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in reply to A puzzle.

I tried doing the same thing on linux, and it behaved as expected. I couldn't help noticing that your last file (junk2.16) appears to have an earlier modification time than the others. Is that at all relevant?

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Re^2: A puzzle.
by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Aug 06, 2005 at 09:16 UTC
    I couldn't help noticing that your last file (junk2.16) appears to have an earlier modification time than the others.

    I hadn't noticed that. That probably does (at least partially) explain it. The last file does appear to be a left over from an earlier run.

    I say partially, because I'm having great difficulty coming up with an explaination for how a left-over file from an earlier run could combine with a full set from a later run and recombine to reform a file that diffs equal to the original? Or how that combination of filesizes & numbers could be arrived at.

    I cannot reproduce the results, although (I'd swear) I have seen this happen at least twice.

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      I cannot reproduce the results, although (I'd swear) I have seen this happen at least twice.

      I've had days like that too. Eventually, the memory fades, and life goes on...

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