README.md

@@ -575,6 +575,15 @@ Rules for the walk:
 - Never descend into a directory named `.zfs` (ZFS snapshot pseudo-dirs; walking
   them would list every file once per snapshot), not even when it is an operand;
   such an operand is dropped the same way.
+- Never record the scan's own database. Once the database and its `.lock` file
+  are open, `scan` notes the device and inode of the database file, its `-wal`
+  and `-shm` files and its `.lock` file, and the walk passes over a file with
+  one of them, however it reaches it: as an operand, below one, or through a
+  symlinked directory. It prints no line for such a file and does not count it
+  as skipped. A record that an earlier scan left for one of them is deleted,
+  like the record of any file the scan no longer verifies. There is no
+  `-journal` file during the walk, because the database is in WAL mode then (see
+  "Database").
 - Filesystem boundaries are crossed by default. With `-x` (long form
   `--one-file-system`, following the GNU `du`/`rsync` convention), never descend
   into a directory on a different filesystem than its `PATH` operand; each
@@ -1161,10 +1170,6 @@ All of the following, run in this directory, must pass:
     ./sfdupes report
     ```
 
-    (The database lives in a temp directory of its own: inside `$d`, the scan
-    would record it, and its empty lock file would join the `empty1`/`empty2`
-    group.)
-
     Expected from the first `report`: `one.bin`/`copy.bin`/`copy2.bin` form one
     group (two dupe rows, `first` is the lexicographically smallest path);
     `t1/f1`/`t2/f1`/`t3/f1` form one group; `t1/sub/f2`/

TODO.md

@@ -29,6 +29,13 @@
 
 # Completed Steps
 
+- `scan` never records its own database: once the database and its `.lock` file
+  are open, it notes the device and inode of the database file, its `-wal` and
+  `-shm` files and its `.lock` file, and the walk passes over a file with one of
+  them wherever the operands reach it, through a symlinked directory included,
+  printing no line and counting nothing. A record an earlier scan left for one
+  of them is deleted (2026-10-17, https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/sfdupes/issues/115)
+
 - `scan` never records or reads anything that is not on a persistent filesystem
   (`tmpfs`, `proc`, `sysfs` and the other kernel or memory-backed types),
   matched by the device ID of each such filesystem, listed as the scan starts

db.go

@@ -245,6 +245,42 @@ func openScanDatabase(ctx context.Context, path string) (*sql.DB, error) {
 	return db, nil
 }
 
+// databaseFiles returns, by device and inode, the files of the database
+// at path that the scan keeps open: the database file, its -wal and
+// -shm files and its .lock file, each named from the database's path
+// with symlinks resolved, as SQLite and lockScanDatabase name them. The
+// scan calls it once the database and the lock file are open, so that
+// its walk passes over them however it reaches them, through a
+// symlinked directory included. A file that does not exist then is left
+// out, since no walk can reach it. There is no -journal file while the
+// database is in WAL mode.
+func databaseFiles(path string) ([]fileRec, error) {
+	resolved, err := filepath.EvalSymlinks(path)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("resolve database path: %w", err)
+	}
+
+	var files []fileRec
+
+	for _, p := range []string{
+		resolved, resolved + "-wal", resolved + "-shm", resolved + ".lock",
+	} {
+		fi, err := os.Lstat(p)
+		if errors.Is(err, fs.ErrNotExist) {
+			continue
+		}
+
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("database: %w", err)
+		}
+
+		dev, ino := inodeOfInfo(fi)
+		files = append(files, fileRec{path: p, dev: dev, ino: ino})
+	}
+
+	return files, nil
+}
+
 // closeScanDatabase switches the database at path from WAL back to
 // rollback-journal mode and closes it. Out of WAL mode the database
 // file alone holds the whole database, so a reader needs no -wal or

db_test.go

@@ -118,6 +118,44 @@ func TestOpenScanDatabaseCreates(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+// TestDatabaseFiles opens a database through a symlink to its file:
+// databaseFiles finds the database file and its -wal and -shm files
+// beside the symlink's target, where SQLite keeps them, and leaves out
+// the .lock file, which only a scan creates.
+func TestDatabaseFiles(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+
+	path := testDBPath(t)
+	link := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "link.sqlite")
+
+	err := os.Symlink(path, link)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	db, err := openScanDatabase(t.Context(), link)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	defer func() { _ = db.Close() }()
+
+	files, err := databaseFiles(link)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	got := make([]string, 0, len(files))
+	for _, f := range files {
+		got = append(got, f.path)
+	}
+
+	want := []string{path, path + "-wal", path + "-shm"}
+	if !slices.Equal(got, want) {
+		t.Errorf("databaseFiles(%s) = %q, want %q", link, got, want)
+	}
+}
+
 func TestOpenDatabaseUnversionedForeign(t *testing.T) {
 	t.Parallel()
 

exclude.go

@@ -43,14 +43,17 @@ const typesPerHelpLine = 6
 // readMountInfo reads.
 var errMountInfoLine = errors.New("unexpected line")
 
