Print progress at once off a terminal, keep warnings out of redraws (closes #13)

When stderr is not a terminal, each phase prints its zero-state line
as it starts instead of after its first item. stderrIsTTY uses
term.IsTerminal from golang.org/x/term, now a direct dependency, so
/dev/null is no longer taken for a terminal.

A spinner keeps the library's background redraw, so its count and
elapsed time stay current while a phase waits for its next item. A
warning printed during a spinner phase goes through the bar
(progressbar.Bprintln), which prints it before its next redraw instead
of racing it. Bars with a total have no background redraw and still
print warnings directly.

Model: opus-5-5

README.md

@@ -580,18 +580,6 @@ Additional requirements:
 -   `2`: usage error (including `scan` with no `PATH` operand and
     `report`/`trees` with any positional argument).
 
-A stdout write failure, such as a full disk, is reported in one line on
-stderr and exits 1. Two cases never reach sfdupes as a failed write:
-
--   When the reader of a stdout pipe exits early, as in
-    `sfdupes report | head`, the next write ends sfdupes with `SIGPIPE`,
-    quietly and without a summary, the way `cat` or `sort` end. The
-    shell reports the signal (status 141 in most shells), not exit 1.
--   When stdout is closed outright (`sfdupes report >&-`), the Go
-    runtime opens `/dev/null` in its place before sfdupes starts, so
-    the output is discarded and the run succeeds, as with
-    `> /dev/null`.
-
 ## Entrypoints
 
 This repository adheres to the

TODO.md

@@ -33,10 +33,6 @@
   and prints warnings through a spinner instead of racing its redraw
   (2026-10-03, https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/sfdupes/issues/13)
 
-- test stdout write failures in `report` and `trees`; README states that
-  `| head` ends sfdupes by `SIGPIPE` and `>&-` writes to `/dev/null`
-  (2026-10-03, https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/sfdupes/issues/30)
-
 - `report` and `trees` open the database read-only, and `scan` leaves it
   out of WAL mode, so reading needs only read access (2026-10-03, closes
   https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/sfdupes/issues/8)

main.go

@@ -57,27 +57,22 @@ var errNoSubcommand = errors.New("no subcommand")
 var Version = "dev"
 
 func main() {
-	// Once the reader of a stdout pipe has gone, as in "sfdupes report |
-	// head", the Go runtime ends the process with SIGPIPE on the next
-	// write instead of returning an error (README "Error handling").
-	// Registering for SIGPIPE with os/signal would change that.
-	os.Exit(run(os.Args[1:], os.Stdout, os.Stderr))
+	os.Exit(run(os.Args[1:], os.Stderr))
 }
 
 // run executes args against the command tree and returns the process
 // exit code. It is the program's single exit point: the subcommands
 // return their errors instead of exiting, so every deferred cleanup —
 // above all closing the database, which checkpoints the SQLite WAL —
-// runs before the process ends. The report and trees subcommands write
-// their data to stdout.
-func run(args []string, stdout, stderr io.Writer) int {
+// runs before the process ends.
+func run(args []string, stderr io.Writer) int {
 	// A nil slice makes cobra fall back to os.Args, which would let a
 	// test binary's own flags reach the command tree.
 	if args == nil {
 		args = []string{}
 	}
 
-	root := newRootCommand(stdout, stderr)
+	root := newRootCommand(stderr)
 	root.SetArgs(args)
 
 	err := root.Execute()
@@ -103,7 +98,7 @@ func run(args []string, stdout, stderr io.Writer) int {
 // newRootCommand builds the command tree. Everything on stdout is
 // machine-readable data; all human-facing output (help, usage, errors)
 // goes to stderr.
-func newRootCommand(stdout, stderr io.Writer) *cobra.Command {
+func newRootCommand(stderr io.Writer) *cobra.Command {
 	root := &cobra.Command{
 		Use:     "sfdupes",
 		Short:   "Find candidate duplicate files by size and head/tail/content SHA-256",
@@ -145,7 +140,7 @@ func newRootCommand(stdout, stderr io.Writer) *cobra.Command {
 		Short: "Read the scan database and print the file-level duplicates report",
 		Args:  cobra.NoArgs,
 		RunE: runE(func(ctx context.Context, _ []string) error {
-			return runReport(ctx, stdout)
+			return runReport(ctx)
 		}),
 	}
 
