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Novus Examples
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Combined Diff - Per-Parent mode Line

When the file mode differs between the parents and the merge result, a combined diff adds a `mode a,b..result` line below the index line — a comma-separated shape that appears nowhere else in git's output. Parsers written for the single-parent `old mode`/`new mode` pair do not recognise it.

Preview — first 12 linesdiff
diff --cc scripts/release.sh
index 16ecf13,624d539..624d539
mode 100644,100755..100755
--- a/scripts/release.sh
+++ b/scripts/release.sh
@@@ -1,4 -1,5 +1,5 @@@
  #!/bin/sh
  set -eu
  VERSION="$1"
+ test -n "$VERSION" || { echo "usage: release.sh <version>" >&2; exit 2; }
  echo "tagging $VERSION"

Specifications

Seed
20260807
Diff Format
combined
Parents
2
Hunk Marker
@@@
Mode Line
mode 100644,100755..100755
Line Endings
LF
Encoding
UTF-8

Testing contract

Expected to pass
Scenario
Read the resulting file mode out of a combined diff for a merge where one parent chmod-ed the file.
Expected result
The mode line parses as parents (100644, 100755) and result 100755; the merged file is executable.

What is a .diff file?

A .diff file records the difference between two versions of one or more text files. The unified format — the default almost everywhere — names the old and new files on `---` and `+++` lines, then lists hunks introduced by `@@ -old,count +new,count @@` in which context lines are unprefixed and changed lines are prefixed with `-` or `+`. Older context and normal diff formats exist but are rarely produced today.

How to use this file

Use an example .diff file to test diff parsers, syntax highlighters, and merge tooling — verifying hunk-offset arithmetic, correct handling of context lines that begin with a space, and behaviour on files whose changes include trailing-whitespace or line-ending differences.

How to use this file for testing

“Combined Diff - Per-Parent mode Line” is a deterministic Novus Examples fixture for Error handling, Visual diff / regression, Code parsing. Deliberately corrupt and invalid files, clearly labelled, for testing how your tool fails.

Documented properties for this file: seed 20260807 · UTF-8 · LF. Compare results against paired or grouped companions on this page when present (clean↔damaged, searchable↔scanned, or format twins) so scores stay reproducible across runs.

Download the file once, keep the path stable in CI or local scripts, and treat the spec table as the contract: dimensions, seeds, field lists, and roles are intentional. Corrupt or invalid samples are labelled as such — expect parsers to fail loudly rather than silently accept them.

Diff and patch fixtures name their target paths and the exact edge case they exercise — rename, mode change, binary hunk, CRLF↔LF, or missing trailing newline. Apply or render them against the documented before-state; every author, path, and hash is fictional.

Generated by generation/version_control.py. Free for any use, no attribution required — license.