-// walkRules holds the two rules for the walk that a scan sets up as it
+// walkRules holds the rules for the walk that a scan sets up as it
 // starts. excludes are the default excludes, or none with
 // --no-default-excludes. nonPersistent maps the device ID of every
 // mounted filesystem that is not persistent to its type; the scan
 // records and reads nothing on one of those, whatever the flags.
+// databaseFiles are the scan's own database files, which the walk
+// passes over (see databaseFiles in db.go).
 type walkRules struct {
 	excludes      []string
 	nonPersistent map[uint64]string
+	databaseFiles []fileRec
 }
 
 // defaultExcludes returns the default excludes of the system goos

scan.go

@@ -118,7 +118,8 @@ func scanPhase(name string) string {
 // rejects anything less. Before the lock is taken, the scan lists the
 // filesystems that are not persistent, on which the walk records
 // nothing; unless noDefaultExcludes is set, the walk does not enter the
-// default excludes either.
+// default excludes either. Once the database is open, the scan notes
+// its files, which the walk passes over.
 func runScan(ctx context.Context, roots []string, workers int,
 	oneFS, noDefaultExcludes bool,
 ) error {
@@ -173,6 +174,11 @@ func runScan(ctx context.Context, roots []string, workers int,
 
 	defer closeScanDatabase(ctx, db, dbPath)
 
+	rules.databaseFiles, err = databaseFiles(dbPath)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
 	st, err := syncScan(ctx, db, roots, workers, oneFS, rules)
 	if errors.Is(err, context.Canceled) {
 		return interrupted(st.walked)
@@ -710,6 +716,15 @@ func sameInode(a, b fileRec) bool {
 	return (a.dev != 0 || a.ino != 0) && a.dev == b.dev && a.ino == b.ino
 }
 
+// isDatabaseFile reports whether f, a file the walk reached, is one of
+// the scan's own database files in rules, which the walk passes over
+// without a line and without counting it.
+func isDatabaseFile(f fileRec, rules walkRules) bool {
+	return slices.ContainsFunc(rules.databaseFiles, func(d fileRec) bool {
+		return sameInode(d, f)
+	})
+}
+
 // hashPhase hashes every queued file with hashSignature — the head and
 // tail of a file of headTailMin or more, the whole file below that —
 // committing completed records to the database in batches as results
@@ -1143,7 +1158,7 @@ func startWalk(ctx context.Context, roots []string, oneFS bool,
 	go func() {
 		initial := make([]dirJob, 0, len(roots))
 		for _, root := range roots {
-			initial = append(initial, seedRoot(ctx, root, events)...)
+			initial = append(initial, seedRoot(ctx, root, rules, events)...)
 		}
 
 		dispatchDirs(ctx, initial, jobs, subdirs)
@@ -1197,13 +1212,14 @@ func operandWarning(root string, fi fs.FileInfo) string {
 }
 
 // seedRoot turns one PATH operand into the walk's starting state: a
-// regular-file operand is statted and emitted directly, and a directory
+// regular-file operand is statted and emitted directly, unless it is
+// one of the scan's own database files in rules, and a directory
 // operand becomes an initial job. walkableRoots has already dropped
 // every other operand. One that has changed into something else since
 // is warned about and skipped here; it is still a root, so the records
 // stored beneath it, other than those under another root, are deleted
 // as unverified.
-func seedRoot(ctx context.Context, root string,
+func seedRoot(ctx context.Context, root string, rules walkRules,
 	events chan<- walkEvent,
 ) []dirJob {
 	fi, err := os.Lstat(root)
@@ -1230,14 +1246,17 @@ func seedRoot(ctx context.Context, root string,
 	}
 
 	dev, ino := inodeOfInfo(fi)
-
+	rec := fileRec{
-	sendEvent(ctx, events, walkEvent{rec: fileRec{
 		path:  root,
 		size:  fi.Size(),
 		mtime: fi.ModTime(),
 		dev:   dev,
 		ino:   ino,
-	}})
+	}
+
+	if !isDatabaseFile(rec, rules) {
+		sendEvent(ctx, events, walkEvent{rec: rec})
+	}
 
 	return nil
 }
@@ -1372,7 +1391,8 @@ func walkOneDir(ctx context.Context, job dirJob, oneFS bool,
 // regular file) between the directory read and the lstat is warned
 // about and skipped. A file on a filesystem in rules that is not
 // persistent, as through a bind mount of one file, is not recorded: it
-// gets an event naming it instead.
+// gets an event naming it instead. One of the scan's own database files
+// in rules gets no event at all.
 func emitFile(ctx context.Context, p string, e fs.DirEntry,
 	rules walkRules, events chan<- walkEvent,
 ) {
@@ -1398,14 +1418,17 @@ func emitFile(ctx context.Context, p string, e fs.DirEntry,
 	}
 
 	dev, ino := inodeOfInfo(info)
-
+	rec := fileRec{
-	sendEvent(ctx, events, walkEvent{rec: fileRec{
 		path:  p,
 		size:  info.Size(),
 		mtime: info.ModTime(),
 		dev:   dev,
 		ino:   ino,
-	}})
+	}
+
+	if !isDatabaseFile(rec, rules) {
+		sendEvent(ctx, events, walkEvent{rec: rec})
+	}
 }
 
