Two display format bugs seems to have crept in to ls due to the addition of
scaled human readable values and large minor numbers.
A provisional patch is attached, but an aesthetic decision about column padding
needs to be made, (8 vs 13 columns to handle large minor numbers cleanly, see
further below).
Bug 1:
When using ls -lh, (long format, human-readable sizes), if the list of files
includes a mixture of regular files and device nodes then the sizes of the
regular files are displayed in bytes instead of using multipliers.
# ls -lh
total 672
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 1000000 Oct 3 16:41 a
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 10000000 Oct 3 16:41 b
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 100000000 Oct 3 16:41 c
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 1000000000 Oct 3 16:41 d
crw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 0, 0 Oct 3 16:42 dev1
crw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 255, 255 Oct 3 16:42 dev2
crw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 255, 65535 Oct 3 16:42 dev3
crw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 255, 16777214 Oct 3 16:43 dev4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 10000000000 Oct 3 16:41 e
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 100000000000 Oct 3 16:41 f
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 1000000000000 Oct 3 16:41 g
Bug 2:
When using ls -l, (long format only), columns are padded with too many
additional spaces when values exceed 8 characters, due to a printf format
string argument turning negative.
Compare the following two outputs:
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 1000000 Oct 3 16:41 a
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 10000000 Oct 3 16:41 b
crw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 0, 0 Oct 3 16:42 dev1
crw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 255, 255 Oct 3 16:42 dev2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 0 Oct 3 17:39 h
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 10 Oct 3 17:39 i
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 100 Oct 3 17:39 j
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 1000 Oct 3 17:39 k
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 10000 Oct 3 17:39 l
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 100000 Oct 3 17:39 m
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 1000000 Oct 3 16:41 a
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 10000000 Oct 3 16:41 b
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 100000000 Oct 3 16:41 c
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 1000000000 Oct 3 16:41 d
crw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 0, 0 Oct 3 16:42 dev1
crw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 255, 255 Oct 3 16:42 dev2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 10000000000 Oct 3 16:41 e
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 0 Oct 3 17:39 h
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 10 Oct 3 17:39 i
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 100 Oct 3 17:39 j
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 1000 Oct 3 17:39 k
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 10000 Oct 3 17:39 l
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 100000 Oct 3 17:39 m
Observe that in the first output, file b has the largest size and the
leftmost digit aligns with the leftmost digit of 255, 255.
however, in the second output, file e is the largest and has three space
characters too many inserted in front.
This second bug is caused by the following code in printlong() in print.c:
(void)printf("%*s%*lld ",
8 - dp->s_size, "", dp->s_size,
(long long)sp->st_size);
The intention is clearly to align the last digits of the output when a device
file is included in the output, (dp->bcfile tests true).
Device files are printed with "%3u, %3u ", so would traditionally have been
limited to 8 characters plus the trailing space. Large minor numbers have
obviously changed this assumption and so this field can now expand to be
larger.
However, even without large minors we have a problem because dp->s_size can
be > 8, and in that case we are passing a _negative_ value to printf for the
field width. Since printf interprets negative values here as their positive
equivalent, we get double spaces once dp->s_size > 8.
This presents an aesthetic decision, because to ensure a large enough column
width for the largest possible minor numbers we need to use:
printf ("%3u, %8u ")
... despite most people not having minor numbers > 255 in /dev, so the display
could be considered a bit ugly.
Possibly the simplest fix for this second issue would be just to expand the
minor number field:
--- print.c.dist Mon Oct 2 21:03:01 2023
+++ print.c Tue Oct 3 18:22:54 2023
@@ -110,11 +110,11 @@
if (f_flags)
(void)printf("%-*s ", dp->s_flags, np->flags);
if (S_ISCHR(sp->st_mode) || S_ISBLK(sp->st_mode))
- (void)printf("%3u, %3u ",
+ (void)printf("%3u, %8u ",
major(sp->st_rdev), minor(sp->st_rdev));
else if (dp->bcfile)
(void)printf("%*s%*lld ",
- 8 - dp->s_size, "", dp->s_size,
+ 13 - dp->s_size, "", dp->s_size,
(long long)sp->st_size);
else
printsize(dp->s_size, sp->st_size);
This doesn't fix the issue of double spacing, since 13 - dp->s_size could
still go negative, but it makes it much less likely to happen and is a
trivial change.
However, just calling printsize() with a fixed value of 13 for the field width
in the (dp->bcfile) case seems to produce acceptable output:
# ls -l
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 1000000 Oct 3 16:41 a
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 10000000 Oct 3 16:41 b
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 100000000 Oct 3 16:41 c
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 1000000000 Oct 3 16:41 d
crw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 0, 0 Oct 3 16:42 dev1
crw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 255, 255 Oct 3 16:42 dev2
crw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 255, 16777214 Oct 3 16:43 dev4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 10000000000 Oct 3 16:41 e
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 100000000000 Oct 3 16:41 f
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 1000000000000 Oct 3 16:41 g
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 0 Oct 3 17:39 h
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 10 Oct 3 17:39 i
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 100 Oct 3 17:39 j
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 1000 Oct 3 17:39 k
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 10000 Oct 3 17:39 l
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 100000 Oct 3 17:39 m
# ls -lh
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 977K Oct 3 16:41 a
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 9.5M Oct 3 16:41 b
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 95.4M Oct 3 16:41 c
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 954M Oct 3 16:41 d
crw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 0, 0 Oct 3 16:42 dev1
crw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 255, 255 Oct 3 16:42 dev2
crw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 255, 16777214 Oct 3 16:43 dev4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 9.3G Oct 3 16:41 e
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 93.1G Oct 3 16:41 f
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 931G Oct 3 16:41 g
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 0B Oct 3 17:39 h
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 10B Oct 3 17:39 i
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 100B Oct 3 17:39 j
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 1000B Oct 3 17:39 k
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 9.8K Oct 3 17:39 l
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 97.7K Oct 3 17:39 m
This is what the following patch does:
--- print.c.dist Mon Oct 2 21:03:01 2023
+++ print.c Tue Oct 3 18:38:46 2023
@@ -110,12 +110,10 @@
if (f_flags)
(void)printf("%-*s ", dp->s_flags, np->flags);
if (S_ISCHR(sp->st_mode) || S_ISBLK(sp->st_mode))
- (void)printf("%3u, %3u ",
+ (void)printf("%3u, %8u ",
major(sp->st_rdev), minor(sp->st_rdev));
else if (dp->bcfile)
- (void)printf("%*s%*lld ",
- 8 - dp->s_size, "", dp->s_size,
- (long long)sp->st_size);
+ printsize(13, sp->st_size);
else
printsize(dp->s_size, sp->st_size);
if (f_accesstime)
