[bug #49147] Tab character replaced by question mark ("?") when locate outputs to tty

[Yuval S]

URL:
  <http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?49147>

                 Summary: Tab character replaced by question mark ("?") when
locate outputs to tty
                 Project: findutils
            Submitted by: yuvals
            Submitted on: Wed 21 Sep 2016 11:13:23 AM GMT
                Category: locate
                Severity: 3 - Normal
              Item Group: Wrong result
                  Status: None
                 Privacy: Public
             Assigned to: None
         Originator Name: 
        Originator Email: 
             Open/Closed: Open
         Discussion Lock: Any
                 Release: 4.6.0
           Fixed Release: None

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Details:

Version: 4.6.0

What I am trying to do:
I added size information after a tab character at the end of each locatedb
entry (this allows me to use locate to find files by size). 

The exact command lines I was using: (up to absolute paths)


$ mkdir test-locatedb && cd test-locatedb
$ touch a b c d e f g
$ du -a | awk -v 'OFS=\t' '{print $2,$1}' | /path/to/frcode > test.locatedb
$ /path/to/locate --database=test.locatedb a
./test.locatedb?1
./a?1
$ locate --database=test.locatedb a | cat
./a     1
./test.locatedb 1    
$ /path/to/locate --version
locate (GNU findutils) 4.6.0
...


What I expected to happen:
I expect the tab character to be displayed when `locate` outputs results to
the terminal.

What did happen:
`locate` replaces tabs with question marks ("?")

More information:
Output piped via `cat` should be identical to direct terminal output.
Alternatively, the behavior should be documented in the `man` page.

Relevant code:
* qmark.c
<http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/findutils.git/tree/lib/qmark.c?h=v4.6.0&id=992a6b62ab8061531dc0ad40325b8e4c222fce66>
* printquoted.c
<http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/findutils.git/tree/lib/printquoted.c?h=v4.6.0&id=992a6b62ab8061531dc0ad40325b8e4c222fce66>




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