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wc: unexpected stdout diff for multi-file output padding #252

@matt-dz

Description

@matt-dz

Summary

QA comparison found that rshell's wc output column padding differs from GNU wc for multi-file input. The numeric counts and file ordering match, but the stdout differs byte-for-byte because GNU pads count columns more widely.

Sanitized example

Command shape:

find <directory> -type f | sort | xargs wc -l

rshell stdout excerpt:

 19 <path>
 19 <path>
 19 <path>
 91 <path>
122 <path>
114 <path>
 69 <path>
 19 <path>
 27 <path>
 20 <path>
 27 <path>
 22 <path>
 27 <path>
 19 <path>
 27 <path>
 18 <path>
 27 <path>
 19 <path>
 27 <path>
 21 <path>
 27 <path>
 21 <path>
 27 <path>
 19 <path>

GNU/oracle stdout excerpt:

   19 <path>
   19 <path>
   19 <path>
   91 <path>
  122 <path>
  114 <path>
   69 <path>
   19 <path>
   27 <path>
   20 <path>
   27 <path>
   22 <path>
   27 <path>
   19 <path>
   27 <path>
   18 <path>
   27 <path>
   19 <path>
   27 <path>
   21 <path>
   27 <path>
   21 <path>
   27 <path>

Expected

wc should match GNU wc output formatting for multi-file counts, including the leading column padding used when filenames and a total line are printed.

Notes

This report is sanitized: it omits local artifact paths, run identifiers, and scenario-specific metadata. The finding was deduplicated across the QA run before filing.

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