uutils/coreutils

`seq 4e4000003 4e4000003` is causing an infinite loop

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#6,182 opened on Apr 2, 2024

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 (11 comments) (0 reactions) (0 assignees)Rust (23,246 stars) (1,852 forks)batch import
U - seqgood first issue

Description

Looking at seq oss fuzz coverage, I noticed that it wasn't producing much. Writing a fuzz on seq parse number, i noticed that: cargo run seq 4e4000003 4e4000003 is running forever

while GNU is doing:

$ LANG=C /usr/bin/seq 4e4000003 4e4000003
/usr/bin/seq: invalid floating point argument: '4e4000003'

Contributor guide

Tech stack
rust
Domain
cli
Issue type
bug
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-3 hours
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
fresh
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
mostly clear
Prerequisites
basic Rust knowledgeunderstanding of floating point parsing
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
50
Research direction
Investigate the seq command's parsing of floating point numbers in the uutils/coreutils codebase. Look at the parsing logic in the seq source files, likely under src/uu/seq/. Compare the behavior with GNU seq, which rejects invalid floating point arguments. Determine why 4e4000003 causes an infinite loop and propose a fix to handle such edge cases correctly.