@@ -154,7 +149,7 @@ func newRootCommand(stdout, stderr io.Writer) *cobra.Command {
 		Short: "Read the scan database and print the duplicate-tree report",
 		Args:  cobra.NoArgs,
 		RunE: runE(func(ctx context.Context, _ []string) error {
-			return runTrees(ctx, stdout)
+			return runTrees(ctx)
 		}),
 	}
 

main_test.go

@@ -82,6 +82,50 @@ func makeReadOnly(t *testing.T, path string) {
 	})
 }
 
+// captureStdout redirects os.Stdout to a file for the rest of the test
+// and returns a function reading back everything written to it. Only
+// machine-readable data belongs on stdout (README design goal 4), so
+// the tests assert on it directly.
+func captureStdout(t *testing.T) func() string {
+	t.Helper()
+
+	f, err := os.Create(filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "stdout"))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	saved := os.Stdout
+	os.Stdout = f
+
+	t.Cleanup(func() {
+		os.Stdout = saved
+
+		_ = f.Close()
+	})
+
+	return func() string {
+		// Read what has been written without disturbing the write
+		// offset, so the capture can be inspected more than once.
+		size, err := f.Seek(0, io.SeekCurrent)
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+
+		if size == 0 {
+			return ""
+		}
+
+		b := make([]byte, size)
+
+		_, err = f.ReadAt(b, 0)
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+
+		return string(b)
+	}
+}
+
 // brokenDatabase writes a database that opens cleanly and passes the
 // schema-version check but has no files table, so the first query
 // fails with the database already open: a fatal error on a path that
@@ -154,15 +198,17 @@ func TestRunFatalAfterOpenClosesDatabase(t *testing.T) {
 				args = append(args, t.TempDir())
 			}
 
-			var stdout, stderr bytes.Buffer
+			var stderr bytes.Buffer
 
-			code := run(args, &stdout, &stderr)
+			stdout := captureStdout(t)
+
+			code := run(args, &stderr)
 			if code != exitFatal {
 				t.Errorf("run(%v) = %d, want %d", args, code, exitFatal)
 			}
 
 			assertNoSidecars(t, path)
-			assertFatalOutput(t, stderr.String(), stdout.String())
+			assertFatalOutput(t, stderr.String(), stdout())
 
 			// Proof that the failure happened after the open: only a
 			// query against the opened database can report this.
@@ -180,16 +226,18 @@ func TestRunMissingOperandIsFatalNotUsage(t *testing.T) {
 	// must not dump the usage text.
 	t.Setenv(databaseEnv, testDBPath(t))
 
-	var stdout, stderr bytes.Buffer
+	var stderr bytes.Buffer
+
+	stdout := captureStdout(t)
 
 	missing := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "nope")
 
-	code := run([]string{cmdScan, missing}, &stdout, &stderr)
+	code := run([]string{cmdScan, missing}, &stderr)
 	if code != exitFatal {
 		t.Errorf("run(scan %s) = %d, want %d", missing, code, exitFatal)
 	}
 
-	assertFatalOutput(t, stderr.String(), stdout.String())
+	assertFatalOutput(t, stderr.String(), stdout())
 }
 
 // assertFatalOutput checks that a fatal error was reported the way
@@ -233,9 +281,11 @@ func TestRunUsageErrors(t *testing.T) {
 			// path that does not exist.
 			t.Setenv(databaseEnv, testDBPath(t))
 
-			var stdout, stderr bytes.Buffer
+			var stderr bytes.Buffer
 
-			code := run(tc.args, &stdout, &stderr)
+			stdout := captureStdout(t)
+
+			code := run(tc.args, &stderr)
 			if code != exitUsage {
 				t.Errorf("run(%v) = %d, want %d", tc.args, code, exitUsage)
 			}
@@ -244,7 +294,7 @@ func TestRunUsageErrors(t *testing.T) {
 				t.Errorf("stderr = %q, want %q", stderr.String(), tc.want)
 			}
 
-			if got := stdout.String(); got != "" {
+			if got := stdout(); got != "" {
 				t.Errorf("stdout = %q, want nothing (data only)", got)
 			}
 		})
@@ -253,9 +303,9 @@ func TestRunUsageErrors(t *testing.T) {
 
 // TestRunHelpAndVersionSucceed checks that the two informational flags
 // exit 0 and keep their human-facing output on stderr.
+//
+//nolint:paralleltest // captureStdout replaces the process-wide os.Stdout
 func TestRunHelpAndVersionSucceed(t *testing.T) {
-	t.Parallel()
-
 	assertHumanOutput(t, "--help")
 	assertHumanOutput(t, "--version")
 }
@@ -266,9 +316,11 @@ func TestRunHelpAndVersionSucceed(t *testing.T) {
 func assertHumanOutput(t *testing.T, arg string) {
 	t.Helper()
 
