# Is this a bug of \`unrecord\` and \`status\`/\`diff\` in channel fork?

**URL:** <https://discourse.pijul.org/t/is-this-a-bug-of-unrecord-and-status-diff-in-channel-fork/1417>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [August 19, 2026, 11:05am UTC](https://discourse.pijul.org/t/is-this-a-bug-of-unrecord-and-status-diff-in-channel-fork/1417 "2026-08-19T11:05:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![goodnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58f4c7/32.png) [@goodnight](https://discourse.pijul.org/u/goodnight)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2026, 11:05am UTC](https://discourse.pijul.org/t/is-this-a-bug-of-unrecord-and-status-diff-in-channel-fork/1417/1 "2026-08-19T11:05:34Z")

</div>

I just installed pijul 2 days ago and tried to test things out.

I am using `1.0.0-beta.21`

I read somewhere that in pijul there is no `git checkout "old-commit"`, to achieve something like that I have to fork the channel, then unrecord the changes to go back to old state.

When I am testing it I found the behaviour of pijul is strange and confusing. I think it is a bug.

The strange behaviour is that, when I record a change, fork the channel, switch to new channel, unrecord the latest change, then run `pijul diff`, it shows nothing. Run `pijul status`, it shows the working copy is clean, but it is not.

After that, I modify the file, then run `pijul status` or `pijul diff` again, it show the unrecord change with the newly modified change. The unrecord change should be shown in the first `pijul diff` or `pijul stauts` before I modify the file again.

To reproduce:

```bash
$ pijul init
Repository created at /tmp/pijul

$ pijul add .ignore
Tracked 1 path(s)

$ pijul record -am 'init'
Hash: QZVD3TAPV57LULTSKX7EH7QNV3CXRI2OH4LVLX2MB5LS2N7FMK4AC

$ echo "First line" >> test.txt
$ pijul add test.txt
Tracked 1 path(s)

$ pijul record -am 'test.txt: add "First line"'
Hash: 6T2RWZXD7WL2HDP4KYSWOSW34OHWA5DH6CO7CHES3S3WVMBKYKBQC

$ echo "Second line" >> test.txt
$ pijul record -am 'test.txt: add "Second line"'
Hash: VI5OKUT3PO7YCR5SDNLXPAYDXNJAWAKR3QX6NAXNXG2YRBGWE4BQC

$ pijul fork rewind
$ pijul channel switch rewind
     Outputting repository… done Reset given paths to last recorded change

$ pijul unrecord VI5OKUT3PO7YCR5SDNLXPAYDXNJAWAKR3QX6NAXNXG2YRBGWE4BQC

$ pijul diff # <========== Bug here
$ pijul status # <========== Bug here
On channel: rewind

Nothing to record, working copy is clean.

$ echo "Third line" >> test.txt
$ pijul diff
message = ""
timestamp = "2026-08-19T10:52:49.178901168Z"
authors = []

# Dependencies
[2] 6T2RWZXD7WL2HDP4KYSWOSW34OHWA5DH6CO7CHES3S3WVMBKYKBQC # test.txt: add "First line"

# Hunks

1. Edit in "test.txt":2 2.1 "UTF-8"
  up 2.13, new 1:24, down
+ Second line
+ Third line

$ pijul status
On channel: rewind

Changes not recorded:
  (use "pijul record [file]..." to record into a change)
  (use "pijul reset [file]..." to discard changes)

        modified test.txt

```

This strange behaviour only happen when I fork the channel.  
If I just run `pijul unrecord` in the main channel then run `pijul diff` or `pijul status`, it can show the unrecord change as expected.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![goodnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58f4c7/32.png) [@goodnight](https://discourse.pijul.org/u/goodnight)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2026, 3:13pm UTC](https://discourse.pijul.org/t/is-this-a-bug-of-unrecord-and-status-diff-in-channel-fork/1417/2 "2026-08-20T15:13:16Z")

</div>

Just test again. Sometimes it cannot trigger the bug

The following script can trigger it 100% in my case.

Please run the below script in empty directory.

```bash
#!/usr/bin/env bash
pijul init
pijul add .ignore "$0"
pijul record -am 'init'
echo "First line" >>test.txt
pijul add test.txt
pijul record -am 'test.txt: add "First line"'
echo "Second line" >>test.txt
pijul record -am 'test.txt: add "Second line"'
pijul fork rewind
sleep 1 # This is necessary to trigger it with unknown reason
pijul channel switch rewind
pijul unrecord "$(pijul log --hash-only | head -1)"
echo "==================Running pijul diff 1st time=================="
pijul diff # Should show "Second line", but output nothing
echo "==================Running pijul status 1st time================"
pijul status # Should show "modified test.txt", but output "Nothing to record, working copy is clean."

echo "Third line" >>test.txt

echo "==================Running pijul diff 2nd time=================="
pijul diff # 2nd run show "Second line" and "Third line"
echo "==================Running pijul status 2nd time================"
pijul status # 2nd run show "modified test.txt"

