Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2017 September 9

= September 9 =

Mutation testing to extract minimal example of a bug?
I have a project which uses Checker Framework, and which in at least 13 places has to use the @AssumeAssertion technique where castNonNull should theoretically be sufficient but actually raises an error message. These cases are almost certainly bugs in Checker Framework. But I can't report them, because the Checker Framework devs say that in situ they're too complicated, and I don't have time to manually reduce each of them to its simplest form in a different branch of my project. (The last time I tried to do that, it took me a whole day to handle just one case, and I was still told the 76-line result was on the overly-complex side.) Can automation help with this problem? I'm thinking of a variant of Mutation testing in which all the mutations are simplifications, they are applied cumulatively to reach the frontier of simplest examples, and the meanings of success and failure are inverted compared to the usual application of mutation testing (in that we start with a failing test case and perform every possible simplification that will leave it still failing). Neon Merlin  00:38, 9 September 2017 (UTC)
 * The one thing I immediately know about on this subject is C-Reduce. Probably of little use to you (although its webpage does mention some utility for other C-like languages), but it's certainly a practical implementation of the idea.  --Tardis (talk) 00:24, 10 September 2017 (UTC)

Pascal: Number <=> String
How can I convert a number to a string and vice versa? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.45.127.64 (talk) 13:47, 9 September 2017 (UTC)


 * That will depend on the language. What language are you using ? StuRat (talk) 14:16, 9 September 2017 (UTC)


 * Pascal. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/35237555/pascal-integer-to-string-conversion/35241017#35241017 IntToStr & StrToInt & Str. &#40;&#40;&#40;The Quixotic Potato&#41;&#41;&#41; (talk) 15:09, 9 September 2017 (UTC)


 * LOL. I read it as "Pascal number", as in the numbers in Pascal's triangle.  I thought they were looking for a nice way to space the numbers out, using character strings, to display the triangle.  StuRat (talk) 15:39, 9 September 2017 (UTC)

Here is a web page for Borland Pascal to convert from numericvalue to string and vice versa http://borlandpascal.wikia.com/wiki/String_operations 110.22.20.252 (talk) 01:50, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

copying Linux files onto a Samba share
I'm on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and I'm trying to backup my home directory onto a Samba share on a NAS. The file copying fails with the message "Symlinks on shared volumes not supported" because Samba is from Windows and thus have no concept of a symlink. I'm perfectly fine with ignoring all the symlinks; I don't need them copied.

Is there a way to only copy the non-symlink files? Mũeller (talk) 15:18, 9 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Just a quick note, as the article you linked to says it's not true that there's no concept of symlinks on Windows. NTFS has supported them for a long time although the concept is not entirely the same as on POSIX. I'm not sure if you can create them over SMB even on Windows however, although they can be used to point to SMB elements. Nil Einne (talk) 15:47, 9 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Windows has NTFS symbolic links. Linux has symlinks. NTFS symbolic link != symlink. The article I linked makes that very clear. Mũeller (talk) 01:56, 10 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Actually the article doesn't say what you claim it does, I read it before replying, a point I thought I made clear. NTFS does have symlinks, also called symbolic links. The NTFS implemented isn't quite the same as the general POSIX implementation, but the are both symbolic links or symlinks. No where does our article say that it's inaccurate to call NTFS's implementation symlinks, or that the term is reserved for the POSIX implementation. Quite the contrary. Nor does Microsoft agree with you that it's inaccurate to call the NTFS implementation symlink/s [//technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754077(v=ws.10).aspx] [//support.microsoft.com/en-hk/help/3018200/can-t-synchronize-onedrive-for-business-files-and-folders-from-a-local]  [//technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh125917(v=ws.10).aspx] . In fact as evidence from that,some of their command line utilities use the term symlink. Nor do the whoever wrote the cygwin help [//cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using.html]. If I understand correctly, Microsoft apparently do not use NTFS symlinks for supporting POSIX style symbolic links on Windows as part of the Windows Subsystem for Linux [//blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/wsl/2016/06/15/wsl-file-system-support/]  but you'll note even there they don't make the distinction you were trying to make. Actually the only party I found who is possibly making it is Tuxera, but even there, I'm not certain they're saying the terms have to be used in that way, or it's just the terms they used. If you want to use terms in ways which most other people do not, that's up to you, but please don't mislead people into believing your terms are standard or supported by our articles. Nil Einne (talk) 08:12, 11 September 2017 (UTC)


 * With rsync (which I'd recommend over a plain cp -R in just about all non-trivial circumstances anyway):

rsync -a --no-links srcdir destdir


 * -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 16:18, 9 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Thanks a lot!!! Mũeller (talk) 01:57, 10 September 2017 (UTC)


 * More generally, backing up a unix filesystem to a SMB filesystem (with a one-to-one file copy) isn't always the best idea. SMB has different ideas about file ownership and file permissions than SMB, and while tools like Samba try to make a sensible mapping, it's often not perfect. This probably isn't so much of an issue for a home directory but, for more general copies that you feel you have to store on SMB, keeping your unix files in a tar archive (and storing that on the SMB volume) will preserve those file attributes better. -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 09:09, 10 September 2017 (UTC)


 * And tar can preserve symlinks without (necessarily) following them. -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 11:26, 10 September 2017 (UTC)

Fox tv edits
Hi i ask this question because i don't see answer and it's deleted. But: Anyone knows how 4kids edit or delete things and scenes? Pls only leave a comment if u sure what i mean and search.--Maxie1hoi (talk) 20:25, 9 September 2017 (UTC)


 * It got archived: Reference_desk/Archives/Computing/2017_September_3. StuRat (talk) 01:17, 10 September 2017 (UTC)