-	var stdout, stderr bytes.Buffer
+	var stderr bytes.Buffer
 
-	code := run([]string{arg}, &stdout, &stderr)
+	stdout := captureStdout(t)
+
+	code := run([]string{arg}, &stderr)
 	if code != exitOK {
 		t.Errorf("run(%s) = %d, want %d", arg, code, exitOK)
 	}
@@ -277,7 +329,7 @@ func assertHumanOutput(t *testing.T, arg string) {
 		t.Errorf("run(%s) wrote nothing to stderr", arg)
 	}
 
-	if got := stdout.String(); got != "" {
+	if got := stdout(); got != "" {
 		t.Errorf("stdout = %q, want nothing (data only)", got)
 	}
 }
@@ -306,15 +358,17 @@ func scanFixture(t *testing.T) []string {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
 
-	var stdout, stderr bytes.Buffer
+	var stderr bytes.Buffer
 
-	code := run([]string{cmdScan, dir}, &stdout, &stderr)
+	stdout := captureStdout(t)
+
+	code := run([]string{cmdScan, dir}, &stderr)
 	if code != exitOK {
 		t.Fatalf("run(scan) = %d, want %d; stderr: %s",
 			code, exitOK, stderr.String())
 	}
 
-	if got := stdout.String(); got != "" {
+	if got := stdout(); got != "" {
 		t.Errorf("scan stdout = %q, want nothing (data only)", got)
 	}
 
@@ -335,16 +389,18 @@ func TestRunReportSucceeds(t *testing.T) {
 
 	dupes := scanFixture(t)
 
-	var stdout, stderr bytes.Buffer
+	var stderr bytes.Buffer
 
-	code := run([]string{cmdReport}, &stdout, &stderr)
+	stdout := captureStdout(t)
+
+	code := run([]string{cmdReport}, &stderr)
 	if code != exitOK {
 		t.Fatalf("run(report) = %d, want %d; stderr: %s",
 			code, exitOK, stderr.String())
 	}
 
 	want := "first\tdupe\tsize\n" + dupes[0] + "\t" + dupes[1] + "\t300\n"
-	if got := stdout.String(); got != want {
+	if got := stdout(); got != want {
 		t.Errorf("stdout = %q, want %q", got, want)
 	}
 
@@ -357,9 +413,11 @@ func TestRunTreesSucceeds(t *testing.T) {
 
 	dupes := scanFixture(t)
 
-	var stdout, stderr bytes.Buffer
+	var stderr bytes.Buffer
 
-	code := run([]string{cmdTrees}, &stdout, &stderr)
+	stdout := captureStdout(t)
+
+	code := run([]string{cmdTrees}, &stderr)
 	if code != exitOK {
 		t.Fatalf("run(trees) = %d, want %d; stderr: %s",
 			code, exitOK, stderr.String())
@@ -369,7 +427,7 @@ func TestRunTreesSucceeds(t *testing.T) {
 	// trees of each other.
 	want := "first\tdupe\tfiles\tsize\n" +
 		filepath.Dir(dupes[0]) + "\t" + filepath.Dir(dupes[1]) + "\t1\t300\n"
-	if got := stdout.String(); got != want {
+	if got := stdout(); got != want {
 		t.Errorf("stdout = %q, want %q", got, want)
 	}
 
@@ -396,9 +454,11 @@ func TestRunReportsNeedOnlyReadAccess(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 
 	for name, want := range cases {
-		var stdout, stderr bytes.Buffer
+		var stderr bytes.Buffer
 
-		code := run([]string{name}, &stdout, &stderr)
+		stdout := captureStdout(t)
+
+		code := run([]string{name}, &stderr)
 		if code != exitOK {
 			t.Errorf("run(%s) = %d, want %d; stderr: %s",
 				name, code, exitOK, stderr.String())
@@ -406,71 +466,8 @@ func TestRunReportsNeedOnlyReadAccess(t *testing.T) {
 			continue
 		}
 