```

My stdout running it in /tmp/pijul:

```auto
Repository created at /tmp/pijul
Tracked 2 path(s)
Hash: JYBPC2HKVPF6FSQ3HTVWEPVNPNVPCYBEQBZPS2AA335ZJBBE5HBAC
Tracked 1 path(s)
Hash: NAN5H5UXWBY6BF32DR6FJARRMKRDEMKJQVGSCUUHBUTOO6LIB56QC
Hash: KSHDDH2GFJ6FNOVY3YDNOAFK7AASE7D3UY7ECCXB746WXWZK2QNQC
     Outputting repository… done Reset given paths to last recorded change
==================Running pijul diff 1st time==================
==================Running pijul status 1st time================
On channel: rewind

Nothing to record, working copy is clean.
==================Running pijul diff 2nd time==================
message = ""
timestamp = "2026-08-20T15:39:16.548336515Z"
authors = []

# Dependencies
[2] NAN5H5UXWBY6BF32DR6FJARRMKRDEMKJQVGSCUUHBUTOO6LIB56QC # test.txt: add "First line"

# Hunks

1. Edit in "test.txt":2 2.1 "UTF-8"
  up 2.13, new 1:24, down
+ Second line
+ Third line

==================Running pijul status 2nd time================
On channel: rewind

Changes not recorded:
  (use "pijul record [file]..." to record into a change)
  (use "pijul reset [file]..." to discard changes)

        modified test.txt

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![goodnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58f4c7/32.png) [@goodnight](https://discourse.pijul.org/u/goodnight)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2026, 5:31pm UTC](https://discourse.pijul.org/t/is-this-a-bug-of-unrecord-and-status-diff-in-channel-fork/1417/3 "2026-08-22T17:31:44Z")

</div>

Confirmed this is first introduced in `beta.15` after a little test.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pmeunier](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.pijul.org/pmeunier/32/4_2.png) [@pmeunier](https://discourse.pijul.org/u/pmeunier)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2026, 5:45pm UTC](https://discourse.pijul.org/t/is-this-a-bug-of-unrecord-and-status-diff-in-channel-fork/1417/4 "2026-08-22T17:45:01Z")

</div>

Could be a bug of unrecord wrt working copy. In some cases unrecord fails to update the mtime or its internal representation of the mtime. Is this still the case with the version I published today (pijul-core beta.22)? Also confirm by `touch`ing the files if you want.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![goodnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58f4c7/32.png) [@goodnight](https://discourse.pijul.org/u/goodnight)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2026, 6:35pm UTC](https://discourse.pijul.org/t/is-this-a-bug-of-unrecord-and-status-diff-in-channel-fork/1417/5 "2026-08-22T18:35:52Z")

</div>

Thanks for your reply!

I am not sure if it is the correct way to get (pijul-core beta.22). The way I do it is I downloaded `pijul-1.0.0-beta.21` with

```bash
curl -Lo pijul-1.0.0-beta.21.tar.gz "https://static.crates.io/crates/pijul/1.0.0-beta.21/download"

```

, and then modified the `Cargo.toml` `dependencies.pijul-core` version from `1.0.0-beta.20` to `1.0.0-beta.22`, then run `cargo build`.

For `pijul-1.0.0-beta.21` without modifying the `Cargo.toml`, `touch`ing the files after `pijul channel switch` and `pijul unrecord` and before `pijul status` and `pijul diff` show the correct result.

However for `pijul-1.0.0-beta.21` with changing `dependencies.pijul-core` version to `1.0.0-beta.22` in `Cargo.toml`, both `touch`ing and not touching the file like above shows the same incorrect result: first `pijul diff` is empty and second `pijul diff` not showing the `"Second line"` modified entry, only show `"Third line"`.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pmeunier](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.pijul.org/pmeunier/32/4_2.png) [@pmeunier](https://discourse.pijul.org/u/pmeunier)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2026, 7:27pm UTC](https://discourse.pijul.org/t/is-this-a-bug-of-unrecord-and-status-diff-in-channel-fork/1417/6 "2026-08-22T19:27:00Z")

</div>

No need to do that, I think just `cargo install pijul --version "^1.0.0-beta.21"` would pick up the latest pijul-core. If not, let me know, I’ll publish a new Pijul.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![goodnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58f4c7/32.png) [@goodnight](https://discourse.pijul.org/u/goodnight)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2026, 10:27am UTC](https://discourse.pijul.org/t/is-this-a-bug-of-unrecord-and-status-diff-in-channel-fork/1417/7 "2026-08-23T10:27:21Z")

</div>

It cannot pick up the latest pijul-core.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pmeunier](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.pijul.org/pmeunier/32/4_2.png) [@pmeunier](https://discourse.pijul.org/u/pmeunier)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2026, 11:46am UTC](https://discourse.pijul.org/t/is-this-a-bug-of-unrecord-and-status-diff-in-channel-fork/1417/8 "2026-08-23T11:46:09Z")

</div>

Ok, confirmed on the latest version, definitely a bug in unrecord (including the reason for `sleep 1`). Let me fix that.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pmeunier](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.pijul.org/pmeunier/32/4_2.png) [@pmeunier](https://discourse.pijul.org/u/pmeunier)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2026, 12:53pm UTC](https://discourse.pijul.org/t/is-this-a-bug-of-unrecord-and-status-diff-in-channel-fork/1417/9 "2026-08-23T12:53:27Z")

</div>

Alright, fixed in pijul 1.0.0-beta.22.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![goodnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58f4c7/32.png) [@goodnight](https://discourse.pijul.org/u/goodnight)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2026, 4:57pm UTC](https://discourse.pijul.org/t/is-this-a-bug-of-unrecord-and-status-diff-in-channel-fork/1417/10 "2026-08-24T16:57:31Z")

</div>

Yes it is fixed with `cargo install pijul --version "^1.0.0-beta.22"`. Thank you so much!