 // subdirJob applies the descent rules to directory p: never enter

scan_test.go

@@ -1171,7 +1171,7 @@ func syncOneFilesystem(t *testing.T, db *sql.DB, roots []string,
 	var initial []dirJob
 
 	for _, root := range roots {
-		for _, job := range seedRoot(ctx, root, events) {
+		for _, job := range seedRoot(ctx, root, walkRules{}, events) {
 			job.rootDev = devices[root]
 			initial = append(initial, job)
 		}
@@ -2501,3 +2501,99 @@ func TestUnderRoot(t *testing.T) {
 		}
 	}
 }
+
+// TestRunScanPassesOverDatabase scans a tree that holds the scan's own
+// database, reached directly and through a symlinked directory. The
+// walk passes over the database file, its -wal and -shm files and its
+// .lock file with no line and no count, and the record an earlier scan
+// left for the .lock file is deleted. A rescan of the unchanged tree
+// updates nothing, and report lists none of the database's files.
+func TestRunScanPassesOverDatabase(t *testing.T) {
+	for _, viaSymlink := range []bool{false, true} {
+		t.Run(fmt.Sprintf("via symlink %v", viaSymlink), func(t *testing.T) {
+			base := t.TempDir()
+			tree := filepath.Join(base, "real", "tree")
+			operand := tree
+
+			writeFile(t, tree, "a", pattern(1, 100))
+			writeFile(t, tree, "b", pattern(1, 100))
+			writeFile(t, tree, "empty1", nil)
+			writeFile(t, tree, "empty2", nil)
+
+			if viaSymlink {
+				err := os.Symlink(filepath.Join(base, "real"),
+					filepath.Join(base, "link"))
+				if err != nil {
+					t.Fatal(err)
+				}
+
+				operand = filepath.Join(base, "link", "tree")
+			}
+
+			dbPath := filepath.Join(tree, "db.sqlite")
+			t.Setenv(databaseEnv, dbPath)
+
+			db, err := openScanDatabase(t.Context(), dbPath)
+			if err != nil {
+				t.Fatal(err)
+			}
+
+			err = applyChanges(t.Context(), db, []scanRec{
+				{path: filepath.Join(operand, "db.sqlite.lock")},
+			}, nil, nil)
+			if err != nil {
+				t.Fatal(err)
+			}
+
+			closeScanDatabase(t.Context(), db, dbPath)
+
+			assertScanSummary(t,
+				"4 files seen (4 added, 0 updated, 1 removed, 0 unchanged)",
+				operand)
+			assertScanSummary(t,
+				"4 files seen (0 added, 0 updated, 0 removed, 4 unchanged)",
+				operand)
+
+			report := runStdout(t, cmdReport)
+			if strings.Contains(report, "db.sqlite") ||
+				!strings.Contains(report, filepath.Join(operand, "empty2")) {
+				t.Errorf("report = %q, want the empty files and none of "+
+					"the database's files", report)
+			}
+		})
+	}
+}
+
+// TestRunScanPassesOverDatabaseOperands scans the database file and its
+// .lock file given as operands themselves: neither is recorded or
+// counted.
+func TestRunScanPassesOverDatabaseOperands(t *testing.T) {
+	dbPath := testDBPath(t)
+	t.Setenv(databaseEnv, dbPath)
+
+	// The first scan creates both files.
+	scanOK(t, t.TempDir())
+
+	assertScanSummary(t,
+		"0 files seen (0 added, 0 updated, 0 removed, 0 unchanged)",
+		dbPath, dbPath+".lock")
+}
+
+// assertScanSummary scans operands and fails the test unless the
+// summary line gives counts with nothing skipped, and the line naming
+// the database is the only one that names one of its files.
+func assertScanSummary(t *testing.T, counts string, operands ...string) {
+	t.Helper()
+
+	stderr := scanOK(t, operands...)
+
+	want := "scan: " + counts + ", 0 skipped\n"
+	if !strings.Contains(stderr, want) {
+		t.Errorf("scan %q: stderr = %q, want %q", operands, stderr, want)
+	}
+
+	if strings.Count(stderr, "db.sqlite") != 1 {
+		t.Errorf("scan %q: stderr = %q, want only the line naming the "+
+			"database to name one of its files", operands, stderr)
+	}
+}