-		if got := stdout.String(); got != want {
+		if got := stdout(); got != want {
 			t.Errorf("%s stdout = %q, want %q", name, got, want)
 		}
 	}
 }
-
-func TestRunStdoutClosedIsFatal(t *testing.T) {
-	// README §Error handling: a stdout write failure exits 1, reported
-	// in one line on stderr.
-	for _, name := range []string{cmdReport, cmdTrees} {
-		t.Run(name, func(t *testing.T) {
-			t.Setenv(databaseEnv, testDBPath(t))
-
-			scanFixture(t)
-
-			stdout, err := os.Create(filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "stdout"))
-			if err != nil {
-				t.Fatal(err)
-			}
-
-			err = stdout.Close()
-			if err != nil {
-				t.Fatal(err)
-			}
-
-			var stderr bytes.Buffer
-
-			code := run([]string{name}, stdout, &stderr)
-			if code != exitFatal {
-				t.Errorf("run(%s) = %d, want %d", name, code, exitFatal)
-			}
-
-			got := stderr.String()
-			if !strings.HasPrefix(got, "sfdupes: write stdout: ") ||
-				!strings.Contains(got, os.ErrClosed.Error()) ||
-				strings.Count(got, "\n") != 1 {
-				t.Errorf("stderr = %q, want one line reporting the "+
-					"failed stdout write", got)
-			}
-		})
-	}
-}
-
-// errWriteFailed is the error failingWriter returns.
-var errWriteFailed = errors.New("write failed")
-
-// failingWriter is a stdout that fails every write.
-type failingWriter struct{}
-
-func (failingWriter) Write([]byte) (int, error) { return 0, errWriteFailed }
-
-func TestStdoutWriteErrorPropagates(t *testing.T) {
-	t.Setenv(databaseEnv, testDBPath(t))
-
-	scanFixture(t)
-
-	cases := map[string]func(context.Context, io.Writer) error{
-		cmdReport: runReport,
-		cmdTrees:  runTrees,
-	}
-
-	for name, fn := range cases {
-		err := fn(t.Context(), failingWriter{})
-		if !errors.Is(err, errWriteFailed) {
-			t.Errorf("%s: error = %v, want %v", name, err, errWriteFailed)
-		}
-	}
-}

progress_test.go

@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ package main
 import (
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
+	"slices"
 	"strings"
 	"testing"
 	"time"
@@ -119,44 +120,37 @@ func newWalkSpinner(t *testing.T) *progress {
 }
 
 // TestProgressWarningsOnOwnLines drives the terminal display of the walk
-// pass through a run of warnings with no items between them, as when the
-// walk meets many unreadable paths, for several of the spinner's
-// redraws: every warning must land on a line of its own, never inside a
-// redraw.
+// pass: every warning must land on a line of its own, never inside a
+// redraw of the spinner.
 //
 //nolint:paralleltest // captureStderr replaces the process-wide os.Stderr
 func TestProgressWarningsOnOwnLines(t *testing.T) {
 	stderr := captureStderr(t)
 	p := newWalkSpinner(t)
 
-	// No pause between warnings: one written straight to stderr is
-	// garbled only if a redraw lands while it is being written.
-	issued := 0
-	for start := time.Now(); time.Since(start) < spinnerIdle; issued++ {
-		p.warnf("warning")
+	for _, w := range []string{"first", "second", "third"} {
+		p.increment()
+		p.warnf("warning %s", w)
 	}
 
+	p.increment()
+
 	// The spinner prints the warnings at its next redraw.
 	time.Sleep(spinnerIdle)
 
 	// A terminal shows each line as the text after its last carriage
 	// return.
-	shown := 0
+	var warnings []string
 
 	for line := range strings.SplitSeq(stderr(), "\n") {
-		if !strings.Contains(line, "warning") {
-			continue
-		}
-
-		shown++
-
-		if text := line[strings.LastIndex(line, "\r")+1:]; text != "warning" {
-			t.Errorf("terminal shows %q, want %q", text, "warning")
+		if strings.Contains(line, "warning") {
+			warnings = append(warnings, line[strings.LastIndex(line, "\r")+1:])
 		}
 	}
 
-	if shown != issued {
-		t.Errorf("%d warning lines, want %d", shown, issued)
+	want := []string{"warning first", "warning second", "warning third"}
+	if !slices.Equal(warnings, want) {
+		t.Errorf("warning lines = %q, want %q", warnings, want)
 	}
 }
 

report.go

@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@ import (
 	"bufio"
 	"context"
 	"fmt"
-	"io"
 	"os"
 	"slices"
 	"strings"
@@ -66,7 +65,7 @@ type dupeGroup struct {
 // from the database and prints the file-level duplicates report as TSV
 // on stdout. It never touches the scanned filesystem; its only I/O is
 // the database, stdout, and stderr.
-func runReport(ctx context.Context, stdout io.Writer) error {
+func runReport(ctx context.Context) error {
 	recs, err := loadRecords(ctx)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
@@ -74,7 +73,7 @@ func runReport(ctx context.Context, stdout io.Writer) error {
 
 	dupes := collectDupeGroups(recs)
 
