diffutils shipped with RHEL6.x doesn't have any option to ignore symlinks

Solution Unverified - Updated -

Issue

  • diffutils shipped with RHEL6.x doesn't have any option to ignore symlinks
# ll /tmp/diff-test/adir/x/y
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 16 Nov 22 20:31 /tmp/diff-test/adir/x/y -> /tmp/diff-test/a

# ll /tmp/diff-test/bdir/x/y
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 16 Nov 22 20:31 /tmp/diff-test/bdir/x/y -> /tmp/diff-test/b

# diff -rq /tmp/diff-test/adir /tmp/diff-test/bdir/
Only in /tmp/diff-test/adir/x/y: filea
Only in /tmp/diff-test/bdir/x/y: fileb
  • A new option "--no-dereference" was introduced in upstream v3.3 so that we can igonre symlinks.
# ll /tmp/diff-test/adir/x/y
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 16 Nov 22 20:31 /tmp/diff-test/adir/x/y -> /tmp/diff-test/a

# ll /tmp/diff-test/bdir/x/y
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 16 Nov 22 20:31 /tmp/diff-test/bdir/x/y -> /tmp/diff-test/b

# /usr/local/bin/diff -rq --no-dereference /tmp/diff-test/adir /tmp/diff-test/bdir/
Only in /tmp/diff-test/adir: 1
Only in /tmp/diff-test/bdir/: 2
Symbolic links /tmp/diff-test/adir/x/y and /tmp/diff-test/bdir/x/y differ

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
  • diffutils

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