uutils/coreutils

dd: Silent Truncate Error Suppression

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#9,745 opened on Dec 20, 2025

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U - ddgood first issuereported-canonical

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Description

Component

dd

Description

If the output device is full, read-only, or otherwise unable to be truncated, dd reports success (exit 0) while leaving stale data in the output file.

Impact

Silent data corruption. Backup scripts relying on dd may believe a copy succeeded when it actually contains old/garbage data, leading to undetected data loss during recovery.

Contributor guide

Research direction
Inspect the dd command's truncation error handling and ensure that truncation failures cause non zero exit and appropriate error messages.
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.
2
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.
Active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Clear
Prerequisites
Rust
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
75