`du`/`ls`: Improve time-style handling based on GNU coreutils manual #8415

drinkcat · 2025-07-30T09:33:55Z

This fixes #7665, and generally bring du/ls time-style to feature parity with GNU (at least AFAICT...) -- apart from localization.

I was hoping the share more of the code between du and ls, but that seems difficult as the options and parsing is actually different. But at least we can share constants.

Some pr fixes will follow in another MR (that one only support specific FORMAT).

util/build-gnu.sh: Change string matching for tests/ls/time-style-diag.sh

We now are closer to what GNU prints, and handle the [posix-] cases
that they do.

ls: cleanup imports

They were a bit jumbled with no particular logic, at least that
I could see.

ls: Fix Windows build

du: Add support for reading time-style from environment

Similar as what ls does, but du has an extra compatibility layer
described in the GNU manual (and that upstream dev helped me
understand: https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=79113 ).

du/ls: Move common time formats to constants in uucore/time

Along the way:

Fix the full-iso format, that was supposed to use %N, not %f
(%f padded with chrono, but not with jiff, and %N is more correct
and what GNU says in their manual)
The Hashmap thing in parse_time_style was too smart, to a point
that it became too unflexible (it would have been even worse
when we added locale support).

I was hoping the share more of the code, but that seems difficult.

du: Add support for +FORMAT time-style

Also add to error text, which... GNU coreutils doesn't do for
some reason.

ls: Print dates in the future as "old" ones

ls has different time format for recent (< 6 months) and older files.
Files in the future (even by just a second), are considered old,
which makes sense as we probably want the date to be printed in
that case.

ls: Add support for newline separated format for recent/older

Documented in GNU manual.

Also improve test_ls to test for both recent and older files.

ls: Allow reading time-style from TIME_STYLE environment variable

According to GNU manual.

ls: Add support for --time-style=posix-*

From GNU manual, if LC_TIME=POSIX, then the "locale" timestamp is
used. Else, posix- is stripped and the format is parsed as usual.

Also, just move the whole text to the locale file, instead
of trying to generate it manually.

From GNU manual, if LC_TIME=POSIX, then the "locale" timestamp is used. Else, `posix-` is stripped and the format is parsed as usual. Also, just move the whole text to the locale file, instead of trying to generate it manually.

According to GNU manual.

Documented in GNU manual. Also improve test_ls to test for both recent and older files.

ls has different time format for recent (< 6 months) and older files. Files in the future (even by just a second), are considered old, which makes sense as we probably want the date to be printed in that case.

Also add to error text, which... GNU coreutils doesn't do for some reason.

Along the way: - Fix the full-iso format, that was supposed to use %N, not %f (%f padded with chrono, but not with jiff, and %N is more correct and what GNU says in their manual) - The Hashmap thing in parse_time_style was too smart, to a point that it became too unflexible (it would have been even worse when we added locale support). I was hoping the share more of the code, but that seems difficult.

Similar as what ls does, but du has an extra compatibility layer described in the GNU manual (and that upstream dev helped me understand: https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=79113 ).

github-actions · 2025-07-30T09:53:32Z

GNU testsuite comparison:

GNU test failed: tests/ls/ls-time. tests/ls/ls-time is passing on 'main'. Maybe you have to rebase?
GNU test failed: tests/ls/time-style-diag. tests/ls/time-style-diag is passing on 'main'. Maybe you have to rebase?
Skip an intermittent issue tests/misc/stdbuf (fails in this run but passes in the 'main' branch)
Skip an intermittent issue tests/timeout/timeout (fails in this run but passes in the 'main' branch)

They were a bit jumbled with no particular logic, at least that I could see.

github-actions · 2025-07-30T10:22:01Z

GNU testsuite comparison:

GNU test failed: tests/ls/ls-time. tests/ls/ls-time is passing on 'main'. Maybe you have to rebase?
GNU test failed: tests/ls/time-style-diag. tests/ls/time-style-diag is passing on 'main'. Maybe you have to rebase?
Skip an intermittent issue tests/timeout/timeout (fails in this run but passes in the 'main' branch)

drinkcat · 2025-07-30T10:26:27Z

Sigh, looks like I broke GNU tests? Will look.

…g.sh We now are closer to what GNU prints, and handle the [posix-] cases that they do.

drinkcat · 2025-07-30T11:47:29Z

GNU test failed: tests/ls/ls-time. tests/ls/ls-time is passing on 'main'. Maybe you have to rebase?

