I don’t know why this is, but in much later stages of this challenge the very basic cd ~ test is flaky and failing randomly. It happened multiple times for me; once it was fixed by changing the access test from if(access(red_path, F_OK) != -1) to if(access(red_path, R_OK) != -1) (or the other way ar…

Also in case it matters, here is the entire code for the stage in which changing the debug setting made it pass the tests: main.c · GitHub (This was in #qm8 )

I’m not that familiar with Linux. The test could be flaky. Or it could be some kind of effective vs real UID permission issue? I don’t bother checking the permission, and had no issues with that test. I just try to change directory and react to the result. My cd simply expands the path and do retur…

Yeah, chdir might be the better way to go. Idk if switching to a directory counts as “executing” it. But I do think that if a directory exists should be based on visibility, not permissions, so really there should be two checks: access with F_OK (visibility) for “not found” and chdir for “permission…

I’ve gotten the same issue again, this time it was not reverting so easy, the error message was: remote: [tester::#GP4] Running tests for Stage #GP4 (Navigation - The cd builtin: Home directory) remote: [tester::#GP4] Running ./your_program.sh remote: [your-program] $ cd /tmp/pear/pineapple/blueber…

That particular error does not look like the test runner’s fault. Even if the test runner had flaw in directory creation and setup the path itself comes rather innocently and can be traced via the test case calling getRandomDirectory which calls RandomWord (the words themselves are in the top that …

This is the opposite problem, but could cause other sporadic issues. In reduce_path you have an indeterminate byte: // For cd ~ case we have: // home_ends_in_slash=0 // old_path_len = 1 // Suppose home_len=10 buf_len = home_len - home_ends_in_slash + old_path_len; // Then b…

Yes, this solved one of the issues, I have to replace old_path_len with old_path_len-1. Thanks for the feedback and we will look into other errors first before we open posts then for failing tests.

Small follow-up: We got hit with this error now: remote: [tester::#UN3] Running tests for Stage #UN3 (Redirection - Append stderr) remote: [tester::#UN3] [setup] export PATH=/tmp/orange/pear/orange:$PATH remote: [tester::#UN3] Running ./your_program.sh remote: [your-program] $ ls -1 nonexistent >> …

For ls: On Git Bash in Windows: I get the “cannot access” version. In WSL in Wnidows: I get the “ls: xyz: No such file or directory” version. On an older VPS running Ubuntu Server: I get the “cannot access” version. It seems they have a directory of the binaries used , so the online testers shoul…

I have now seen it has something to do whether $PATH is search backwards or forwards. There are two places (type and the CMD branch) where the path is searched, and any choice (forwards/backwards) produces a different error, so 4 different tests fail; this is definitely bizzare: a) both forward fai…

Cd ~ test is flaky

Challenges

senevoldsen June 28, 2025, 11:22pm 15

I think the test runner might even add “red-herrings” that are not executable to test one’s shell behavior, based on this post: [Shell][Python] mg5 multiple my exe? - #5 by andy1li

Topic		Replies	Views
#UN3 recent test case mismatch in ls Challenges challenge:shell	29	68	January 30, 2026
[C++][WH6 - Multiple Completions] Type command is outputting wrong path Challenges challenge:shell	3	150	March 23, 2025
Build your shell "The pwd builtin"'s testcases seems bugged #ei0 Challenges challenge:shell	16	201	March 10, 2025
I randomly get Stage #MG5 (The type builtin: executable files) error: my_exe not found Bug Reports challenge:shell	13	328	April 6, 2025
Local output different from test logs Challenges challenge:shell	5	75	March 30, 2025

Cd ~ test is flaky

Related topics