this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2026
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rsync goes AI slop, breaks your backups (pivot-to-ai.com)
submitted 15 hours ago by dgerard@awful.systems to c/techtakes@awful.systems
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36 commits by ‘tridge and claude’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0EAo9jo-U4&list=UU9rJrMVgcXTfa8xuMnbhAEA - video
https://pivottoai.libsyn.com/20260603-rsync-goes-ai-slop-breaks-your-backups - podcast

time: 7 min 34 sec

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[–] dgerard@awful.systems 10 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

It literally is slop. It's always correct to call slop slop.

[–] MoonMelon@lemmy.ml 13 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

I rewrote the rsync test suite in python from the old shell script design. I did the design for that myself (and I’m really quite pleased with it), but used claude with cross-checks from codex and gemini to do the grunt work. I did not just vibe-code “convert test suite to python”.... I used AI tools to do the grunt work because they are good at that. I reviewed every part of it myself and ran through a huge amount of CI time getting it right

If what he claims is true then he's using LLMs for test coverage with significant editing by hand. I hate LLMs, but even I have to admit this seems like one of the few, valid use cases of LLM assisted coding. Unless "slop" has become one of those words that's just lost all meaning.

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 12 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

I commend to you jonny's thread on the tests:

https://neuromatch.social/@jonny/116666900898570791

It keeps turning out that when you look at the AI output, it's shit.

[–] MoonMelon@lemmy.ml 10 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

I don't know anything about rsync aside from as a user, but I am pretty experienced with Python and I admit those tests look really bizarre. If he did "slot machine" code it (a term I wasn't familiar with) then yeah, I agree that's slop. If he didn't, I don't understand why he made these changes. OK yeah, that's a bad sign.

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 15 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

every vibe coder insists they're shooting up krokodil responsibly

[–] arbitraryidentifier@awful.systems 4 points 8 hours ago

krokodil is such a good analogy goddamn