shelest via GNU coreutils Bug Reports wrote:
> Good morning,
> 
> I am seeing an aberrant behavior from the /usr/bin/paste utility when working with Windows-style CR/LF text files.
> The repro is for Mint Mate (Virginia).
> 
> If I change the line endings in the first file to Unix format (LF), it works as expected.
> If I change the line endings to Max (CR), it breaks even worse.
> 
> $ hexdump -C letters.txt
> 00000000  61 61 09 41 41 0d 0a 62  62 09 42 42 0d 0a        |aa.AA..bb.BB..|
> 
> $ cat letters.txt
> aa   AA
> bb   BB
> $ cat numbers.txt
> 1
> 2
> $ paste letters.txt numbers.txt
> aa   1A
> bb   2B
> $
> 
> 
> Expected:
> $ paste letters.txt numbers.txt
> aa   AA   1
> bb   BB   2
> 
> Thank you.
> 

paste(1) is treating the CR like a standard character, and when outputting that back to the terminal it "messes up" the expected output.
I suggest you convert any such files to unix format before processing.

thanks,
Pádraig

Message #14 received at 70699 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: Art Shelest <ashelest <at> browarddefender.org>,
 Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>,
 "70699 <at> debbugs.gnu.org" <70699 <at> debbugs.gnu.org>
Subject: Re: bug#70699: Possible bug in /usr/bin/paste
Date: Wed, 1 May 2024 10:00:18 -0700

On 2024-05-01 09:32, Art Shelest via GNU coreutils Bug Reports wrote:
> Yes, this is the bug.
> 
> Will you please fix it?

I don't see a bug here. In the POSIX world, CR is just another character 
and 'paste' is required to paste it like it would paste any other character.

As you mentioned, a simple way to fix it is to remove the CRs first, 
e.g., with the command "tr -d '\r'". In Bash:

paste <(tr -d '\r' letters.txt) <(tr -d '\r' numbers.txt)

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