From 1c50f0fea625fb79db6a5ae0dc8a7ac5ca6f2b15 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Paolo Losi <paolo.losi@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 22 May 2026 18:00:44 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] ls: avoid color-induced quote alignment space

When color is enabled, displayed names can start with ANSI escape sequences before their visible quote. Strip leading ANSI sequences before deciding whether GNU-style quote alignment needs to add a leading space.\n\nFixes uutils/coreutils#12432.
---
 src/uu/ls/src/display.rs | 24 ++++++++++++++++++++--
 tests/by-util/test_ls.rs | 43 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 65 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/uu/ls/src/display.rs b/src/uu/ls/src/display.rs
index a286433cfd9..19655a84bea 100644
--- a/src/uu/ls/src/display.rs
+++ b/src/uu/ls/src/display.rs
@@ -482,7 +482,7 @@ fn display_grid(
                     // ```
                     // FIXME: the Grid crate only supports &str, so can't display raw bytes
                     buf.clear();
-                    if quoted && !os_str_starts_with(&n, b"'") && !os_str_starts_with(&n, b"\"") {
+                    if quoted && !displayed_name_starts_with_quote(&n) {
                         buf.push(b' ');
                     }
                     buf.extend(n.as_encoded_bytes());
@@ -968,7 +968,7 @@ fn display_item_long(
             LazyCell::new(|| ansi_width(&String::from_utf8_lossy(&state.display_buf))),
         );
 
-        let needs_space = quoted && !os_str_starts_with(&item_display.displayed, b"'");
+        let needs_space = quoted && !displayed_name_starts_with_quote(&item_display.displayed);
 
         if config.dired {
             let mut dired_name_len = item_display.dired_name_len;
@@ -1340,6 +1340,26 @@ fn os_str_starts_with(haystack: &OsStr, needle: &[u8]) -> bool {
     os_str_as_bytes_lossy(haystack).starts_with(needle)
 }
 
+fn displayed_name_starts_with_quote(name: &OsStr) -> bool {
+    let bytes = os_str_as_bytes_lossy(name);
+    let bytes = strip_leading_ansi_sequences(&bytes);
+    bytes.starts_with(b"'") || bytes.starts_with(b"\"")
+}
+
+fn strip_leading_ansi_sequences(mut bytes: &[u8]) -> &[u8] {
+    while bytes.starts_with(b"\x1b[") {
+        let Some(end) = bytes[2..]
+            .iter()
+            .position(|&b| (0x40..=0x7e).contains(&b))
+            .map(|end| end + 2)
+        else {
+            break;
+        };
+        bytes = &bytes[end + 1..];
+    }
+    bytes
+}
+
 fn write_os_str<W: Write>(writer: &mut W, string: &OsStr) -> std::io::Result<()> {
     writer.write_all(&os_str_as_bytes_lossy(string))
 }
diff --git a/tests/by-util/test_ls.rs b/tests/by-util/test_ls.rs
index 7afedc35a42..c342f20953a 100644
--- a/tests/by-util/test_ls.rs
+++ b/tests/by-util/test_ls.rs
@@ -3997,6 +3997,49 @@ fn test_ls_align_unquoted() {
     }
 }
 
+#[test]
+fn test_ls_color_does_not_make_quoted_names_align_as_unquoted() {
+    let scene = TestScenario::new(util_name!());
+    let at = &scene.fixtures;
+
+    at.mkdir("dir one");
+    at.touch("file one");
+
+    let args = ["-C", "-T0", "-w=80", "--quoting-style=shell-escape-always"];
+
+    let plain = scene
+        .ucmd()
+        .args(&args)
+        .arg("--color=never")
+        .succeeds()
+        .stdout_move_str();
+    let colored = scene
+        .ucmd()
+        .args(&args)
+        .arg("--color=always")
+        .succeeds()
+        .stdout_move_str();
+
+    let ansi_re = Regex::new(r"\x1b\[[0-9;]*[A-Za-z]").unwrap();
+    assert_eq!(ansi_re.replace_all(&colored, ""), plain);
+
+    let long_args = ["-l", "--quoting-style=shell-escape-always"];
+    let plain = scene
+        .ucmd()
+        .args(&long_args)
+        .arg("--color=never")
+        .succeeds()
+        .stdout_move_str();
+    let colored = scene
+        .ucmd()
+        .args(&long_args)
+        .arg("--color=always")
+        .succeeds()
+        .stdout_move_str();
+
+    assert_eq!(ansi_re.replace_all(&colored, ""), plain);
+}
+
 #[test]
 fn test_ls_align_unquoted_multiline() {
     let scene = TestScenario::new(util_name!());