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cat prints old version of file

I am using Dropbox v169.4.5684 on macOS 12.6.3. In a terminal session with current directory in a Dropbox directory, I copied a file from a sibling directory using the cp command. I edited and saved the file (using vscode). The edited version of the file is visible to vscode and at least two other programs. The edited file has also been uploaded to the Dropbox server. The Dropbox icon shows that syncing is complete.

However, if I print the contents of the file using the cat utility (in /bin/cat - built in to macOS), it shows the version of the file before I edited it. I have tried rebooting the computer and the behaviour persists. I wonder if there is a problem with the Dropbox filesystem. It seems very unlikely that there is a bug in cat.

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Hannah

Hey @underlap, if you create a copy of one of those files somewhere outside the Dropbox folder, are you still seeing the same behavior?

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Walter

Hey @underlap, thanks for joining our Community and sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

Could you please let us know if this happens to files that available offline to your computer or ones that are online only?

Also, do you see the updated version on our website?

Any additional information or screenshots you can share are more than welcome!

underlap

Thanks for responding @Walter.

I'm not sure whether the file in question is available offline or online only. Right clicking on the file or any of its containing directories (inside the Dropbox folder) offers two (ungreyed) options "Make available offline" and "Make online-only", so that doesn't give me a clue. I can't see anything in the settings relating to this choice. (I'm sure I remember that option somewhere in an earlier version of Dropbox.)

Make available offline and Make online options are both available

The updated version is indeed present on the website, so syncing is working fine.

Since you asked for screenshots, here are two taken in quick succession. The first shows the output from `cat names.hs`:

Output of cat showing the old version of the file

and the second shows the output of running `vi names.hs`:

Output of vi showing the new version of the file

Other editors such as vscode and emacs show the new version of the file, so there is something different about the way `cat` is accessing the file.

I checked `which cat` and it's the system provided utility at `/bin/cat`

underlap

I did an experiment. I tried setting another file which exhibits the same problem first of all to "Make available offline" and then to "Make online-only". I tried `cat` again in both of these states and the old version of the file was still displayed.

Hannah

Hey @underlap, if you create a copy of one of those files somewhere outside the Dropbox folder, are you still seeing the same behavior?

underlap

@Hannah Yes I do see the same error and...

Actually, it's a user error on my part! I'd forgotten that I'd put a lot of whitespace in the middle of the original file. So `cat` was simply displaying the end of the file and the editor was displaying the top of the file. All is ok and I'm so sorry for wasting people's time!

Have you heard the expression PEBKAC ("Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair")?

Megan

Don't even worry about it, I'm glad you got to the bottom of this @underlap!

If you need anything else you know where to find us!