uutils / uutils/coreutils

date: strftime flags propagate into composite specifiers (%-D, %-F, …)

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fuzzing good first issue U - date
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Rust
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Description

Summary

GNU date treats composite strftime specifiers (%D, %F, %T, %r, %R, %c, %x, %X) as atomic: flags like - apply to the whole expansion, not to inner sub-fields. uutils lets the - flag propagate into the inner %m, producing 6/15/24 instead of 06/15/24.

Found by a fuzz_date run.

Reproduction

$ LC_ALL=C TZ=UTC /usr/bin/date -d '2024-06-15' '+%-D'
06/15/24

$ LC_ALL=C TZ=UTC target/debug/coreutils date -d '2024-06-15' '+%-D'
6/15/24

Test

#[test]
fn test_date_strftime_flag_on_composite() {
    new_ucmd!()
        .env("LC_ALL", "C")
        .env("TZ", "UTC")
        .arg("-d")
        .arg("2024-06-15")
        .arg("+%-D")
        .succeeds()
        .stdout_is("06/15/24\n");
}

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by locating the date command's strftime formatting logic and the existing date tests. Reproduce the issue with the supplied UTC command and add the provided test case; done means composite specifiers such as %-D preserve zero-padding in the same way as GNU date.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
cli
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
76/100

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