-	out := bufio.NewWriterSize(stdout, ioBufSize)
+	out := bufio.NewWriterSize(os.Stdout, ioBufSize)
 
 	_, err = fmt.Fprintln(out, "first\tdupe\tsize")
 	if err != nil {

report_test.go

@@ -50,9 +50,11 @@ func seedDatabase(t *testing.T, recs []scanRec) string {
 func TestRunReportEscapesPaths(t *testing.T) {
 	t.Setenv(databaseEnv, seedDatabase(t, awkwardPairRecs()))
 
-	var stdout, stderr bytes.Buffer
+	var stderr bytes.Buffer
 
-	code := run([]string{cmdReport}, &stdout, &stderr)
+	stdout := captureStdout(t)
+
+	code := run([]string{cmdReport}, &stderr)
 	if code != exitOK {
 		t.Fatalf("run(report) = %d, want %d; stderr: %s",
 			code, exitOK, stderr.String())
@@ -60,7 +62,7 @@ func TestRunReportEscapesPaths(t *testing.T) {
 
 	want := "first\tdupe\tsize\n" +
 		`/d/\tone\ntwo\rthree\\four/f` + "\t/d/A/f\t5\n"
-	if got := stdout.String(); got != want {
+	if got := stdout(); got != want {
 		t.Errorf("stdout = %q, want %q", got, want)
 	}
 }

scan_test.go

@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@ import (
 	"database/sql"
 	"encoding/hex"
 	"fmt"
-	"io"
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
 	"runtime"
@@ -1549,7 +1548,7 @@ func TestScanHashWriteFailureUnwindsPool(t *testing.T) {
 
 	code := run([]string{
 		cmdScan, "--workers", strconv.Itoa(hashLeakWorkers), dir,
-	}, io.Discard, &stderr)
+	}, &stderr)
 	if code != exitFatal {
 		t.Fatalf("run(scan) = %d, want %d; stderr: %s",
 			code, exitFatal, stderr.String())

trees.go

@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@ import (
 	"context"
 	"crypto/sha256"
 	"fmt"
-	"io"
 	"os"
 	"slices"
 	"strconv"
@@ -37,7 +36,7 @@ type treeNode struct {
 // maximal duplicate-tree groups as TSV on stdout. It never touches the
 // scanned filesystem; its only I/O is the database, stdout, and
 // stderr.
-func runTrees(ctx context.Context, stdout io.Writer) error {
+func runTrees(ctx context.Context) error {
 	recs, err := loadRecords(ctx)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
@@ -48,7 +47,7 @@ func runTrees(ctx context.Context, stdout io.Writer) error {
 
 	dupes := collectTreeGroups(allDirs, super)
 
-	out := bufio.NewWriterSize(stdout, ioBufSize)
+	out := bufio.NewWriterSize(os.Stdout, ioBufSize)
 
 	_, err = fmt.Fprintln(out, "first\tdupe\tfiles\tsize")
 	if err != nil {

trees_test.go

@@ -108,9 +108,11 @@ func TestBuildHierarchyRootPath(t *testing.T) {
 func TestRunTreesEscapesPaths(t *testing.T) {
 	t.Setenv(databaseEnv, seedDatabase(t, awkwardPairRecs()))
 
-	var stdout, stderr bytes.Buffer
+	var stderr bytes.Buffer
 
-	code := run([]string{cmdTrees}, &stdout, &stderr)
+	stdout := captureStdout(t)
+
+	code := run([]string{cmdTrees}, &stderr)
 	if code != exitOK {
 		t.Fatalf("run(trees) = %d, want %d; stderr: %s",
 			code, exitOK, stderr.String())
@@ -118,7 +120,7 @@ func TestRunTreesEscapesPaths(t *testing.T) {
 
 	want := "first\tdupe\tfiles\tsize\n" +
 		`/d/\tone\ntwo\rthree\\four` + "\t/d/A\t1\t5\n"
-	if got := stdout.String(); got != want {
+	if got := stdout(); got != want {
 		t.Errorf("stdout = %q, want %q", got, want)
 	}
 }