GNU logs - #24234, boring messages

Message sent to bug-diffutils@HIDDEN:

Subject: bug#24234: Recursive diff noise for broken symlinks, fifos and sockets
Resent-From: Marcel Partap <mpartap@HIDDEN>
Original-Sender: "Debbugs-submit" <debbugs-submit-bounces <at> debbugs.gnu.org>
Resent-CC: bug-diffutils@HIDDEN
Resent-Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2016 14:21:01 +0000
Resent-Message-ID: <handler.24234.B.147127084421279 <at> debbugs.gnu.org>
Resent-Sender: help-debbugs@HIDDEN
To: 24234 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
From: Marcel Partap <mpartap@HIDDEN>
Openpgp: id=2E9589E4B9A4460B66AD9B8D65C6B04A8A39FBDA;
 url=http://pgp.mit.edu/pks/lookup?op=get&search=mpartap@HIDDEN
Message-ID: <41303a14-51b1-05e9-d88c-8fa0a25d670b@HIDDEN>
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2016 16:20:26 +0200
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686 on x86_64; rv:45.0) Gecko/20100101
 Icedove/45.2.0
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Precedence: list
Errors-To: debbugs-submit-bounces <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Sender: "Debbugs-submit" <debbugs-submit-bounces <at> debbugs.gnu.org>

Dear diffutil devs,
when I copy large folder structures between harddisks, I like to check binary equality by running `diff -qr`. However, frequently the output is littered with powerful insights such as:
# File /mnt/source-xfs/repositories/kindlepdfviewer/emu_event is a fifo while file /usr/src/repositories/kindlepdfviewer/emu_event is a fifo
# File /mnt/source-xfs/repositories/android/i927-downloads/lost+found/#16412 is a socket while file /usr/src/repositories/android/i927-downloads/lost+found/#16412 is a socket
This does sound somewhat delusional.
Also, matching failures for broken symlinks:
# diff: /mnt/source-xfs/repositories/par2cmdline/test-driver: No such file or directory
# diff: /usr/src/repositories/par2cmdline/test-driver: No such file or directory
Additionally, recursive directory loops are being pointed out, but only on one side.

What I actually care for is missing and different files, not if there are broken symlinks, dir loops or fifos in the cloned directory hierarchy.
The documentation reads
>         -q, --brief
>                report only when files differ
so I think, it actually should do that. Is there any way at all fifos or sockets can actually differ?
I have no idea how to fix this, but hopefully someone else has : )

#Best Regards/Marcel Partap

Message sent:

Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Mailer: MIME-tools 5.505 (Entity 5.505)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
X-Loop: help-debbugs@HIDDEN
From: help-debbugs@HIDDEN (GNU bug Tracking System)
To: Marcel Partap <mpartap@HIDDEN>
Subject: bug#24234: Acknowledgement (Recursive diff noise for broken
 symlinks, fifos and sockets)
Message-ID: <handler.24234.B.147127084421279.ack <at> debbugs.gnu.org>
References: <41303a14-51b1-05e9-d88c-8fa0a25d670b@HIDDEN>
X-Gnu-PR-Message: ack 24234
X-Gnu-PR-Package: diffutils
Reply-To: 24234 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2016 14:21:01 +0000

Thank you for filing a new bug report with debbugs.gnu.org.

This is an automatically generated reply to let you know your message
has been received.

Your message is being forwarded to the package maintainers and other
interested parties for their attention; they will reply in due course.

Your message has been sent to the package maintainer(s):
 bug-diffutils@HIDDEN

If you wish to submit further information on this problem, please
send it to 24234 <at> debbugs.gnu.org.

Please do not send mail to help-debbugs@HIDDEN unless you wish
to report a problem with the Bug-tracking system.

--=20
24234: http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=3D24234
GNU Bug Tracking System
Contact help-debbugs@HIDDEN with problems

Last modified: Mon, 25 Nov 2019 12:00:02 UTC

GNU bug tracking system
Copyright (C) 1999 Darren O. Benham, 1997 nCipher Corporation Ltd, 1994-97 Ian Jackson.