This is fine, ls-time used to be SKIP, because of the incorrect full-iso format:

$ cargo run ls --full -l --time=mtime a
-rw-rwxr-- 1 drinkcat drinkcat 0 1998-01-15 23:00:00.0 +0800 a
$ ls --full -l --time=mtime a
-rw-rwxr-- 1 drinkcat drinkcat 0 1998-01-15 23:00:00.000000000 +0800 a

I'd rather have a failing test than an incorrectly skipped test, we can fix it later.

tests/ls/time-style-diag: That was a real failure, because we changed the help text.

github-actions · 2025-07-30T12:04:55Z

GNU testsuite comparison:

GNU test failed: tests/ls/ls-time. tests/ls/ls-time is passing on 'main'. Maybe you have to rebase?
Skip an intermittent issue tests/misc/tee (fails in this run but passes in the 'main' branch)
Skip an intermittent issue tests/timeout/timeout (fails in this run but passes in the 'main' branch)

sylvestre · 2025-07-30T12:25:10Z

src/uu/du/src/du.rs

-            "iso" => Ok("%Y-%m-%d"),
-            _ => Err(DuError::InvalidTimeStyleArg(s.into()).into()),
+        Some(s) => match s.as_ref() {
+            "full-iso" => Ok(format::FULL_ISO.to_string()),


would it make sense to use an enum here ?

confused in Rust.... How? ,-P

This is not allowed (you can set values but they need to be isize type:

enum Format { FULL_ISO = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%N %z", LONG_ISO = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M", ISO = "%Y-%m-%d", }

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/36928569/how-can-i-create-enums-with-constant-values-in-rust gave me this idea:

pub struct Format; impl Format { pub const FULL_ISO: &str = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%N %z"; pub const LONG_ISO: &str = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M"; pub const ISO: &str = "%Y-%m-%d"; }

This is not so bad (I somewhat prefer using static to const but that's not allowed here... but maybe I'm wrong, I think static and const should behave the same anyway in this case)

---- wait---

Or you mean something like:

enum Format { LongIso, FullIso, Iso, Custom(String) }

That's not awesome. Would work ok in the du case, but really not in the ls case that has quite a bit more logic (and it's probably better performance-wise to collect the String format first and not do more checks at formatting time).

yeah, enum Format {

but please ignore me if it doesn't make sense!

drinkcat added 7 commits July 30, 2025 17:27

ls: Add support for --time-style=posix-*

a1519e1

From GNU manual, if LC_TIME=POSIX, then the "locale" timestamp is used. Else, `posix-` is stripped and the format is parsed as usual. Also, just move the whole text to the locale file, instead of trying to generate it manually.

ls: Allow reading time-style from TIME_STYLE environment variable

e5f2f79

According to GNU manual.

ls: Add support for newline separated format for recent/older

4901f37

Documented in GNU manual. Also improve test_ls to test for both recent and older files.

ls: Print dates in the future as "old" ones

fc08fa1

ls has different time format for recent (< 6 months) and older files. Files in the future (even by just a second), are considered old, which makes sense as we probably want the date to be printed in that case.

du: Add support for +FORMAT time-style

1272bfc

Also add to error text, which... GNU coreutils doesn't do for some reason.

du: Add support for reading time-style from environment

2d63020

Similar as what ls does, but du has an extra compatibility layer described in the GNU manual (and that upstream dev helped me understand: https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=79113 ).

drinkcat added 2 commits July 30, 2025 17:58

ls: Fix Windows build

4ba8d3e

ls: cleanup imports

4cb57fb

They were a bit jumbled with no particular logic, at least that I could see.

drinkcat marked this pull request as draft July 30, 2025 10:26

util/build-gnu.sh: Change string matching for tests/ls/time-style-dia…

b13bf37

…g.sh We now are closer to what GNU prints, and handle the [posix-] cases that they do.

drinkcat marked this pull request as ready for review July 30, 2025 11:47

sylvestre reviewed Jul 30, 2025

View reviewed changes

drinkcat mentioned this pull request Jul 31, 2025

ls: -u/-c/--time control sorting when -l is not used #8417

Merged

sylvestre merged commit f877f64 into uutils:main Jul 31, 2025
79 of 80 checks passed

BrewTestBot mentioned this pull request Sep 6, 2025

uutils-coreutils 0.2.0 Homebrew/homebrew-core#236403

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drinkcat commented Jul 30, 2025 •

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util/build-gnu.sh: Change string matching for tests/ls/time-style-diag.sh

ls: cleanup imports

ls: Fix Windows build

du: Add support for reading time-style from environment

du/ls: Move common time formats to constants in uucore/time

du: Add support for +FORMAT time-style

ls: Print dates in the future as "old" ones

ls: Add support for newline separated format for recent/older

ls: Allow reading time-style from TIME_STYLE environment variable

ls: Add support for --time-style=posix-*

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`du`/`ls`: Improve time-style handling based on GNU coreutils manual #8415

`du`/`ls`: Improve time-style handling based on GNU coreutils manual #8415

drinkcat commented Jul 30, 2025 •

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